Taking part in school life: views of children
Abstract
Purpose
Child participation is increasingly a global phenomenon as stated by Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on Children's Rights. This supports the first principle, Democracy, of the Health Promoting School movement. The purpose of this paper is to facilitate a three-phase participatory research process (PRP) to document the views of children about participation in school.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 248 primary school pupils aged nine to 13 years participated: the first group of pupils answered two questions on individual coloured paper; the second group categorised these data separately, by question, assigning labels for each of the categories; and the third group used the categories to develop schema. The analysis was inductive.
Findings
The most common categories for what made pupils feel a part of their school were school uniforms, sports, friends, teachers and their school/classroom environment. Increase in the number of school activities, encouraging friendship and equal participation were key indicators of how pupils would ensure that everybody felt a part of the school. The findings indicate that interpersonal relationships and belonging are in the opinion of children important for taking part in school life.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates children's understanding of what taking part in school means to them. The PRP encouraged pupils to have control of the three-phase research process, and demonstrated the ability of children to work together in groups while having fun at the same time.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The paper was supported by a Doctoral Fellowship from the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway. The authors would like to extend their appreciation to all the pupils, teachers and principals of the schools that participated in the study.
Citation
Olufisayo John-Akinola, Y., Gavin, A., Elizabeth O’Higgins, S. and Nic Gabhainn, S. (2014), "Taking part in school life: views of children", Health Education, Vol. 114 No. 1, pp. 20-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-02-2013-0007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited