www.jsser.org Journal of Social Studies Education Research Sosyal Bilgiler Eğitimi Araştırmaları Dergisi 2019:10 (4), 506-529 506 Language Analysis of Convention on the Rights of the Child to Enhance Societal Awareness on the Issue Anastasia A. Atabekova,1 Rimma G. Gorbatenko,2 Tatyana V. Shoustikova3 & Nebojša Radić4 Abstract The research aims to explore the cognitive-semantic structure of the above child rights phenomenon through the language analysis, and compare the perceptions of different stakeholders as target audiences with regard to diverse formats of the Convention contents and its essence representation. The research data combines academic literature on the topic, the text of the Convention on the rights of the child, its child friendly version as the background material for empirical study, and the data from the open-ended questionnaire. The research sample includes social workers, teachers, and lawyers who deal with children’s rights issues. The research methods integrate theoretical analysis of relevant literature, textual analysis of the Convention text (including content analysis, manual and automated coding, distributional analysis), and open-ended questionnaire of the experts in the field under study. SPSS was used for statistical data processing. The research findings show that the linear enumeration of rights through the Convention articles leads just to the same linear perception of the above. Meanwhile, schematic verbal-visual representation of the Convention as a cognitive-semantic macrostructure provides grounds for synergetic interpretation where not just the rights, but the stakeholders, the scope and specifics of their duties and obligations, societal contexts of their activities and measures to ensure child’s rights can be explicitly introduced. The findings lead to the conclusion that the interpretation of the Convention text through its cognitive-semantic structure can contribute to enhancing public awareness and education on the child’s rights within social care, legal, secondary and higher education settings. The research results cast new light on the potential of discourse analysis for the Convention interpretation within legal, educational and academic contexts. Key words: interdisciplinary discourse studies, language, cognitive linguistics, semantic analysis, societal awareness. Introduction The concepts of individual rights and freedoms in one form or another have existed for a significant part of the humankind history. In the ancient world, traditional communities usually had a developed system of responsibilities, concepts of justice, political legitimacy and prosperity, which 1 Prof., Dr., Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia –RUDN University, aaatabekova@gmail.com 2 Assoc. Prof., Dr., Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia - RUDN University, gorbatenko_rg@pfur.ru 3 Prof., Dr., Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia - RUDN University, shoustikova@yandex.ru 4 Dr., University of Cambridge, nr236@cam.ac.uk Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 were an attempt to ensure human dignity, prosperity and success in complete isolation from human rights. The concept of “human rights” has come a long way, important milestones along the way included Magna Carta (1215), Twelve Articles (1525), English Bill of Rights (1689) and American Bill of Rights (1791), French Declaration of the Rights of Man and a Citizen (1789). These documents had an impact on the text of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948. M. Luther, J. Smith, T. Helvis and R. Williams, J. Milton, J. Locke and other prominent minds of the past and recognized scientists of the present have influenced the development of the human rights concept. At the end of the 20th and the first quarter of the 21st century, the interest to the discourse on human rights has been increasing in the context of growing globalization and migration. Scholars agree on the importance of verbal representation of economic, social and cultural rights (Chirwa, 2018). Particular attention is drawn to the children’s rights (Lindkvist, 2018). Scholars insist that more attention should be given to the child’s rights advocacy (Prendergast, et al., 2018). International community strives to view childhood in a global perspective (Wells, 2015). The adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, further in the article – the Convention) served as the interdisciplinary framework (political, legal, social, cultural) to use a concept of rights as a basis for practice (Nyland, 1999; Collins, 2018). The present research explores the cognitive-semantic structure of the above Convention, and considers alternative ways of its contents and essence representation for educational and public awareness raising purposes. Currently most research focuses on the Convention norms and their implementation (Moody, 2017; Tobin, 2019). Researchers underlined the importance of the child rights concept and its multi angle structure for the social sciences at the end of the past century (Cohen & Naimark, 1991). In the new Millennium academic community stresses, the need for the critical analysis of this concept and sub concepts that form its conceptual structure (Vandenhole et al., 2015), argues for structural and non-liner approach to explore the essence of conceptualization of general principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Hanson & Lundy, 2017). Researchers confirm that text analysis does matter in case when its validity and reliability are explored with regard to the basic legal sources, etc. (Söylemez, 2018). Scholars argue for stronger interdisciplinary research to support discourse on children’s rights, and specify that this research should focus on children’s rights discourse for educational purposes (Caplan & Hotez, 2018). Atabekova et al. The above academic rationale shaped the present research hypothesis, goal and questions. Research Hypothesis The research assumes that the language of the Convention takes it beyond simple liner-sequential enumeration of rights in the respective articles and introduces child’s rights as integrated socio- cognitive macro structure through the use of particular language units and their ties across the articles of the Convention text. Research Goal and Questions The research goal is two-fold, namely to discover the cognitive-semantic structure of the above child’s rights phenomenon through the language tools analysis and to compare the perceptions of different stakeholders as target audiences with regard to the Convention conceptual representation through above structure and tools. To reach the above goal the following research questions shave been addressed: 1. What are current trends in academic research on the Convention discourse? 2. What are major cognitive slots, semantic concepts and respective language units that form the conceptual structure of the child’s rights throughout the Convention text? 3. What is the distribution of cognitive slots and semantic concepts within/across the Convention articles? 4. What are the opinions of experts in children’s rights on diverse formats of the Convention content and concepts representation? Methods The research stood on the mixed methodology tradition (Halcomb, 2019), rested on qualitative approach to the analysis, combined diverse data, sample, procedures, and methods. Data Collection The materials included academic literature on the topic under study, the text of the Convention and its child-friendly version, replies to the questionnaire from the focus group that included a pool of experts on the child’s rights issues related to the Convention. Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 Sample The study engaged experts of different background who work on child rights issues were invited to take part in the questionnaire with regard to the Convention content analysis findings and research team proposals. The respondents’ pool included 50 lawyers who worked on child’ s issues within international and national settings, 30 social workers, and 30 teachers of secondary schools who specialized in teaching the subject named Knowledge of Society. The participants were invited through e-mail. The pool of respondents included the equal number of persons in terms of gender, and working experience from 10 to 20 years in Moscow legal, social, and educational institutions, respectively. The participants worked and lived in the Russian metropolitan area. The above variables regarding the experts’ pool were taken into account in the course of the statistical data processing. Data Collection Techniques and Procedures First, the investigation of relevant literature on the discourse features in the Convention the Rights of the Child was implemented. The theoretical analysis of literature was used to reply to the research question on major current trends in academic research on the Convention discourse. This analysis used Mendeley and Google Scholar digital databases, that were subject to search with key words “discourse/language of the Convention on the rights of the child” to find relevant publications. The period covered the year of 1989 to present, bearing in mind the data of the Convention entry into force (1989). The second stage included an integrated text analysis of the Convention text in line with the research question on major cognitive slots, semantic concepts and respective language units that form the conceptual structure of the child’s rights throughout the Convention text. This investigation used the methods of manual and computer-based content analysis. To identify the conceptual fabric of the human rights phenomenon in the Convention, its text was subject to automated search for key word combinations from the angle of their frequency. The app.sketchengine.eu, textalizer.net was used to this end and led to the initial list of language units and specified key concepts within the Convention. Further, the text of the Convention was subject to manual coding that the authors implemented independently. The coding process rested on predetermined and emerging codes (Savage, 2018). Atabekova et al. The thematic background for the predetermined codes was outlined through the above mentioned automated search for key word combinations frequency. Emerging codes were specified individually by the authors. The results of author’s manual coding were compared and checked for consistency. Initially the coders found 66 thematic codes in the text, including 9 codes on the reasons for the Convention adoption (Preamble), 43 codes on the child rights-related issues (Part I, art 1-41), 5 codes that focused on Member States procedural activities (Part II, art 42-45), 9 accession to, ratification and denunciation of the Convention (Part III, art 46-54). Therefore, the content analysis further concentrated on Part One of the Convention. 43 thematic codes were identified within the mentioned scope. Further they were arranged into six major groups, namely the following: definition of the child, key principles with regard to child’s rights provision and Convention implementation, stakeholders for the above principles implementation, system of child’s rights, specific audiences of children who are subject to rights, areas for protection, and measures for protection in the above areas. The mentioned groups were identified as key conceptual slots. The codes that were found within each slot were considered as concepts that formed the frame of each conceptual slots. Next, the computer-based content analysis of the text under study took place. QDA Minor Lite was applied. All the nominal structures used to name the above mentioned codes (major conceptual slots and concepts that build their frames) were uploaded in the text analysis soft tools. It was done to discover how the mentioned topics are organized and verbalized throughout the text. The above technology was used to apply the method of distributional analysis. It aimed to reply to the research question on ways for cognitive slots, semantic concepts and respective language tools distributions within/across the Convention articles. The method was strongly linked to the text content analysis and coding in terms of thematic codes (and respective language units) appearance within one and the same Convention article or their verbal representation across several articles of the Convention. Further, the scheme of major slots, their constituent concepts, their distribution and verbal representation was drafted to introduce non-liner vision of the Convention conceptual structure and scope. Finally, three groups of respondents were questioned. The method of open-ended questionnaire was uses to rely to the research question regarding opinions of experts in children’s rights on diverse formats of the Convention conceptual representation. Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 The respondents were introduced the results of the Convention text content analysis and the non- liner scheme of the Convention conceptual structure and scope, and were invited to reply to the following questions: 1. How (in what cases and contents) do you refer to the Convention text? 2. Does the text of the Convention require from you any expanded interpretation or commentary for particular professional settings you worked within? (no/yes, please, specify) 3. (If the reply to the previous question is “yes”) what kind of interpretation or commentary is necessary? 4. What is your perception of the proposed description of the cognitive slots and their key conceptual semantic features the text of Convention Part I, with regard to the child’s rights phenomenon in your professional activity? The factor analysis was used to classify the respondents’ replies; SPSS was used for data processing. Results and Discussion Current Trends in Academic Research on the Convention Discourse A closer look at contemporary understanding of children’s rights in academic sources reveals that it rests on the integrated international legislation which content includes US Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) (Symonides, 2017). Legal framework traditionally considers personal, civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights (Kairys, 2015), while identifying that personal fights represent the first generation of rights, political and civil ones come as that of the first or second generation, and social and cultural belong to the third generation (Altman, 2017; Symonides, 2017). The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) has motivated academia to the study of the concepts and their interpretation with regard to the Convention provisions implementation (Karp, 1998). The analysis of literature reveals that Academia tends to conduct interdisciplinary analysis of the Convention concepts with the view to interpret them within social, legal, cultural, educational dimensions (International Human Rights of Children, 2019). Scholars consistently underline cultural variability of the Convention provisions (Liebel, 2012). Thus, researchers mention Atabekova et al. possible cultural differences in the interpretation of concepts with regard to distribution of powers and responsibilities between families and institutions, the understanding of the essence of the child best interests, relations between rights and values (Douglas & Sebba, 2016). This, in turn, might require culturally sensitive policy on children’s rights (Murphy-Berman etal.,1996; Skivenes & Sørsdal,2018). However, the policy is materialized through discourse. Therefore, the study of the Convention discourse should bear in mind the desirable generalized concepts and interpretations that would contribute to the equality of child rights across the world. The investigation confirms that there are studies on particular concepts of the Convention and their conceptual framework. For instance, particular attention is drawn to the conceptual wording of article 12 that announces the child’s right to free express views and to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceeding (Stern, 2017), to the interpretation of concept of evolving capacities within the Convention text, as the concept is mentioned and not verbally developed or specified (Varadan, 2019). The study of academic research papers shows that there is a consistent tradition from the past century to consider children’s perception of their rights (Melton, 1980). Children’s participation is one those concepts that researchers deliberate over most intensively, while considering current definitions and narratives (Baraldi&Cockburn, 2018; Wyness, 2018). Academic literature tries to understand children’s perceptions of their participation (Lloyd & Emerson, 2017), tries to conceptualize and verbalize the guiding principles of children’s engagement in the discussion on their rights implementation (Andersen& Dolva, 2015; Nyland, 2009). Some studies focus on particular areas of the child’s participation concept and explore children’s participation in their education, research and society (Howell, 2018). Particular attention is drawn to the concept of child vision of the family role (Archard, 2018; Woodhouse, 2017). Scholars also discuss the issue of related concepts correlation within the Convention texts and argue for the need to differentiate them and not treat them as equal ones. This concerns the correlation of such concepts as national, cultural, language rights and values of the children (Freeman, 2017; Douglas & Sebba, 2016), children’s rights, wellbeing, and their wishes and show that these are not equivalent concepts (Tisdall, 2015). Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 Another area of research relates to the view of the Convention as a frame of reference for pedagogical action to help children understand their rights and to make their rights be realized (Roose & Bouverne-de Bie, 2007). With regard to this area, researchers elaborate on the need for education on human rights doctrine, theory, policy and practice, identify this area of education as a tool for inclusion and protection, specify the role of various actors (Desai, 2018; Robinson et al., 2018). Publications in the area identify a number of dominant topics that shape the perspective of educationalization on children’s rights practice and policy (Reynaert et al., 2009). This list includes the concept of autonomy and participation rights, children’ and parents’ rights, and global children’s rights industry. Further, researchers underline that the Convention explicitly verbalizes the politics of protection (Beier, 2019). Moreover, some scholars underline that the Convention wording just declares the children’s rights and does not contain any verbal statements that directly aim to empower children, do not move forward to provide for greater children’s participation (Gadda et al., 2019). In this respect, researchers insist on the need to move from protective rhetoric and make shift towards concrete worldwide actions (Eisler, 2018), urge to view the Convention as background for professional practice and policy (Falch-Eriksen & Backe-Hansen, 2018). In general, scholars argue for the need to revisit children’s rights as a considerable period has passed since the Convention adoption (Fottrell, 2001), dynamic perception of the Convention is required within their interpretation (Eekelaar, 2017). Moreover, legal studies insist that in the current text of the Convention, there are inconsistencies and contradictions, and the text, should be revisited (Quennerstedt et al., 2018). All the above mentioned trends in academic studies confirm that no research so far has consistently focused on the verbal tools for the representation of the conceptual structure of rights, their contents, and those audiences that are subject to these rights and actors who are responsible for these rights provision. Major Cognitive Slots, Semantic Concepts and Respective Language Units that Form the Conceptual Structure of the Child’s Rights throughout the Convention Text The content analysis and manual thematic coding of the Convention text took into account the text division into three logical parts, namely Preamble, Part I (articles 1-41) and Part II (articles 42- 54). The Preamble puts the Convention under study into the framework on the UNO Conventions on the human rights issues. Part II specifies the access to the Convention and its implementation Atabekova et al. governance (through the Committee on the Rights of the Child activities and monitoring of the State Parties reports, ratification and amendments proceedings, etc.). It is Part I which focuses directly on the child’s rights as multidimensional and multifaceted phenomenon as language semiotic macrostructure. Therefore, the text of this part was subjected to content analysis and manual coding that led to the identification of the following cognitive slots and key semantic concepts that characterize their content. Table 1 Cognitive slots, their semantic concepts, and respective language units in the Convention Part I text Cognitive Slots Semantic concepts and language units, number of article(s) in the Convention text Definition of the child art. 1 Key principles with regard to child’s rights provision and Convention implementation art. 2-3,7, 41 - Nondiscrimination (art 2) - Best interest of the child (art 3) - Best law for children (Coordination of international and national law ) (art 7, 41) Stakeholders for the above principles implementation for instance, art 3,5, 18 and others across the text -State Parties (institutions, services, facilities, activities) -Parents/guardians (care of children) System of child’s rights art. 6-10,12-15,17,24-29,31-32,40 -fundamental rights (for birth, life, identity, family relations) -political and civil rights (freedom of thought, conscience and religion, expression, religion, access to information, peaceful assembly, rights in penal law, etc.) -economic, social, and cultural rights (education, housing, standards of living, rest and leisure, cultural identity, social development, etc.) -rights of the child who is subject to penal law Specific audiences of children who are subject to rights art. 10, 20,21,22,23,25,30,38,39 -a child whose parents reside in different States (art 10) -child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment (art 20) -child who is subject to adoption (art 21) - child who is seeking refugee status (art 22) - mentally or physically disabled children (art 23) - child who has been placed by the competent authorities for the purposes of care, protection or treatment of his or her physical or mental health (art 25) -children of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or of indigenous origin (art 30) -children in armed conflicts (art 38) -child victims (art 39) Areas for protection art. 9 -11,16,19,24,32-37 -situation with child’s separation from his/her family (art 9) -situation with a child whose parents reside in different States (art 10) -illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad (art 11) -interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence (art 16) - all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse (art 19) -disease and malnutrition (art 24) -protection from economic exploitation (art 32) -illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as defined in the relevant international treaties, and to prevent the use of children in the illicit production and trafficking of such substances (art 33). -all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse through prostitution, pornography, other sexual practices (art 34) Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 -prevention from abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children (art 35) -protection against all other forms of exploitation (art 36) -protection from torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including context of liberty deprivation (art 37) Measures for protection in the above areas art.4,10,18,20-24,28,32,37,40 - “legislative, administrative, social and educational measures, national, bilateral and multilateral measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention” (art 4) -measures in case of child’s separation from his/her family (art 9) and family reunification/relations maintenance (art 10) -child-care services and facilities (art 18) -alternative care in case of deprivation from family (art 20) - system of adoption (art 21) - refugee child contexts (art 22) - special care of disabled children (art 23) - medical assistance and health care, food and water issues (art 24) - measures within primary, secondary, higher, and vocational education (art 28) - measures to prevent exploitation within employment (art 32) - measures to protect the child who is deprived of liberty (art 37) - measures to protect the” child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law” (art 40) The content analysis and coding made it possible to identify seven major cognitive slots and 43 concepts that specify their constituent features. However, the above mentioned structure is not explicit throughout the Convention text. Moreover, even the above list confirms that there is no strong grouping and/or sequence of the items. They do not explicitly follow each other within the framework of the theme that they refer to in the Convention text. The following paragraph casts light on the mentioned topic. Distribution of Cognitive Slots and Semantic Concepts within/across the Convention Articles The previous data showed major slots and concepts, and language units that verbalize them in the text. However, a thorough review of their relations show that the above elements go beyond particular article boundaries. To a considerable degree, the cognitive slots and semantic concepts as their building components are structured and systematized across the Convention articles. Thus, the concept «System of rights» (see the respective column in Table 2) shows that the topic is introduced through articles 6-10, and then 12 to 15, further 24 to 29, and finally, by articles 31- 32. In a similar fragmented manner, the topic on «Areas of Protection» are discussed in articles 9 to 11,16, 19, 33 to 37, and 39. The above situation has been visualized in the form below. See Table 2. Atabekova et al. Table 2 The schematic representation of slots and concepts structure, their distribution in the Convention Part I articles and extra-article relations Definition Principles Stakeholders to Convention Implementation System of Rights Specific audiences Areas of Protection Measures of Protection 1 2 3 4 3 5 6 7 8 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 18 18 ? 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 26 27 27 28 28 29! Core purposes of the right implementation 30 31 32 Core items of the right implementation 33 34 35 + Concretisation of areas 36 37 37 38 38 39 39 39 40 40 41 The above scheme also reveals that the scope of the articles cognitive-semantic content differs, as well. Thus, some articles just name the rights. See for instance the text of article 6: 1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life. Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child. Meanwhile, there are articles that cover a number of topics. Thus, article 20 identifies a special category of children (“A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment”). It also mentions the measure for his/her protection (special assistance, alternative care, description of the respective options, i.e. foster placement, adoption, institutional settings, with regard to “child's ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background”. Further, the child-friendly version of the Convention text (see the source https://www.unicef.org/sop/convention-rights-child-child-friendly-version) has been analyzed with regard to the thematic structures, considered above. It should be mentioned that the advantage of this version is that articles 1 to 41 have headings that name the type of rights. There is no word “article” throughout the text. There is number of the article and the word combination that summarizes the core topic, for instance: “31. Rest, play, culture, arts”. However, the child friendly version follows the Convention tradition not to consider the key themes revealed through cognitive-semantic structures and introduce topics in their numerical order. For instance, item 37 focuses on specific audiences that is named: “Children in detention”. The next two items (38 and 39) specify particular types of tights, namely the right to be protected (“Protection in war” and “Recovery and reintegration”). The following item in the list (40) turns back to a specific audience (“Children who break the law”). The above situation makes it possible to conclude that both the text of the Convention and its child friendly version reveal some lack of textual consistency with regard to the verbalization of the cognitive slots and their key conceptual semantic features. Opinions of Experts in Children’s Rights on Diverse Formats of the Convention Content and Concepts Representation The survey of three groups of respondents -legal practitioners, educators and social workers- used two types of the data. The participants were introduced the results of the Convention text content analysis, the schemes of figures 1 and 2 and overall findings regarding the cognitive slots and their key conceptual Atabekova et al. semantic features, distribution of topics in the within the text of Convention Part I (the material is introduced earlier in this section). The participants were also offered open-ended questions that were specified in the Methods section. The questionnaire results are introduced below in Table 3. It introduces the statements that appeared in the all the responses of each group members. Table 3 Opinions of experts in children’s rights regarding diverse formats of the Convention conceptual representation Open-ended Questions Respondents and their replies Legal practitioners at public and private institutions dealing with child’s rights Professors of Legal sciences at University Law schools (course for students and CPD courses) Teachers of the course “Knowledge of Society” at secondary schools Social workers 1. How (in what cases and contents) do you refer to the Convention text ? -Interstate adoption -Family reunification -Defense of child’s rights and interest (relation with birth family, guardians, authorities) Teaching practice at University Law schools Teaching practice at secondary schools Awareness raising and prevention activities with parents within social care services 2 Does the text of the Convention require from you any expanded interpretation or commentary for particular professional settings you worked within? What kind of interpretation or commentary is necessary? Yes Yes . Yes Yes 3 What kind of interpretation or commentary is necessary? 1) depending on a particular case, the reference to relevant legal provisions of other legislation sources (national and international ones) 1) relation among International, regional, national legislation on the topic; development of initial legislation, new emerging topics. 2) systematization of rights and tools for their implementation; subjects to the rights; actors who are responsible for the implementation; areas and measures for the convention implementation 1) the topics of the Convention are supported by concrete cases through training. 2) Cases aim to show the types and system of rights. 3) Comments on subjects to the rights; actors who are responsible for the implementation; areas and measures for the convention implementation 1) explanations on types and system of rights, subjects to the rights; actors who are responsible for the implementation; areas and measures for the convention implementation Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 4 What is your perception of the proposed description of the cognitive slots and their key conceptual semantic features in the text of Convention Part I, with regard to the child’s rights phenomenon in your professional activity? It is interesting, but does not bring any additional value for my professional field as I should refer to particular article and wording. However, it can be useful for governance of child rights and their reconceptualization in new millennium When used for teaching students It helps to systematize the phenomenon pf child’ rights in current legislation, to show the Convention scope. When used for CPD course It is a good tool to train relevant audiences (novice lawyers and teachers) about ways to teach their students It helps to systematize the phenomenon of child’ rights in current legislation, to show the Convention scope. Each item should be further supported by visual aids and case examples. In this way schematic representation of the Convention scope will enhance children’s participation in their rights implementation It helps to systematize child’ rights as a subject of stakeholders’ responsibilities (authorities, parents, other actors) Each item should be further supported by visual aids and case examples. In this way schematic representation of the Convention scope will enhance children’s participation in their rights implementation The results of the questionnaire reveal that the non-liner scheme of the Convention conceptual content and scope consistently matters within professional development, awareness-raising and educational settings. Legal educators, secondary school teachers, and social workers have expressed explicitly their positive view of the proposed non-liner vision, introduced by the present research team. The above statement and previous data can be interpreted through the factor analysis of reasons for the use of the mentioned version. Among the pool of participants’ that amounted to 110 members, only lawyers (N=25) who conduct legal practice and provide legal services to clients do not mention the need for the non-liner presentation and interpretation of the Convention text. The rest (N=85) specifies a number of factors that shaped their opinion. The 1st factor that is mentioned by the above mentioned respondents (N=85) emerges from the need to systematize rights and tools for their implementation; subjects to the rights; actors who are responsible for the implementation; areas and measures for the convention implementation, this need is of current importance for legal educators, secondary school teachers, and social workers. The 2rd factor is relevant for secondary schools’ teachers (N=30) and social workers (N=30) who have accepted the idea of on-liner representation of the Convention as possible and promising part of their existing practice to use visual aids and case examples in the course of the Convention text study and discussions Atabekova et al. The 3rd factor is underlined by social workers (N=30) who have specified the relevance of the proposed scheme as a tool to systematize child’ rights as a subject of stakeholders’ responsibilities (authorities, parents, other actors). The 4th factor is related to specificity of professional activity settings emerges from the need to show relation among international, regional, national legislation on the topic; development of initial legislation, new emerging topics in the course of training; this factor is mentioned by legal educators (N=25). As it was mentioned earlier only statements that reach 100% mentions among each group of respondents were considered. In terms of variables, regarding the experts’ field of professional activities was the only point that caused differences in their replies. Such variables as gender, age, length of working experience did not influence the respondents’ replies. The research results confirm the relevance of systemic analysis to the issues of child protection (Wulczynet al., 2010) and show that the study of language tools for explicit representation of the child rights as a complex phenomenon leads to the issues of its cognitive-semantic modelling. This data goes in line with previous research on the critical role of language studies for public needs and social awareness raising (Belenkova et al., 2017; Udina & Stepanova, 2018). The findings also confirm that the research should go beyond vertical sequential listing of rights and related topics. The obtained empirical data also proves that the linear enumeration of rights through the Convention articles, on the one hand, and verbal-visual (schematic)multi-dimensional representation of the Convention macrostructure can be relevant for different actors depending on the field of the professional activities. The findings also make it possible to state that the above verbal-visual representation of the Convention scope can help to consider study of child rights phenomenon within the initial and latest legislation in force (Veerman, 1992). Thus, after the Convention has been adopted further international and regional legislation was set fourth concretizing earlier generalized provisions, see for instance the development of conceptual framework for child protection against sexual abuse (Rendel, 2018). Further, the Convention does not mention minors’ rights in digital ages that scholars consider necessary to specify (Livingstone& Third, 2017; Nawaila et al., 2018). Moreover, some concepts are not present in the Convention however, they are part of current national and international Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 legislation, and academic research as well, see, for instance the concept of mediation as an instrument to implement the principle of the best interests of a child (see, for instance, Salminen, 2018). The options offered by the research team contribute to the idea of governance of child rights and their reconceptualization with regard to current international development (Hanson & Nieuwenhuys, 2013; Ferguson, 2013; Holzscheiter et al., 2019). The data support previous academic statements that further promotion and education on child rights should clear the specificity of political, civil, social-economic and cultural rights for educational purposes (Cohen et al., 2019). The findings go in line with the social sciences vision of the need to consider child rights policy and concepts (Bradshaw et al., 2007; Tisdall, 2015) within regional administrative-legal discourses. The analysis among EU countries has already been implemented (Kutsar et al., 2019). The proposed methodology confirms the relevance of discourse analysis for child rights promotion and implementation with regard to key actors, their contribution and measures, that scholars consider critical for “making children’s rights real’ (Gadda et al., 2019). The discourse analysis of the Convention structure in terms of its cognitive slots and language semantic tools also can be used for identifying ways to structure settings for children and youth’s participation and their rights protection. This trend is considered of paramount importance within contemporary development of children’s rights vision (Duncan, 2019) and students’ perception of social realities (Belenkova, 2018). It also should be mentioned that cognitive-semantic modelling can also help in legal drafting the document structure in the course of law making. Scholars point out that the importance of explicit structure in the legal documentation (Stepanova, 2015). The identification of frames and their slots, search for the best language unites to present them in the text can contribute to document drafting quality in terms of logic, coherence and cohesion, meaning specifics representation. Conclusion The findings have confirmed the preliminary assumptions and led to a number of conclusions. The theoretical analysis of academic sources has revealed that Academia acknowledges the importance of interdisciplinary studies of the Convention discourse. However, verbal tools for the representation of the conceptual structure of rights and their essence, audiences that are subject to Atabekova et al. these rights and actors who are responsible for these rights provision have not been puton the research agenda so far. Meanwhile, the analysis of literature proved the importance of considering the above issue as the respective necessity was voiced by scholars within interdisciplinary studies of the Convention discourse. The research results have confirmed the hypothesis that the language of the Convention takes it beyond simple liner-sequential enumeration of rights in the respective articles and introduces child’s rights as integrated socio-cognitive macro structure through the use of particular language units and their ties across the articles of the Convention text. This finding enhances current awareness of the role of the language that serves to materialize child’s rights as integrated socio- cognitive macro structure within which the language units are used for cognitive purposes that go beyond pure information and linear sequential enumeration of rights in the convention text and. The study has made it possible to introduce and characterize the cognitive-semantic macrostructure of the children’s rights in the Convention. The content analysis, manual and computer-based coding have resulted in the identification of the Convention major cognitive slots and concepts, their linguistically expressed key constituent elements, and the intra textual relations among the concepts. The analysis has showed that there is different number of concepts that form the content of a particular slot. The distributional analysis highlighted that concepts which serve as building tools for the major slots are used across the articles of the Conventions that specifies a particular slot. Moreover, the verbal tools for discourse on children rights in the Convention text reveal the lack of consistency and coherence in terms of semantic relations representation among the major concepts with regard to the rights types, groups of target audiences that are subject these rights, and actors, that are responsible for their implementation. The questionnaire offered to the pool of experts in the child’s issues has confirmed that the Convention scope can be represented in non-linear form, not just as a text. The Convention scope can be conceptualized as a verbal-visual schema of relations among major concepts, their content characteristics and key features. This can be done through the analysis of language tools use and their distribution across the text. The verbal-visual schema can be used for educating purposes and enhancing public awareness of child’s rights phenomenon and scope. Moreover, there results of the questionnaire showed that clear and explicit intra textual representation of the mentioned relations semantic-logical structure could contribute to the current international legislation interpretation within particular national Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2019: 10 (4), 506-529 legal cultures, systems and children’s rights industry practice. Such a representation requires the observance of logical sequence and hierarchy in the verbal representation of concepts, taking into account their status in the general semantic macrostructure of the children’s rights in the Convention text. The analysis of language units helps to characterize the essence of this structure. The methodology applied for the empirical study has made it possible to introduce the phenomena under study in the multimodal form, integrating verbal, visual, and graphic tools. Moreover, the research data can contribute to interdisciplinary discourse and language studies in terms of methods and techniques related to exploring and building such macrostructures of other concepts that are politically, legally, socially, and culturally significant within the international communication on the children’s rights doctrine, its application in legislation and practice. Further, verbal-visual representation of the Convention macrostructure reveals its multidimensional content essence and provides grounds for synergetic interpretation where not just rights but the stakeholders, the scope and specifics of their duties and obligations, societal contexts of their activities, etc. are identified. 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