Research Forum for the Child
Queen's University Belfast
School of Education
69/71 University Street
Belfast
BT7 1HL
Tel: +44 (0) 28 90975961
Fax: +44 (0) 28 90975066
research.education@qub.ac.uk
Director: Prof Laura Lundy, l.lundy@qub.ac.uk
News and Events Archive 2008
11/12/2008 Lunchtime discussion: PG students
03/12/2008 OREC Seminar
01/12/2008 Prof Andy Dawes Seminar
22/11/2008 Connections: Children's Literature and Culture
12/11/2008 Harry Shier Seminar
28/10/2008 Kidscreen Seminar
Seminar on Participation
Research Ethics and Children
Invitation to Apply for Funding 07/08
12/06/2008-13/06/2008 Seminar on Participation
15/05/2008 Research Ethics and Children
20/02/2080 YLT Event
Postgraduate Student discussion on
'using incentives for children to take part in research'
Room G6, School
of Education, 69/71 University Street
Thursday 11th December 2008, 1pm-2pm
The Research Forum for the Child would like to invite you to take part in a lunchtime discussion entitled: 'using incentives for children to take part in research'.
The discussion is to provide an opportunity for postgraduate students to discuss, with staff, the ethics associated with giving incentives to children participants, and we aim to encourage debate around this issue. Staff who are willing to share their opinions and experiences, and postgraduate students who wish to take part in the discussion, please contact Nicola Ingram - ningram01@qub.ac.uk - to register interest.
A sandwich lunch will be provided.
Seminar by Siobhan McGrath and Patrick McCrystal
Room G13 (Cathcart Room), School
of Education, 69/71 University Street
Wednesday 3rd December 2008, 12.30pm-2.30pm
The Research Forum for the Child would like to invite you to a seminar by Siobhan McGrath and Patrick McCrystal entitled ‘Ethical review of research involving children – a research ethics perspective (OREC)’, in the Cathcart Room (G13) of the School of Education, 69/71 University Street, on Wednesday 3rd December 2008, 12.30pm-2.30pm.
Dr Siobhan McGrath is the head of ORECNI whilst Dr Patrick McCrystal is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Child Care Research here at Queen’s and is also a member of HSC REC 3. Siobhan and Patrick have agreed to deliver a PowerPoint seminar but to make it an informal Q&A session throughout. This Seminar should be of value to all researchers involved in working with children.
The seminar will include a sandwich lunch served from 12.30pm.
Please reply to research.education@qub.ac.uk by Thursday 27th November 2008, if you wish to attend.
**ROOM CHANGE**: now in Room G01, 16 University Square
“A Rights-Based Approach to Monitoring the Wellbeing of Children in South Africa”
Seminar by Professor Andy Dawes,
University of Cape Town/Health Sciences Research Council (SA)
Room G01, 16 University Sqaure
4pm-5pm Monday 1st December 2008
Professor Dawes is the co-editor of a major text published last year by the HSRC: Monitoring Child Wellbeing – A South African Rights Based Approach.
Aiming to be practical and user-friendly as well as intellectually and empirically rigorous, this volume presents a conceptual model and provides an evidence and rights-based approach. Drawing on international precedents, and extensive peer review processes, experts in various fields have developed a holistic set of indicators to enhance the monitoring of the status of children.
Taking the child-rights focus of the South African Constitution, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children, the authors evaluate the state of children using indicators that measure both the service environment and the children’s developmental contexts.
Areas covered include: child poverty; children’s neighbourhoods and home environments; child health, HIV and AIDS, mental health and disability; early child development and education; child protection and children in state care; children on the streets and child.
Seminar on 22nd November 2008 from10.15am to 6.30pm
Postgraduate Centre, 18 College Green
The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature (ISSCL) has organised a one-day symposium in Queen’s University. Hosted by the School of Languages, Literatures and Performing Arts in Association with the Institute of Irish Studies, it will be held on November 22nd in the Postgraduate Centre, 18 College Green, from 10.15am to 6.30pm. The event will include a key-note lecture by Prof. Dr. Emer O’Sullivan (University of Lüneburg, Germany) and will conclude with Colin Bateman reading from his children’s books.
The afternoon will feature round table discussions regarding the status and future of children’s literature studies in Ireland. If you are interested in briefly presenting your research/projects (ca. 5-8min), please contact Martina Seifert at m.seifert@qub.ac.uk.
ISSCL promotes academic research in children's literature and culture. If you would like to join us for the symposium, which is free of charge, please register soon at www.isscl.com or mail Dr. Amanda Piesse at apiesse@tcd.ie .
Constructing active citizenship: Interacting participation spaces in the participation and organisation of children and young people as active citizens in Nicaragua
Seminar by Harry Shier
Cathcart Room (G13), School of Education, 69/71 University Street
Wednesday 12th November 2008, 12pm-1.30pm
Harry Shier, biographical note
Born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1954, Harry Shier lived and worked in England for 25 years, initially on adventure playgrounds, then in training adults working with children out of school. In 1981 he founded Playtrain, an independent training agency specialising in children’s rights, play and creativity. In the 1990s he worked and wrote extensively on children’s rights and participation, most notably developing the “Article 31 Children’s Consultancy Scheme”, which enables young children to act as specialist consultants to the senior management of diverse cultural institutions, helping them make facilities and programmes more child-friendly. This experience was crystallised in his 2001 paper “Pathways to Participation”, which has become one of the most important conceptual models of children’s participation in decision-making, widely used in many parts of the world.
In 2001 he moved to Nicaragua, Central America, where he works in community education, supporting local colleagues developing new education programmes with children and young workers on the region’s coffee plantations. In November 2002 he was attacked and badly beaten by local delinquents in his new home town of Matagalpa. Left for dead in a pool of blood by the roadside, he was found, barely alive, the next morning and rushed to hospital. He made an almost complete recovery and, against professional advice, returned to Matagalpa to continue his work. Nicaragua is now his permanent home.
From September 2007 to March 2008 he held a Practitioner Fellowship at the University of the West of England, researching concepts of children and young people’s participation in Nicaragua and the UK.
He is married to María de los Ángeles Espinoza Ruíz, and has two children, Joe and Patrick, by a previous marriage.
The seminar will include a sandwich lunch, on a first-come-first-served basis.
Kidscreen Seminar
Tuesday 28th October 2008, 12pm-2pm
The Forum has organised a seminar on Kidscreen, which is a health-related quality of life measure for use with children and young people. The seminar will be held on 28th October 2008 in the Old Staff Common Room and will run from 12.00 until 2.00pm. A light lunch will be served.
There will be four short (each approximately 10 min) presentations by researchers at Queen’s who are using, or have used, Kidscreen in a variety of settings. We hope this will stimulate a lively debate around the use of this measure.
This seminar will be of interest to anyone in the Forum who is considering using Kidscreen or similar quality of life measures with children and young people, or who wants to find out more about it.
If you would like to attend the seminar please contact research.education@qub.ac.uk before Tuesday 14th October 2008. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
First Annual Seminar on Participation
June 12th-13th 2008
The Forum held its first annual seminar on the theme of “Children’s Participation” at Queen’s on June 12th-13th. Guest speakers included Dr Kay Tisdall, University of Edinburgh, Professor Nigel Thomas, University of Central Lancashire, Dr Barry Percy-Smith, University of the West of England, Professor Sheila Greene, Trinity College Dublin, Professor Michael Shevlin, Trinity College, Dublin.
To view pictures click here
Seminar Programme
Staff Training Event: Research Ethics and Children, led by Dr Virginia Morrow
Thursday 15th May 2008, 10am-4pm
The Forum held a very successful training day on May 15th 2008 on the theme of "Ethics in research with children". The event was led by Dr Virginia Morrow from the Institute of Education in London, and co-author (with P. Alderson) of the Barnardo's publication "Ethics, social research and consulting with children and young people". Forum members Dr Ruth Leitch, Professor Madeleine Leonard and Professor Phil Scraton, led workshops on ethical issues arising in previous research projects with children.
To view pictures click here.
Applications for funding
The Forum has set aside £5,000 of its annual allocation from the special initiative to seed-fund projects undertaken by members which are intended to encourage interdisciplinary research in relation to children. The types of activity which you might wish to consider applying for include: away days with groups of colleagues to discuss or write research proposals, part-funding of seminars and inviting visiting speakers. Click here for the application form (which is fairly straightforward). The major criterion for funding is evidence that the activity will encourage interdisciplinary research on the child. Grants will not normally exceed £600 and in the event of there being more suitable applications than the funding available, the Steering Committee will award funding to those applications which appear to it to best meet the research objectives of the Forum. Funding will be awarded on a rolling basis.
Contact: Laura Lundy: l.lundy@qub.ac.uk.
Funding Application Criteria
Funding Application Form
First Annual Seminar on Participation
June 12th-13th 2008
The Forum will hold its first annual seminar on the theme of “Participation” at Queen’s on June 12th-13th. The main purpose of this seminar is to get Forum members talking to each other about their work. Staff and student members are encouraged to present a paper at the seminar on any research topic which involves children’s participation in decision-making. Proposals for papers (of approximately 150 words) should be sent to Laura Lundy (l.lundy@qub.ac.uk) by March 28th. Guest speakers include: Dr Kay Tisdall, University of Edinburgh, Professor Nigel Thomas, University of Central Lancashire, Dr Barry Percy-Smith, University of the West of England, Professor Sheila Greene, Trinity College Dublin, Professor Michael Shevlin, Trinity College, Dublin.
Location of seminar: 12th June in the Senate Room; 13th June in the Council Chamber and Canada Room.
Research Ethics and Children, led by Dr Virginia Morrow
Cathcart Room (G13), School of Education, 69/71 University Street
Thursday 15th May 2008, 10am-4pm
This training event on research ethics and children will be led by Dr Virginia Morrow, Institute of Education, London who is a recognised expert in this area. The event will run between 10am and 4pm in the Cathcart Room (G13), School of Education, 69/71 University Street. Please contact: Lara Patterson(research.education@qub.ac.uk) by March 28th if you would like to book a place on this course. Places will be limited to 16 and will be allocated on first-come/first-served basis.
2007 Young Life and Times Survey: Preview of survey results
Seminar Room 1, 1st floor, Institute of Governance, 57-63 University
Rd
Wednesday 20th February 2008, 1pm – 2.30pm
I would like to invite you to a Preview of the 2007 Young Life and Times survey results on Wednesday 20th February 2008, 1pm-2.30pm. The event will take place in Seminar Room 1, 1st floor, Institute of Governance (QUB), 57-63 University Road, Belfast (the entrance to the Institute is opposite the main Queen’s University building, near University Square). A light lunch will be available from 12.30pm at the above venue.
The Young Life and Times (YLT) survey is an annual survey of 16-year olds living in Northern Ireland. The 2007 survey included questions on:
- Politics and community relations;
- Identity;
- Experiences of, and social pressures to engage in, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, losing weight and having sex;
- Disability, mental health, including GHQ12 indicators;
- Informal caring;
- Child poverty and young people’s rights.
We will also report on our progress in undertaking a follow-up project on community relations projects outside school, which is undertaken with peer researchers recruited from the 2007 YLT sample.
Young Life and Times is a component of ARK. As in previous years, ARK is holding this preview event for organisations and researchers who we think may have a particular interest in the survey and its findings. The 2007 YLT data set and tables of results will be made available online to the general public immediately after the preview event at www.ark.ac.uk/ylt. There you can also view results of previous YLT survey.
I would be grateful if you could let me know by 15th February whether you are going to attend the event. Please e-mail d.schubotz@qub.ac.uk or phone: 028 90 973 947.
I hope you will be able to join us.
Dirk Schubotz
Young Life and Times Director