Children, Cheezels and Champions - Lessons learned from children and young people about research and their involvement Tim Moore Vicky Saunders

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Children, Cheezels and Champions - Lessons
learned from children and young people about
research and their involvement Tim MooreVicky
Saunders
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Not seen and not heard

• The sociology of childhood and childrens rights
  movements have challenged social researchers to
  reflect on how they conceptualise children and
  engage them in research about their lives.

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• Kids should be asked about stuff thats got to
  do with themthey can tell you stuff you would
  never think of cos youre not a kid
• (girl aged 7)

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Participation beyond tokenism

• Participatory approaches to research are not
  about just including personal quotes in an
  otherwise unchanged research report or adding
  subjective feelings to the objective findings
  of the researcher.
• They are about people with direct experience
  having more voice in the research process-from
  defining the issues to working out solutions
• (Bennett and Roberts 1999).

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Participation Case Study Childrens Experiences
of Homelessness
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Learning from children
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Gatekeepers
The danger of relying upon others to define who
should and should not be involved in research can
have an impact on what voices we listen to
(France 2004)
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• Kids wanna make things better for kids, we wanna
  talkLet them know that theyll be helping and
  theyll do it (boy aged 11)

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Methodology Researchers need
to consider how to elicit competence rather than
being influenced by their own and others notions
of what children can and cant do (Langston,
Abbot, Lewis and Kellet 2004)
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Real difficulties

• We were pretty much too scared to say anything
  to anyone because we knew there were aggressive
  consequences if we said pretty much anything to
  anyoneWe would be told that if we talked to
  people we wouldnt be allowed out, we wouldnt be
  allowed to see our friends, see nannaShe Mum
  was very, very intimidating (Young man, 15yrs-
  AOD project)

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Engaging Young PeopleCase Study Aboriginal
YP in care
Culturally responsive
Games and group work
Partnership
Strengths-based and solutions focussed
Hip-hop and rhyming
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Listening and responding

• It was wicked cos people were listening. Its the
  first time anyones asked about what we think.

• Our stories are too hard, youve got to laugh
  about it or youre just gonna cry But you gotta
  talk about it. And peopleve gotta listen and do
  something about it!

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The challenge

• It is clear that listening to children, hearing
  children and acting on what children say are
  three very different activities
• There have always been people who have listened,
  sometimes there have been people who have heard,
  and perhaps less often, those who have acted
  wisely on what children have had to say.
• (Roberts 2000, p227)

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More information?

• Vicky Saunders
• Institute of Child Protection Studies
• Vicky.saunders_at_acu.edu.au
• Tim Moore
• Institute of Child Protection Studies
• Tim.moore_at_acu.edu.au