The conventional academic response to this type of question is to consider ways of including young people as active participants in a research project, for example by asking them to take part in focus groups, provide feedback, involve their peers and so on. But processes like that still put them in a secondary role, as helpers or assistants to a research project owned, managed and run by adults and professionals such as academics.
I recently became a trustee of a London-based charity, Independent Academic Research Studies (IARS), It was set up in 2001 to chart a different path, where young people do the research themselves, with support from IARS staff, and write it up for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, Youth Voice. It is, to all extents and purposes, academic research done by and for young people. But it aims to go further than that. It is not just the doing of research for its own sake, but research as a process of empowerment and skills development for the young people, and as a way of enabling them to look at and try to influence policy and practice that affects young people in British society.
This is a challenging agenda. Doing research for themselves (not the same thing as being taught on a course) is not a conventional way to engage young people, some of whom are disadvantaged and have been "turned off" by their educational experiences.
Another challenge is the idea of using research to influence policy. Academics across all disciplines are grappling with issues about whether and how research evidence is (or is not) useful to policymakers. This is not to do with the rigour of the research itself, but how the complexities that research throws up can be translated into policy prescriptions.
As IARS grows (currently 120 volunteers engage with its programme annually), it will as a third sector organisation, and think tank, face some of the same issues as universities with their research. But that would be a sign of its maturity and the success of its programme. As IARS Director Dr Theo Gavrielides says: "Through our publications and policy work we have shown that youth-led research is not a myth and that young people independently of their background can inform policy. There are no ‘hard-to-reach groups’, as professionals call them. There are only hard realities, and we are exposing and challenging them every day through our work."
Dr Karim Murji is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at The Open University.
*This paper has appeared in the Independent in July - click here for a copy.
The article has appeared at the Open University website
Post new comment