This proposal discusses the development of research methods aimed at encouraging the active involvement of children and young people in expressing their needs and experience in an educational context when interacting with adults. Interest in children and young people being central to the research process has been growing internationally with such research taking place in many countries throughout the world (Quennerstedt, 2011). This year’s conference theme highlights the tension between the drive to improve standards in education leading to changes in teachers’ practice with the unwanted consequence that standardisation may neglect the needs of the individual student as well as potentially denying professional creativity. The research interest discussed here was developed in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN 1989), with particular reference to the concept of participation and children’s voices being taken into account (Krappmann, 2010). Prior to developing a methodology, ethical considerations, especially around the issue of children’s active consent and their right to withdraw reflected some of the issues raised in a Swedish and Australian study by Harcourt and Quennerstedt (2014) along with the need for researchers to consider their own moral position when researching with children. A second underpinning strand to the research was a belief that young people have expertise in their own situations and have a right to express their experience and feelings about educational settings. The unequal power relationships between adults and children needed to be acknowledged (Vandenbroeck and Bouverne-De Bie, 2006). This can both be from children’s understanding of this power differential (Lowe, 2012) and practitioners’ views regarding the competence of young children to both express their opinions and be able to evaluate their learning needs and environment (Davies and Artaraz, 2009). Researchers need to acknowledge these factors as well as challenge their own thinking about research methodologies which are suitable for young people (Bird, Culley and Lakhanpaul, 2013). 

Two research projects are discussed, both of which are concerned with developing methods through which young people can express their experience and communicate the help and support they need to improve their learning. The aim was to identify mechanisms by which participants could develop their confidence to demonstrate ‘self-advocacy’ skills (Goodley, 2000) though creating the means for a dialogue between individual children and the adults supporting them. The development of communication tools through which students can highlight the support they need to adults enables them to have greater control over their learning. Although teachers appear to acknowledge the importance of students having self-advocacy skills, it is not something that is generally taught, teachers are unsure how to teach it and it is generally skill-based (Test, et al., 2005). Having the means for young people and adults to have a dialogue can potentially reduce the power imbalance between them while using a structured format for discussion could identify action-based strategies.

In the first study, the aim was to identify an effective methodology to enable young people (aged 10-18 years) to explore their long-term experience of a common childhood condition, Otitis Media (Glue Ear).  A second study aimed to assess the feasibility of developing a tool for young children (aged 3-7 years), with Otitis Media, being able to identify how different environments impacted their ability to understand what was said to them The methods for the second project were developed in consultation with the Young People’s Advisory Research Group at Nottingham Hospital in the UK. In both research projects the focus was on developing a means by which young people could freely voice their feelings, thoughts and experiences.

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