Participatory research with children

1. Participatory research
with children
Stefania Giannakaki & Sinead Fitzsimons
School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast

2. What is participatory research with
children?
Children as co-researchers in studies
Children as advisors in studies

3. Why involve children in research?
 Children have the right to have a say in matters that affect
them, including research (UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child).
 By having a say, they experience and learn democratic
participation.
 They acquire useful research knowledge and skills.
 They help produce research of better quality.
 They produce research that better meets their needs and
priorities.

4. Children can help:
 Boost response rates (e.g. facilitating access to research
participants)
 Find innovative ways to collect data.
 Ensure that research tools (e.g. interview questions) use words that
children understand.
 Conduct interviews so that other children feel more comfortable
answering questions.
 Bring an additional perspective to the interpretation of findings.
 Communicate research findings in a better way (esp. to other
children).
Why do you think children can help
produce research of better quality?

5. A practical example of having children as
advisors in research
Project title:
Teachers’ educational beliefs and children’s voice
practices in the Island of Ireland
www.teachersbelief.com

6. Research aims
 To explore if and how children participate in school
decisions.
 To examine what they think about their participation.
 To explain differences between schools.
 To examine if and how teachers’ beliefs about
education affect children’s participation in school.
Target group: primary schools in Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland.

7. Forming a Children’s Research Advisory
Group (CRAG) in Northern Ireland
 Primary school with a diverse population of students.
 Invited all 10-year-old students to volunteer to be
members of the CRAG.
 8 volunteers randomly selected (3 boys, 5 girls).
 3 meetings with the CRAG.

8. Meeting 1: introducing the research to
children
 Getting to know each other.
 Explaining what research is.
 Explaining the project.
 Explaining their role as advisors in research.

9. Activity 1: What research is
What do you think research is?
 ‘Searching for answers to a question that is important to me’.
 ‘Looking for information that helps answer this important
question’.
(we named this ‘important question’ the ‘big question’)

10. How do you gather the information needed to answer the
‘big question’?
 By searching the internet
 By reading books
 By asking people a number of ‘little questions’
 By observing people

12. The ‘big questions’ of our study
 What are children’s experiences and opinions of participating
in school decisions?
 How do these experiences and opinions differ between
different school and why?
 How can children’s participation in schools be improved?

13. Activities 2 & 3: Familiarising children with
our research topic
Activity 2 – thinking about ‘voice’ and ‘influence’ in school
Two groups of 4 children:
 One thinking about children’s voice in school
 One thinking about adults’ voice in school

16. Activity 3 – discussing different perspectives on children’s
voice
Working in pairs to judge the validity of different statements
about children’s voice.

17. Statements:
 It is the teacher who decides what activities children will carry out in
the classroom.
 Children and teachers are seen as equals in school. They work
together as partners.
 Children are asked for their opinions about teachers.
 Children are given enough information to understand why teachers
make certain decisions in school.
 All children have the same opportunities to express their opinions
and influence school decisions.
 Children have a say in what they learn in school.
 Children have a say and influence decisions about after-school
activities.

19. Meeting 2: developing focus group
questions (‘little questions’)
Activity 1: drafting ‘little questions’ to ask other
children in other schools

20. Drafting questions

21. Activity 2: Giving feedback on questions the
researchers had drafted.

22. Activity 3: Role play the interview in pairs
(asking another child the drafted questions)
Note: this activity had to be skipped due to time constraints

23. Activity 4: Feedback on general design issues
 Size of focus groups
 Age groups of children
 Location of interviews
 Difficult words to avoid
 How to ensure that all children talk during the focus
groups

24. Examples of advice given by CRAG members:
 Meet the children before the interviews
 Interview them in small groups of friends (4-5)
 Better to be interviewed by other children (not adults)
 Give them certificates of participation signed by CRAG
members
 Provide them drinks and biscuits
 Be friendly

25. Meeting 3: analysis and interpretation
of focus group data
(to take place in January 2017)
Invite CRAG members to help with:
 Interpreting children’s open-ended responses
 Basic grouping / coding of open ended responses
 Validating emerging findings (ask children to comment on
emerging findings)
 Developing suggestions for additional analysis
 Selecting quotations to illustrate specific points

26. Example from another study (Lundy et al., 2011):
Why some children like school bags and others consider it
a ‘hard thing’?

27. Rewarding our CRAG members
 £200 to use collectively in the school
 Letting them have the findings of our study

28. Involving children in dissemination
 Invite children to the end-of-project dissemination event.
 Invite children to present aspects of the study they were
involved in.

29. Research phases in which children
were not included in our project
 Design of research questions
 Selecting the methodology
 Data collection
 Reporting of findings
 Making practice and policy recommendations

30. Can you identify any issues in the
approach presented so far?

31. References
 Lundy, L., McEvoy, L. and Byrne B. (2011) Working with young children as
co-researchers: an approach informed by the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child, Early Education and Development 22(5), 714-736.
 Shaw, C., Bracy, L. M. and Davey, C. (2011) Guidelines for Research with
Children and Young People. London: NCB Research Centre.