Shallow democracy : in other people's shoes - listening to the voices of children and young people

In recent years there has been much interest in children's participation on an international and national level, based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and children's rights expressed ethically, morally, and legally. This culture of listening and viewing how children and young people participate in our changing world has been the focus of research, theoretical and political discourses, and debates. After reviewing the underpinning literature, this thesis examines and compares the reality of participation from data collected and analysed in three "stories of practice" (Eide and Winger, 2005:79). The main focus of my research was to explore how children and young people's voices were represented through multimodal methods as a means of participation. Researching three different "stories from practice" (Eide and Winger, 2005:79) I reflect on the issues of participation and the use of creative arts and media over a range of different settings, and the ways in which children and young people are consulted. This includes a consultation project of a local authority safeguarding children's board, a Creative Partnership project in a pupil referral unit, and a discussion with a group of young people who have experienced participation. The first two projects observed young people 'participating' in adult initiated activities and the third asked young people directly how they felt about their experiences and issues around participation. I examined the three different stages of my research drawing on the Mosaic approach (Clark and Moss, 2001), using a mixed methodology incorporating a range of qualitative data. The main findings of this research critically engage with recent debates and concepts surrounding participatory practices and methods, which ask whose agenda is being served, whose voice is being heard, and what is the purpose of participation. often leading to tokenism rather than participation being more inclusive for young people. The recommendations for practice that emerge are based on what the young people in the last stage of my research raised as being issues, where they had found that the process of participation had not been meaningful. Their main concerns were that practitioners should give more consideration to the way they communicate with children and young people; that they should actively listen; and most importantly to respond and be honest about how the young people's views will be used, and what changes they will affect.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo