Charity Registration No. 221124

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COUNT US IN 10th September 2007
Count Us In A case study of the participation
research process with young refugees
Charity Registration No. 221124
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participation research?

• The extent of participation ladders or circles?
  
• The boundaries of participation
• Power/ ethics of participation
• Participation in practice Count Us In
• The benefits of participation
• Conflicts that arise in participation

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The extent of participation

• ? Ladders of participation
• Circles of participation
• Pockets of participation

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Ladders or circles or what?

• Harts (1992) ladder of participation
  demonstrates how participation is something that
  is not instantly achievable. The image of a
  ladder is perhaps unfortunate in that it utilises
  a hierarchical and non participatory instrument
  in order to measure participation.
• Suggests highest level of participation is the
  only true form of participation
• Suggests that it is better for young people to
  do things by themselves without adults

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Ladders or circles or what?

• Treseders (1997) circles of participation
  equality of different kinds of child/adult
  participation not so value laden
• Pockets of participation because of
  difficulty of the concept of total participation
  parts of the research can be owned by
  participants

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Pockets of participation

• Some stages and roles in the research process at
  which participation (and ownership) can take
  place
• Ideas and proposal
• Steering Group difficult concept for young
  people whose futures are totally uncertain
• Research design
• Access and Data Collection
• Analysis
• Authorship
• Dissemination

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Power and participation

• Whose research is it anyway? research and
  ownership
• What would full participation mean? Is such a
  thing possible? What are the ethical issues
  involved in for instance only involving young
  people in data collection?
• The location of power in the participative
  research process. How do we extend that power
  within the context of a funded research project
  given the time frame and organisational
  requirements?
• Participant power the inescapable importance
  of participants changing power relation
  throughout

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Power and ethics

• Tokenism and exploitation
• Funding and participation (mandatory on the one
  hand but not facilitated on the other)
• Ethical issues including particular ethical
  issues in this specific example for instance
  consent young refugees may say yes for many
  different reasons
• As a result of over-consultation of some groups
  there is a need for ladders out of
  participation in order not to produce
  professional refugees.

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Count us in the research

• ? Explores issues associated with refugee
  children accessing the education system
• 106 children and young refugees from 30 different
  countries, now living in six areas of England
  took part included access through six
  Childrens Society Projects working with young
  refugees
• 7 young refugees trained, through this
  partnership, to carry out peer interviews and
  helped to design the questionnaire
• Project workers were also involved in carrying
  out the research
• ? Participants and young interviewers and
  projects fed back on initial findings of the
  report

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Training for young people

• Overview of particular project
• What are social research interviews for?
• Warm up game finding something out about each
  other and informing the group. Did people feel
  they were accurately represented?
• Three bad ways to ask questions. Double barrel,
  jargon, leading questions. Think of another?
• Working with the draft questionnaire previously
  drafted with a group of project workers
• Practicing the questionnaire on each other
  trying it out rewriting where necessary

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Participation in practice

• The benefits of participation
• Children's and young peoples voices
• As researchers able to carry out interviews
  in English and in own languages
• Children and young people involved in analysis
• A voice in final report

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some other benefits

• Young people received some training during the
  summer period
• Young researchers received a certificate
  describing the training and work they had done
• Young researchers were rewarded with a voucher
  for each interview they carried out
• Young people were invited to a feedback session
  in London. This meant they gave their input into
  the final document but they also had a chance to
  visit London.

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some other benefits

• Young people said they felt they were helping to
  build services for other young people like
  themselves
• Young refugees input into the questionnaire
  made it more sensitive to young peoples needs
• Research unit learning from carrying out the
  process

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conflicts with organisational/ other priorities

• Conflicts between working at young peoples
  pace, maximising participation and meeting
  deadlines
• Meeting tight deadlines and fitting in with
  young peoples commitments
• Conflicts between the ongoing work of projects
  and demands of the brief.

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conflicts with organisational priorities

• Findings may conflict with organisational
  priorities
• Most young refugees interviewed said they did
  not want people to know they were an asylum
  seeker of refugee
• They preferred to share with young people who
  had similar experiences and friends who spoke the
  same language were preferred
• A small number, however, said they would like
  to share their experiences but needed support in
  doing this.

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Report
Report can be located on our website under
research or directly at http//www.childrenssoci
ety.org.uk/whatwedo/research/youngrefugees/what
wedoresearchyoungrefugees.htm Myfanwy Franks
email mcf_at_childsoc.org.uk
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