What are we saying when we say we listen to children’s voices?

Listening to children is commonly associated with improving educational environments. Many educators believe that granting children more opportunities to express their voices can promote verbalisation skills and boost academic performance. In many schools, the pedagogy of the community of inquiry is adopted to meet such instrumental ends. It is also common to talk about the importance of children’s voices as a resource to improve the quality of life. Since children have thought-provoking perspectives on almost everything, their utterances are welcomed as novel, or enchanting. This stance fits with the promotion of creativity as a core competence for innovation and entrepreneurship in neoliberal societies. Concepts such as ‘inclusion’ and ‘rights’ have permeated discourses about childhood in a striking and unquestioned way. These words have become popular slogans in movements advocating for children and their right to participation. Discourses on listening and voice often reproduce an adultism, rationalist bias in educational relationships. What do we ask children? What do we hear in their answers? Do we really acknowledge that children have a voice of their own? Or are we just listening to what endorses our own experiences? What if using the words ‘voice’ and ‘listen’ is not enough (Lundy, 2007)? Should we return to those very same words?