Early Childhood Studies: Global Childhood, PISA 2015, and Child Rights

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of global childhood, examining how globalization profoundly impacts children's experiences and development. It begins with an analysis of the PISA 2015 report, focusing on its findings related to science understanding, reading, mathematics, and collaborative problem-solving, and how these outcomes are influenced by socioeconomic factors, gender, and educational policies. The essay then shifts its focus to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, exploring its key provisions and the concept of bounded agency. It highlights how the charter addresses children's rights, including education, health, protection from abuse, and freedom of expression, within the context of African societies. The analysis connects the PISA 2015 report and the African Charter to understand the challenges and opportunities for children in a globalized world, emphasizing the importance of child rights, education, and well-being.

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OECD (2018) PISA 2015: Results in Focus. Paris: OECD. Available at:
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf [Accessed 23/11/18]
The current document in context, the PISA 2015 survey is a focus on science
understanding alongside reading, mathematics and collaborative problem solving in terms of
its assessment (OECD 2018). This analysis breaks down the PISA 2015 report and evaluates
it under the concept of Global Childhood, or childhood in the context of globalisation.
Childhood in the context of globalisation is an insight into how the children’s
experiences of childhood are radically changing and evolving as a consequence of
globalisation (Anderson-Levitt, 2005). The key aspects of globalisation can be felt across a
wide range of domains, including national politics, environment, business, warfare and
changing cultural notions and understandings as well (Wells 2015, p. 3). This is where the
aspect of childhood becomes important as each of these elements are crucial to the
development of a child in significant ways. Thus, they also contribute to understanding why
childhood experiences matter and how they can be made feasible and positive to the children.
The PISA 2015 report assessed approximately 540,000 students across 72 countries
(OECD 2018). The students undertook a variety of tests on a computerised platform and
responding to multiple choice questions as well as questions that allowed them to elaborate
their understanding. The first key aspect of understanding the correlation between the PISA
2015 survey and the context of global childhood becomes relevant as the PISA pre
assessment segment, which asks to understand the background information about the
children. This is important as it allows the various governments of the participating countries
as well as the relevant stakeholders to understand the conditions in which the students study,
thereby also being able to make predictions and assessments as to how they can improve the
situation for them (OECD 2018).

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The first segment that the PISA 2015 report highlights in the results is the excellence
and equity in education. This segment highlights the various nations that have performed well
in terms of science and mathematics understanding. The results do highlight that there are
students and countries that perform well in terms of overall achievements, but they also
highlight countries where the statistics do not display promising results. The key element that
came out in this regard is that almost 20% of the students in all OECD countries have not
been able to reach their baseline reading proficiency – a number that has remained constant
since 2009 (OECD 2018). This is a cause for concern as the baseline reading proficiency is
something that all children must have in order to succeed in an educational scenario. The key
factors behind a lack of proper basic reading abilities can be culminated in a variety of
factors, including the contextual country’s existing socio – political situations, poverty and
lack of amenities, discrimination and marginalisation on a societal level (Rana 2012;
Vulliamy 2010). Under the banner of globalised childhood, these factors can be looked at as
significant determiners of a particular type of childhood experience (Vulliamy 2010). PISA
2015 report indicates countries like Canada, Denmark, China etc. as countries that perform
well in terms of students’ educational outcomes, indicating that there is an economic factor
involved in the determination of childhood experiences as well (Stromquit & Monkman
2014).
In terms of policies and practices for successful schooling, the report highlights the
changes that have occurred in the past decade in terms of overall science performance. It
specifically refers to socio-economically advantaged schools as being able to provide co-
curricular science training like science clubs and competitions (OECD 2018). This is also
where the aspect of economic supremacy comes into play. Economically disadvantaged
nations struggling to provide basic amenities to its citizens are not capable of providing
advanced educational support to its children (Stromquit & Monkman 2014). It also needs to

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be remembered that PISA does not assess only students from the high end schools and
institutions, but includes students from all social strata, thereby normalising the results that
come out of the surveys.
Gender is another important factor that becomes relevant in this case (Gaspard et al.
2015) as the PISA 2015 results highlight how the boys are often at the receiving end of the
positive results than girls. It contradicts the basic notions of overall student wellbeing, which
is greatly affected by the way globalisation impacts the society and countries. In terms of the
financial literacy of the students as well as collaborative problem solving, PISA 2015 reports
data that shows that not all countries perform equally well. Even some countries show decent
performance in terms of collaborative problem solving despite inconsistencies in grades for
maths and science (OECD 2018). This can be taken as an indicator that the aspect of student
based learning needs amendment in various fields and across various nationalities.

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References.
Anderson-Levitt, K.M., 2005. The schoolyard gate: Schooling and childhood in global
perspective. Journal of social history, 38(4), pp.987-1006.
Gaspard, H., Dicke, A.L., Flunger, B., Schreier, B., Häfner, I., Trautwein, U. and Nagengast,
B., 2015. More value through greater differentiation: Gender differences in value beliefs
about math. Journal of educational psychology, 107(3), p.663.
OECD (2018) PISA 2015: Results in Focus. Paris: OECD. Available at:
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf [Accessed 23/11/18]
Rana, L., 2012. Globalisation and its implications for early childhood education. He Kupu–
The Word, 3(1), pp.14-22
Stromquist, N.P. and Monkman, K., 2014. Defining globalization and assessing its
implications for knowledge and education, revisited. Globalization and education:
Integration and contestation across cultures, 1, pp.1-21.
Vulliamy, G., 2010. Educational Reform in a Globalised Age: What is globalisation and how
is it affecting Education world-wide. NYCU Education Journal, 5, pp.2-16.
Wells, K., 2015. Childhood in a global perspective. John Wiley & Sons.

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ACHPR (1990) African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Banjul:
ACHPR.
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child is a document that
primarily highlights the various rights in the context of children. It elaborates the aspect that
the basic human rights that everyone is entitled to, also applies in the case of the children,
especially providing consideration to the aspect of recognition of children (people under the
age of 18 years) as valuable position holders in the African society (African Charter on the
Rights and Welfare of the Child [ACHPR] 1990). Given that they also have specific
developmental requirements in terms of physical and mental domains, the child should grow
up in a family environmental setting that is rich in love, understanding and happiness.
In order to analyse and understand this document, one concept that becomes relevant
is that of bounded agency. Bounded agency is defined as a social process which incorporates
the experiences of the past and the possibilities of the future and reconstructs them in a
present context (Hamilton & Adamson 2013).
The document is divided into four chapters which incorporate the primary concepts of
rights and welfares of the child, founding a committee for the rights and welfare of the child,
mandate and procedure of the committee and other miscellaneous provisions (ACHPR 1990).
The first chapter is the longest and the most relevant when it comes to understanding the
rights of the children, with 31 dedicated articles. Each of these articles significantly highlight
several key aspects in terms of children’s rights and where these elements become important
in the life of a child, particularly for their development and wellbeing. The chapter highlights
domains ranging from the several obligations that state parties have in terms of upholding
child rights to the child’s best interests, freedoms of expression and association, education,
leisure and recreation, cultural ties, health and wellbeing, parental responsibilities, safety
from abuse and protection against detrimental cultural practices as well as child labour. It
further dives into elements like exploitation of children (sexual abuse and exploitation, drug

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abuse, trafficking and abduction) as well as discrimination and marginalisation (ACHPR
1990; Johnson et al. 2018).
Looking at each of these articles, it becomes quite evident that the committee has
taken appropriate steps to ensure that the children are kept safe and sound, and their rights are
upheld and not discriminated against by any external party whosoever. Bounded agency can
show certain significant correlations in terms of the descriptions given in the charter (Coffey
& Farrugia 2014). African children have been a victim of abuse (Johnson et al. 2018),
marginalisation and discrimination that has been rampant across the history of African
people. This serves as the basis for establishment of child rights in correlation with the basic
human rights, while amplifying several other aspects that become relevant in the case of
children. Bounded agency implies that the social process is a mixed result of past experience
and future endeavours (Hamilton & Adamson 2013). This becomes visible in the case of this
document as it not only highlights the children’s rights, but also elaborates how the rights that
have been specified in the document can promise a better and resourceful future for the
children (Coffey & Farrugia 2014).
The second part of the document, consisting of the remaining three chapters, focus on
the establishment and organisation of the committees that uphold the rights of the children in
order to ensure that the future that has been expected, is actualised. The Committee on the
Rights and Welfare of the Child is a dedicated ministerial committee within the
administration of the countries that have signed (and ratified) the charter and are using it as a
primary resource to uphold their child rights structure and framework. Thereby this charter
proves to be a significant addition to the roster of relevant policies and documents that uphold
and sensibly highlight the aspect of child rights in the African countries while amplifying the
wellbeing of children in African nations through their rights. Analysing this charter from the
perspective of bounded agency provides insights into how the charter has used the past

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experiences of the African children, connected them with the relevant aspects of a
progressive future endeavour and built conditions and frameworks for present day
implementation.

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References.
ACHPR (1990) African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Banjul: ACHPR.
Coffey, J. and Farrugia, D., 2014. Unpacking the black box: The problem of agency in the
sociology of youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(4), pp.461-474.
Hamilton, M.G. and Adamson, E., 2013. Bounded agency in young carers' lifecourse-stage
domains and transitions. Journal of youth studies, 16(1), pp.101-117.
Johnson, L., Sapiro, B., Buttner, C. and Postmus, J.L., 2018. Ambiguous agency as a
diagnostic of power: efforts of child welfare providers to promote responsible agency among
youth involved in sex trades. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 27(6), pp.577-
597.
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