What is Participatory Research

Access to educational transitions is determined by public educational policies, community culture in which someone grew up, and personal paradigms of all participants in the process – parents, teachers, and children. Although most educational policies demand accepting children as active participants in their own education, the actual children's participation is challenging. It is still linked to the adults' interpretation of understanding children's participation. How well we understand their perspective is often a predictor of initiating higher or lower quality transition processes. To appreciate a child's perspective, we should move away from the “top-down” view and consider the children's “bottom-up” interpretation of their own thinking and well-being. It is therefore justified to research children's opinions. This chapter discusses children's understanding of the transition process, based on 40 interviews with children in ECE settings.