'Collaborative advantage'? A rights perspective on children's research into disadvantage
Date: 6/12/2017 - 6/12/2017
Time: 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Location: 69 University Street, room 0G.007
SEMINAR
The Centre for Children's Rights in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work presents a seminar with Professor Phil Jones, Institute of Education, University College London
The 'collaborative advantage'? A rights perspective on children's research into their experiences and views on disadvantage.
Recent years have revealed new perspectives on the complexity of children and adults trying to work together in research. On the one hand, good intentions about children's participation rights, or user involvement can dissolve or become distorted. On the other, we are increasing our insight into positive ways in which children and adults engage in the process. This presentation is offered in the spirit of adding to such insight. The paper will report on a pilot, funded by LankellyChase, which offered the opportunity for children and young people experiencing disadvantage to train as researchers and to develop projects to explore their own, and other children’s, experiences and views. It involved the formation of a group of children as a reference group for the pilot and collaboration between University College London and four different partner organisations working with children experiencing disadvantage. The young researchers received training, devised research to explore the theme of disadvantage based on their own responses to the term, were supported in implementing the research and made decisions about how they wanted their findings to be disseminated. The presentation will include material from the four projects and review the work of the pilot. The analysis will combine concerns drawn from the new sociology of childhood’s response to participation and participation rights with theoretical perspectives on collaboration, particularly Huxham’s (2003) theory of ‘collaborative advantage’.