Lessons from the 'new' sociology of childhood: how might listening to children improve the planning of education for development?

This paper proposes that children have valid and important contributions to make to public discourse about education and development policy. This argument is illustrated through a discussion of findings from research exploring the outcomes that schoolchildren in one Ethiopian city expected and desired to be expanded through their schooling. These findings highlight the inadequacy of human capital accounts of the role of education in development, illuminating the importance of individual and collective capabilities and freedoms - as well as household incomes and national economic growth - being included in understandings of development and the role of formal education within that progress.