Children

1
Childrens rights and research methods the
potential of e-consultation

• Laura Lundy
• School of Education
• Queens University, Belfast.

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Childrens Rights in Northern Ireland (2004 -5)

• Aim to identify areas where childrens rights
  were ignored or underplayed so as to inform the
  Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and
  Young Peoples priorities for office.
• Methods review of existing research documentary
  analysis of law and policy interviews and focus
  groups with over 350 adults and over 1000
  children and young people.
• Research with children used a range of methods
  include drawings and group posters.
• Inter-disciplinary team U.Kilkelly, R.
  Kilpatrick, L. Lundy, P.Scraton, L. Moore, C.
  Davey, S.McAlister and C. Dwyer. Full report
  downloadable at www.niccy.org

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Article 12of the UNCRC

• States Parties shall assure to the child who
  is capable of forming his or her own views the
  right to express those views freely in all
  matters affecting the child, the views of the
  child being given due weight in accordance with
  the age and maturity of the child.
• There was no other single issue so commonly
  or widely identified by children and the adults
  who work with them.

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A boy not getting a say in a conversation
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Article what?

• In the NICCY research it was apparent that there
  was limited awareness of Article 12 among those
  working with and for children.
• Most professionals expressed support for
  listening to the voice of the child.
• Increasingly apparent that the concept of
  voice is too limited to adequately convey the
  import of Article 12, particularly when read in
  conjunction with other relevant articles of the
  UNCRC.

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Voice is not enough A new way of
conceptualising Article 12

• SPACE Children must be given the opportunity to
  express a view
• VOICE Children must be facilitated to express
  their views
• AUDIENCE The view must be listened to.
• INFLUENCE The view must be acted upon, as
  appropriate.
• (Lundy, British Education Research Journal
  2007, forthcoming).

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Article 12.
RIGHT TO EXPRESS A VIEW
SPACE
VOICE
RIGHT TO HAVE VIEWS GIVEN DUE WEIGHT
AUDIENCE
INFLUENCE
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Reflections on the NICCY process from a
childrens rights perspective

• What we did well a reasonable cross-section of
  children in Northern Ireland, including many hard
  to reach groups range of age and ability
  appropriate mechanisms research directly
  informed its priorities and strategic plan
  feedback on the research and impact.
• What could have been better children engaged in
  the design of the research process more capacity
  building on rights issues more time with the
  children.
• Need to ensure that research with children is in
  itself childrens rights compliant.

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E-consultation as a research method.

• Consulting Pupils on the Assessment of their
  Learning (ESRC, TLRP 2005-7) (Leitch et al ).
  Aim of one of the studies was to consult children
  on a current policy development in NI pupil
  profiling. www.cpal.qub.ac.uk.
• As part of the TLRP research programme, we were
  working with Cambridge Universitys Centre for
  Applied Research in Educational Technology
  (CARET) piloting a Virtual Research Environment
  (VRE).
• Successful application to the Department of
  Education to conduct a complementary research
  project into the effectiveness of various forms
  of e-consultation methods as a way of enabling
  policy makers to consult directly with children
  in schools ( with Lesley McEvoy).
• The Article 12 model was used as a template in
  the research design from the outset.

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Research Process

• Childrens Research Advisory Group
• 8 pupils from a Year 7 primary class involved in
  
• Initial focus group where we collated views and
  artwork on the issues.
• design of the research strategy
• testing the proposed e-consultation mechanisms
  and research instruments
• discussion and analysis of the research findings.
• Pilot e-consultations
• One Year 7 class selected in each of the schools
  to pilot one of
• three e-consultation mechanisms on-line survey
  chat rooms and interactive storyboarding. All of
  these were designed to investigate childrens
  views on the proposed pupil profile (the CPAL
  study).
• Focus groups (pupils) and semi-structured
  interviews (class teachers) investigating ease
  of use and levels of engagement.

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Research Process
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(No Transcript)
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E-consultation mechanismssurvey
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E-consultation mechanismsfocused chat
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E-consultation mechanismsstoryboard
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Space

• Safe? Inclusive?
• Anonymity is ensured
• You are more comfortable saying what you
  want. If you are saying it to somebody, you sort
  of hold back saying what you want to say.
• All children have access to ICT facilities in
  their school context
• Children enjoy using computers a space they
  want to use.

17
Voice

• Assisted in forming an opinion and in expressing
  it?
• Materials and ideas generated by the childrens
  research forum were to assist other pupils in
  forming their own opinions
• Because if you just had the question there,
  you wouldnt really know what to say. If you see
  what other people say, it gives you an idea. You
  could think if you agreed with it
• The appeal of ICT to a range of learning styles
  assists children in expressing their opinions.
• You can type faster and it is easier to
  click and drag.

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Audience

• Guaranteed opportunity to communicate opinions?
  Opinions listened to?
• Pupils were aware that their views are being
  transmitted directly to DENI and CCEA as a result
  of a video shown at the beginning of each
  consultation.
• Views were collated and sent to designated
  listener within CCEA (proposed pupil profile)
  and DENI (e-consultation)
• You saw their faces whenever they were told
  that their comments would be given directly to
  Nuala. They were really pleased about that
  (Teacher)

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Influence

• Views taken seriously? Accountability?
• Children received a written summary of the main
  research findings from the research team.
• The children expressed a wish for a direct
  communication from government
• A wee letter from them saying we helped.
  Saying how they are going to use the views.
  Saying what changes they are going to make.

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The RAGs comparison of the three mechanisms

• They preferred the chat rooms because of the
  interaction with their peers.
• The enjoyed the storyboard but thought it would
  be good for younger children or those with
  learning difficulties.
• They acknowledged that the survey generated the
  most information on the issues and would be of
  most use to the research team and to government.
• They suggested that a combination of all three
  mechanisms would be ideal.

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Tentative conclusions

• Worth turning the childrens rights mirror
  around.
• It can be helpful to assist children in forming
  their views by providing them with views
  expressed by other children.
• There is real value in engaging children in the
  discussion and analysis of the data through
  clustering activities.
• E-consultation methods offer huge potential in
  terms of the creation of safe, inclusive and
  engaging research spaces.