Making waves: A cross-study analysis of young people’s participation arenas in Scotland’s schools

Citation

Cross B, Mannion G & Shanks R (2022) Making waves: A cross-study analysis of young people’s participation arenas in Scotland’s schools. Childhood, 29 (1), pp. 75-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682211053972

Abstract
This article compares democratic participation research in Scottish schools over a 10-year period. The comparison reveals how ‘organic’ aspects of decision-making arise in arenas of school activity. We argue that research heretofore has focussed on pupil councils to the exclusion of more everyday embedded and embodied choices. Primary researchers in the studies revisited data, drawing on their respective theoretical frameworks, to consider how new materialist perspectives offer ways to attend differently to the recursive, relational dynamics of participation.

Keywords
Participation; decision-making; representation; social material critique; agential realism

Journal
Childhood: Volume 29, Issue 1

• Published version