Making Waves: A Cross-study Analysis of Young People’s Participation Arenas in Scotland’s Schools
Published 2021
Contributors
Author: Beth Cross, Greg Mannion, Rachel Shanks
Publisher: Sage Journals
Date: 2021
Geographic Coverage: Scotland
Type of Resource: Academic Journal
Sector/setting: Education
Vulnerable groups: Children, Young People
Developed with children and young people? Not Specified
Type of participation: Research
Availability: Open Access
Keywords: Agential Realism, Decision-making, Participation, Representation, Social Material Critique
Introduction
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.