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Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

The aim of this learning guide is to help you develop a critical understanding of the values, skills and methods associated with children’s participation. You will be encouraged to reflect upon and creatively apply the experiences of children and practitioners to new participatory contexts.

There are six activities in this learning guide:

Activity 1: Introductory reading on children’s participation (allow 6 hours)
Activity 2: Shared values for children's participation: access online participation standards (allow 1 hour)
Activity 3: Skills for participation: listen to audio accounts to help construct a list of participatory skills (allow 1 hour)
Activity 4: Methods of participation: undertake online activity simulating a participatory activity (allow 1 hour)
Activity 5: Adapting participatory methods: adapting participatory activity in response to a case study (allow 45 minutes)
Activity 6: Participation into practice: adapting participatory activity for your own practice (allow 1 hour 30 minutes).

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Learning outcomes

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

understand the principles underlying a rights and participation approach to childhood issues and how these may be applied to a variety of situations within different contexts;
develop communication and engagement skills that can be applied to work with children.

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Activity 1

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

Introductory reading on children’s participation

6 hours 0 minutes

Read Chapter 5: ‘Children’s participation’ from Foley and Leverett (2008) Connecting with children: developing working relationships which is attached below. This extract is taken from a teaching text used on the course KE312 Working Together for Children and you are encouraged to attempt to answer the thinking points that are included throughout the chapter.

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Chapter 5: ‘Children’s participation’

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Activity 2

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

Shared values for children’s participation

1 hour 0 minutes

In the extract you have read in Activity 1, Leverett identifies a set of shared values developed as part of the ‘Hear by Right’ standards (Badham and Wade, 2005) for the active involvement of children and young people. These can be accessed at: http://hbr.nya.org.uk/standards

Consider how and to what extent organisations who work with children are able to draw on these values in the way they design and deliver services.

In the next activity we will look more closely at the skills needed for participation work which in turn are underpinned by these values.

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Activity 3

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

Skills for participation

1 hour 0 minutes

We have identified the importance of a value base that promotes participation and we will now consider some of the skills that are needed to make it happen. For this activity listen to the audio accounts of Pete and Phil who are two participation trainers discussing their work with children and different agencies.

Compile a list identifying the skills that appear to contribute to effective participation work, based on their accounts.

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Interview with Peter Duncan and Phil Treseder

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Transcript

Discussion

There are clearly many skills needed to make participation happen, some of the important ones are listed here:

genuine, non patronising and respectful communication skills;
ability to deal sensitively with children’s issues;
being aware of child protection and your responsibilities to protect children;
convincing children that you are serious about listening to them and taking action;
ensure that what you are doing is not tokenistic and that systems and structures are in place to act on children’s views;
knowing how to access and effectively use resources;
creating inclusive environments by negotiating with children and providing them with choices about mediums and methods of communication;
ability to work with a co-worker;
looking after yourself as the work can be tiring;
learning from mistakes as part of an ongoing evaluation;
convincing other adults to work in new ways.

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Activity 4

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

Methods of participation

0 hours 45 minutes

We have considered the values and skills needed to undertake participation work. We will now consider some of the methods that can be used to facilitate children’s participation. One typical example sometimes used in participation work is referred to as the Diamond Ranking activity. This activity works particularly well if you want to encourage cooperative working with groups of children and help them prioritise and reach a consensus view on an issue or plan.

Diamond Ranking was used by O'Kane (2000) to explore children’s views on the general topic of their participation and involvement in decision making. From her interviews with a group of 8–12 year olds O'Kane constructed a list of nine statements about taking part in decision making. These were then presented back to the children in a diamond formation. Children were asked to rank the statements from the most important to the least important. Any child in the group could move a statement higher or lower in the ranking as long as they could justify their decision. Only children moving statements were allowed to talk, enabling them to be listened to by the others. Over time the children debated and negotiated the order of statements that best represented the view of the whole group.

Drag and drop the statements below to rearrange them into the order that you think the group of children eventually chose. Once you have completed the task, click on ‘Show the children's choices’ to reveal the children’s ranking and compare it with your own.

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Diamond ranking animation

Discussion

Hopefully this has helped you think about how participatory activities can be used to encourage children to talk and share ideas with each other and with adults.

Listed below are some additional resources containing similar activities along with toolkits and practice guides packed with further ideas:

Aspinwall, T. and Larkins, C. (2002) Breathing Fire Into Participation: The Funky Dragon Guide To Participation, Funky Dragon/Children and Young People’s Assembly For Wales. This guide can be downloaded from Funky Dragon. (Accessed 6 November 2008)
Blake, S. and Frances, G. (2004) Promoting Children and Young People's Participation through the National Healthy School Standard, London, DoH. (Accessed 6 November 2008)
Fajerman, L. and Treseder, P. (2004) Empowering Children and Young People Training Manual: Promoting Involvement in Decision-making, London, Save the Children.
Johnson, K. (2004) Children's Voices: Pupil Leadership in Primary Schools, National College for School Leadership.
Kirby, P., Lanyon, C., Cronin, K. and Sinclair, S. (2003) Building a Culture of Participation: Involving Children and Young People in Policy, Service Planning, Delivery and Evaluation, London, DfES.
Ready, Steady, Change, Children's Rights Alliance.
Shephard, C. and Treseder, P. (2002) Participation Spice it Up!: Practical Tools for Engaging Children and Young People in Consultation, Cardiff, Achub y Plant/Save The Children Fund.

Some sceptical people may think that providing children with the right to participate will lead to a situation where children will use it to simply get what they want. This activity demonstrates that children value being listened to way ahead of getting their own way. They also show that being provided with support in order to participate in decision making is important for many children.

The next activity considers some of the ways of supporting children.

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Activity 5

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

Adapting participatory methods

0 hours 45 minutes

This activity is an opportunity to reflect on how you might adapt and use the ideas introduced in Activity 4. Imagine you are running a summer holiday club for children aged 4–11 years. The club includes some children who are unable to read.

How might you adapt the diamond ranking exercise (identified in Activity 4) to help these children collectively participate in deciding on a venue for a minibus outing? Write down your ideas in your Learning Journal.

Discussion

There are many ways of ensuring inclusive participation. Although some children do not read they may be proficient at communicating with signs such as British Sign Language (BSL) or symbols such as makaton. These can be printed onto the cards alongside words. Even children who do not use these methods are often interested in learning new forms of communication. Alternatively you might find it useful to replace words on each card with pictures of potential venues for the trip from tourism brochures or the internet. It is important however to make sure that all children know what the pictures represent.

One method to encourage this is to involve the children in finding and cutting or printing the pictures in preparation for the activity.

Another potential idea is to pair children for the activity to encourage peer support. Older or more experienced children can support younger or less experienced children. The person facilitating the activity can verbally check with children, particularly those who appear quiet, and if required act on their behalf to move the cards according to their wishes. However children should not be forced into having a view, upholding their right to participate may involve respecting their right to either remain silent or to take a neutral position.

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Activity 6

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

Participation into practice

1 hour 30 minutes

Having adapted the diamond ranking exercise to the case example in Activity 5 you now have an opportunity to think about how you might use or adapt the same exercise in other contexts with children. This is an opportunity to reflect on work that you already do with children or the kind of work that you hope to do in the future.

Discussion

There are unlimited possibilities as to how you can adapt and use this activity. The important consideration is that to connect with children we sometimes need to be imaginative as well as considerate to particular needs or preferences. You might want to reflect further on similar activities and methods that can be used to promote participation.

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References

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

Badham, B. and Wade, H. (revised edition 2005) Hear By Right Standards for the Active Involvement of Children and Young People, Leicester and London: National Youth Agency and Local Government Association.

Leverett, S. (2008) ‘Children's participation’ in Foley, P. and Leverett, S. (eds) Connecting with Children: Developing Working Relationships, Bristol: Policy Press.

O'Kane, C. (2000) ‘Development of participatory techniques, facilitating children’s views about decisions which affect them’, in Christensen, P. and James, A. (eds) Research with Children Perspectives and Practice, London: Falmer Press;

Shephard, C. and Treseder, P. (2002) Participation Spice it Up!: Practical tools for engaging children and young people in consultation, Cardiff, Achub y Plant/ Save The Children Fund.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:10 GMT

The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:

The content acknowledged below is Proprietary and is used under licence.

Chapter 5

The material acknowledged below appears in : Connecting with children: developing working relationships, edited by Pam Foley and Stephen Leverett, (2008) published by Policy Press in association with The Open University, copyright © The Open University.

This forms part of the course materials for KE312 Working Together for Children.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons licence). See terms and conditions.

Grateful acknowledgement is made the following sources for permission:

Figures

Page 167: Hart, R. (1992) ‘Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship’, Florence: UNICEF (Innocenti Research Centre – Innocenti Essay, 4). Reproduced with kind permission of UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Florence;

Page 170: Fajerman, L. and Treseder, P. (1997) Empowering Children and Young People. Reproduced with kind permission of Save the Children Fund.

Page 193: Kirby, P. and Gibbs, S. (2006) ‘Facilitating participations: adults’ caring support roles within child-to-child projects’, Children & Society, vol. 20, John Wiley and Sons;

Page 197: Shephard and Treseder (2002) ‘Evaluation targets’ in Holford, A. (2002) Participation Spice it up!, Save the Children Fund.

Illustrations

Page 169: JAMES JIM JAMES/PA Archive/PA Photos;

Page 176: Pugh, J. (2003) Cartoon belittling children’s strikes, The Times. NI Syndication Ltd;

Page 176: Martin, S.W. (1972) Cartoon belittling children’s strikes, first published by the Sunday Express, 14 May 1972;

Page 177: Austin, D. (2003) Cartoon about communication and text messaging in the Guardian;

Unit image

Fiona L Cooper: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fionacooper/334213406/ [Details correct as of 24th November 2008]

We are grateful to Phil Treseder and Pete Duncan for appearing in the interview in Activity 3.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence