Decision-making: children and young people's participation

Research publications

There is a wide range of research available on children and young people’s participation in decision-making. 

Our expert working group has provided a selection of research reports and papers, which are openly available. Other publications have been suggested but it is not possible to include these as they are not available as Open Access. 

Some of the publications are on ResearchGate. You need to join this free website to be able to view the publications. Some publications can be found on Google Scholar and teachers can access publications through the GTCS website.

The following list is not comprehensive and are suggestions only. If you would like to suggest any other open access publications for us to consider, please email ChildrensRightsandParticipation@gov.scot.   

Children and young people's participation research by topic

Early years

• Listening to Young Children: The Mosaic Approach
• Can you hear me? The right of young children to participate in decisions affecting them
• Look who’s talking: Factors for considering the facilitation of very young children’s voices
• Being children: children’s voices on childhood
• the  'Look Who's Talking' website includes a reading list relating to voice with young children

Children and young people

• Muslim Youth and Political Participation in Scotland
• Promoting children’s participation in democratic decision-making (UNICEF)
• Every child’s right to be heard: A resource guide on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment No.12
• Children and Young People’s Participation in Scotland: Frameworks, Standards, and Principles for Practice
• Councils, consultations and community: rethinking the spaces for children and young people's participation
• The impact of children and young people’s participation on policy making
• Strengthening participation of children and young people with disability in advocacy
• Participation in practice: Making it meaningful, effective and sustainable
• Children and Young People’s Participation: A critical consideration of Article 12
• Children and Young People's Participation in Policy-Making: Making it Meaningful, Effective and Sustainable
• A children’s rights-based approach to involving children in decision making
• Can Scotland be Brave? Incorporating UNCRC Article 12 into Practice
• Through Our Eyes: Giving due weight to the views of children and young people in policy making

Participation in education and learning

• A Framework to Explore Roles within Student-Staff Partnerships in Higher Education: Which Students are Partners, When and In What Ways?
• Pupils as Citizens: Participation, responsibility and voice in the transition from primary to secondary school
• Authorizing students’ perspectives: Toward trust, dialogue and change in education
• Engagement Through Partnership: Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
• Pupil participation in Scottish schools: How far have we come?
• Going Spatial, Going Relational: Why ‘listening to children’ and children’s participation needs reframing
• Approaches to Student Voice: “Empowerment”, “Evidence-Based Practice” and “Participation”
• Student voice as a contested practice: Power and participation in two student voice projects
• Improving learning through consulting pupils.
• “It Wasn’t Too Easy, Which is Good if You Want to Learn”: An Exploration of Pupil Participation and Learning to Learn
• the International Journal of Student Voice contains Open Access research articles on a range of topics relating to schools and education.

Participation in research

• Look Who’s Talking: Using Creative, Playful Arts-Based Methods in Research with Young Children
• Engaging with children as co-researchers: challenges, counter-challenges and solutions
• Child-Led Research: From Participation in Research to Leading it. Addressing inequalities in decision-making
• Saying It Like It Is? Power, Participation and Research Involving Young People
• Ethical Research Involving Children
• Children as active researchers: a new research paradigm for the 21st century?
• Children as researchers: issues, impact and contribution to knowledge. In: Counting Children In!
• Engaging Young Children in the Research Process
• Exploring the Ethical Issues Related to Visual Methodology When Including Young Children’s Voice in Wider Research Samples
• Pictures are Necessary But Not Sufficient: Using Visual Methods to Consult Users About School Design

Conceptualising/theorising participation

• Students as Radical Agents of Change
• Progressing children’s participation: exploring the potential of a dialogical turn
• Children’s participation: from tokenism to citizenship
• Conceptualising children and young people’s participation: Examining vulnerability, social accountability and co-production