Relational Evaluation in the Educational Process. Key Actions for Integrating Children’s Voice

This paper brings into discussion a new approach concerning the evaluation of the pupils. It is widely known that education’s purpose is to help children to access knowledge, an assumption met in most educational systems. Pupils are facing the curricula that often has little interest on them, and they are examined on their ability to reproduce what teachers are teaching. Education places relationships on a small scale, children are learning from a young age to compare themselves, to be competitive, to be rewarded only if they know the right answers. Drawing from a social constructionism perspective, the paper explores children’s experiences regarding the evaluation within school setting. Data are coming from four focus groups with children organized between November and December 2020. Findings suggest that a relational evaluation emphasizes the process of constructing knowledge through relationships, aiming to increase school participation.