Decision-making: children and young people's participation

Academic contacts

There are researchers in Scotland working on children and young people’s participation in decision-making.  The following are happy to be contacted for further information and reading material.

Dr Catherine Bovill

Senior Lecturer in Student Engagement, Institute for Academic Development, University of Edinburgh.
Research interests: Co-created curriculum; student-staff partnership; participation; voice; student-staff relationships

Key publications:

• How Conceptualisations of Curriculum in Higher Education Influence Student-Staff Co-Creation in and of the Curriculum
• Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty
• Equity and Diversity in Institutional Approaches to Student-Staff Partnership Schemes in Higher Education

Email: Catherine.bovill@ed.ac.uk

Dr Claire Cassidy

Reader, School of Education, University of Strathclyde.
Research interests: philosophy with children; children’s human rights; human rights education; children and childhood; children’s participation and citizenship

Key publications:

• Philosophy with Children: a rights-based approach to deliberative participation
• Encouraging and supporting children's voices
• Teaching human rights? 'All hell will break loose!

Email: claire.cassidy@strath.ac.uk

Dr Greg Mannion

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences (Education), University of Stirling.
Research interests:  Young people's participation; place and participation; intergenerational dialogue

Key publications:

•  After Participation: the Socio-Spatial Performance of Intergenerational Becoming
•  Going Spatial, Going Relational: Why “Listening to Children” and Children’s Participation Needs Reframing

Email: gbgm1@stir.ac.uk

Professor Kate Wall

Professor of Education, University of Strathclyde.
Research interests: democratic spaces for learning; practitioner voice; children and young people’s voice

Key publications:

• Look Who’s Talking: Using Creative, Playful Arts-Based Methods in Research with Young Children
• Look Who's Talking: Factors for Considering the Facilitation of Very Young Children's Voices
• Exploring the Ethical Issues Related to Visual Methodology When Including Young Children’s Voice in Wider Research Samples

Email: Kate.Wall@Strath.ac.uk

Childhood and Youth Studies Research Group

Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh.
Staff with particular interests in children and young people’s participation include: Dr Ian Fyfe, Dr Kristina Konstantoni, Dr Marlies Kustatscher, Dr Lynn McNair, Dr Mary Ann Powell, Professor Kay Tisdall.

Research interests: children and young people’s participation; children’s human rights; ethics and methodologies of direct engagement with children and young people; early years; youth; equalities and intersectionality.

Key publications:

• Child-Led Research
• The Impact of Community-based Universal Youth Work in Scotland
• Ethical research involving children
• When Intersectionality Met Childhood Studies: The Dilemmas of a Travelling Concept Informed consent in school-based ethnography – using visual magnets to explore participation, power and research relationships

 Email addresses: ian.fyfe@ed.ac.uk; kristina.konstantoni@ed.ac.uk; Marlies.Kustatscher@ed.ac.uk; Mary.Ann.Powell@ed.ac.uk; k.tisdall@ed.ac.uk