Are participation rights a lingua franca? The complexities of translating and comparing the term 'participation' in educational contexts

Children’s right to express their views under article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is commonly referred to as ‘participation’. How this term is used in scholarship, policy and practice, however, varies enormously across linguistic and national contexts. This article reports and discusses four complexities associated with translating and comparing the term participation that were identified from a series of international workshops on children’s rights in education. We conclude that further empirical, interdisciplinary research is required to examine these complexities in further depth.