Enabling students to participate in school improvement through a Students as Researchers programme

Roberts, Amanda; Nash, J.

doi:10.1177/1365480209106590

Cited by 35 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…Further to being believed to produce more reliable or at least more practically applicable data (Bland and Atweh 2007;Mitra 2001), participatory research is also advocated for its benefits to the all-round ethos of an institution (MacBeath, Myers, and Demetriou 2001) and to the pupils and other stakeholders involved (Roberts and Nash 2009). Active involvement in research has been shown not only to give pupils the possibility to voice their opinion on topics relating to school life, but also to actively engage them as inciters of change and improvement within their school (Bland and Atweh 2007;e.g.…”

Section: Rationales and Advantages Of Participatory Pupil Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Leitch et al 2007). Having considered alternatives such as random selection (Leitch et al 2007), informed selection by school staff (Sorrell andSorrell 2005, cited by Burke 2007;Flutter and Rudduck 2006) and targeting specific groups of marginalized or 'more challenging' pupils (Bland and Atweh 2007;Hadfield and Haw 2001, 485-502;Roberts and Nash 2009), I decided to lay the responsibility for selecting the PCRs at the feet of the pupils themselves. I hoped that, in having the power to nominate a group of their peers whom they were comfortable with entrusting with the responsibility of representing their views and interests, pupils would feel more connected with and represented by the research (Pedder and McIntyre 2006;Thomson and Gunter 2007).…”

Section: Research Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While practical constraints made it difficult for the research to be emancipatory or empowering in the sense of pupils adopting a high level of control over its goals and implementation, I did prioritize establishing a climate of trust between us (Bland and Atweh 2007;Grundy 1998;Pedder and McIntyre 2006;Roberts and Nash 2009). At the beginning of the project, I assured the pupils that I would listen to them and that their views would be incorporated into the project wherever possible, while remaining careful not to promise them more control over the project than I was able (or willing) to give them.…”

Section: Logistical Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While some researchers have found that pupils involved in research projects embrace the opportunity to have their voices heard and to work autonomously (e.g. Bragg 2007;Coyle 2011;Roberts and Nash 2009), others have found young participants more enthusiastic about 'belonging' to a project than about actually participating in it (Mallan, Singh, and Giardina 2010). In her consideration of the politics of pupil participation, Bragg (2007, 343-358) observes that school leaders display an assumption of a pre-existing 'will to participate' and to be involved and consulted among pupils.…”

Section: Logistical Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unburdened by the constraints of being part of a larger pre-defined project, I hope that future studies might allow for further, in-depth involvement of pupil researchers, who might be given the freedom to choose their own research focus and methods, with adults involved at a greater distance to offer advice, supervision or logistical support, as in Roberts and Nash (2009). This would, however, require more time and resources for training, planning, implementing the research and analysing data, as has been seen in some other pupil research projects (e.g.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aspirations and assumptions: a researcher's account of pupil involvement in school-based research

Mearns

Coyle

Graaff

2014

International Journal of Research & Method in Education

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This paper describes a research project conducted in collaboration with 10 'pupil co-researchers' (PCRs) and their classes in a secondary school in the Netherlands. The main research tools employed were online and face-to-face group discussions, in which PCRs contributed as consultants, co-designers and assistants. The research proved a learning experience for both the adults and the young people involved and led to the collection of insightful qualitative data. Working collaboratively with pupils, however, presented a number of challenges. Ethical issues such as consent, inclusion and the pressure placed on pupils, and logistical challenges such as the availability of time and resources, were particularly prominent. Perhaps the most valuable challenge, however, was the opportunity that this research presented to the adult researcher to reflect upon the role played by her own assumptions when working with young people.Keywords: students as researchers; inclusive research; bilingual education Introduction Inclusive research with young people in schools has its ups and its downs, its advocates and its critics. This contribution gives a personal account of one example of inclusive research, which involved working together with pupils in the design and implementation of online and face-to-face discussions with their classmates. We subsequently used the qualitative data we obtained through these means to inform the design of a motivation questionnaire, which I administered to pupils at five different schools in a later, non-participatory phase of my doctoral research. The methods and processes of the collaborative phase of this research are described in some detail, as are some of the challenges encountered and the resulting considerations for future work of this kind.We have chosen to write this account in the first person in order to reflect the personal nature of collaborative research. This project afforded an opportunity not only for data collection and for pupil learning, but also for researcher growth. The challenges involved in attempting to share the control over this research with a group of young people, and in balancing assumptions with their input, led to the investment of a significant amount of energy and personal reflection. We believe that this story is therefore better told from a subjective and possibly a more 'human' perspective. This paper is written largely with the singular 'I', not to belittle the contribution and considerable

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