CHILD PARTICIPATION: DIMENSIONAL CONCEPT IN PRO AUTONOMY CITIZEN

Child participation is, at present, a key element in the environment of citizenship and education. It is based in solid legislative bases that recognize child participation, defend it, and promote it. But, it is imperative to turn from rhetoric into a reality that is part of everyday life where children reach the maximum self-governing exercise of their citizenship. To achieve this maximum, we must expand the concept of child participation and to recognize its complexity, by identifying the dimensions that feed each other and give meaning to the systematization of the responsible and autonomous practice of citizenship. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the main dimensions of the concept of child participation that reinforce their meaning and its concretization in everyday life, emphasizing the promotion and improvement of autonomous citizenship. To achieve this, we analyze the concept of participation by integrating its multiple dimensions: as a democratic value, educational content, methodology of work, educational experience, developmental principle, civic responsibility, political exercise, representing children, and finally as emotion and passion.