Chapter 4 explores how schools can embrace participatory research with children or child-led research, first exploring the concept of child- or learner-centredness. Child-centred research is linked to child-centred and early childhood education, to participatory research in an emancipatory sense, such as that inspired by Freire (1972, 1974), and rooted in the key articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) emphasising children’s voice and rights. Child-centredness is also congruous with democratic working patterns and autonomous ways of learning (Little et al., 2017), with autonomy-promoting schools driven by the core principles of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2021) and alternative inquiry-based pedagogies (Hatch, 2014; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009). Institutions that embrace a child-centred approach to teaching and learning and take student voice and rights and a democratic way of working seriously will accommodate child-led research or research with children more easily and meaningfully. The alternative framework for research with children promoted in this volume is revisited to tease out the main opportunities and challenges associated with it.

Democratic education is central to the functioning and flourishing of modern multicultural democracies, and yet it is subject to increasing public controversy and political pressure. Waning public trust in government institutions, sustained attacks on democratic values and customs from populist politicians and organizations, political sectarianism, and increasing trends toward privatization and chartering in the educational landscape have placed immense strain on the existing structures of public education and generally worked to undermine public confidence in democratic education. In light of these developments, it seems to us to be of central importance to return to the essential concepts, theories and values of democratic education, both as a social ideal and a political institution. This Handbook aims to offer an expansive view of the formation of individuals for democratic life and includes a diversity of theoretical traditions, topics, and thinkers that are relevant to the theory and practice of democratic education.