Jenna K. Gillett-Swan

Investigating Tween Children's Capacity to Conceptualise the Complex Issue of Wellbeing:

Wellbeing is an area that has gained increased global focus, particularly when considering childrens lives. With the growing focus on childrens wellbeing, it is apparent that this is an important aspect that is being considered in the policy and provision designed for children. The decision-making surrounding wellbeing provision for children typically occurs without the direct input of the children that these services are designed to benefit. With childrens capacities being variably considered in wider society, opportunities for children to participate in decision-making on matters that affect them are often limited. The absence of childrens perspectives on matters that affect their lives, such as wellbeing, reveal that adults may be missing a key perspective when seeking to understand and cater for childrens wellbeing needs. This article outlines the results of a study that investigated how children aged 8 to 12 years of age (tweens) defined and conceptualised wellbeing. This article proposes that children can be included in the conceptualisation and development of policy and provision designed to benefit them and argues for increased presence of the voice and participation of children in wider societal initiatives.

Managing the Personal Impact of Practicum: Examining the Experiences of Graduate Diploma in Education Students

Through the voices and experiences of pre-service teachers (PSTs), this chapter identifies the personal impacts of participation in practicum, beyond the impacts of professional development and in situ learning. This chapter addresses an issue that warrants considerable discussion in initial teacher education: How can academics, universities, placement schools, mentor teachers and other PSTs better support PSTs in preparation for and during their practicum experiences. Bringing the everyday life of PSTs to the interrogation of professional learning and study, we highlight the complementary role of personal coping strategies (many of which are taken into post-graduation professional teaching practice) and institutional supports in managing a successful practicum experience. In particular, we explore the extent to which the intensive short-term nature of the practicum experience is likely to disrupt many of the longer term strategies that PSTs put in place and which are intensified in the pressure-cooker environment of the practicum.

Assuring children’s human right to freedom of opinion and expression in education

Abstract The Universal Declaration of Human Rights elaborated for children through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, mandates each child’s right to participate in all matters affecting them. In particular, Article 19 includes the child’s right to freedom of expression and opinion, access to information and communication choice. However, many barriers placed on children’s daily lives often restrict or limit the enactment of children’s participatory rights in practice, most noticeably in education. It is often the adult who decides what, when and how children can communicate, and the extent children’s views and opinions are sought, considered or incorporated. This paper explores how children’s daily lives are mediated in ways that restrict their expression, voice and communication rights. Children spend a significant proportion of their daily lives in education settings yet the restrictions on children’s access to information and communication choices do not reflect contemporary pedagogical thinking. Many school settings perpetuate the key participation barriers of adult attitude and knowledge, pedagogical tradition, organisational structure and technological advancement. Such barriers to engagement stifle the realisation of the child’s communication rights that then limits educational enhancement. Supporting children’s right to communicate via a range of media enables pedagogy supporting voice-inclusive practice.

EDITORIAL: Children’s Rights in a 21st Century Digital World: Exploring Opportunities and Tensions

On 20 November 1989, the United Nations General Assembly, comprised of delegates representing a wide spectrum of legal systems, cultures and religious traditions, unanimously adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ratified by almost the entire international community, the CRC is widely regarded as the most important advocacy tool for children’s rights globally. It creates an international legal framework for the protection and promotion of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons under the age of 18 and incorporates the full range of human rights - civil, cultural, economic, political and social. For more than a quarter of a century the CRC has provoked significant changes in the way that children’s rights are considered, conceptualised and enacted. Nevertheless, debates continue about whether the CRC and the ‘children’s rights agenda’ is embraced fully within societal institutions. Evidence suggests that adults, researchers, policy-makers and professionals continue to grapple with actualising the rights enshrined within the CRC in their ‘real world’ practices (Coppock & Phillips, 2013; Phillips and Coppock, 2014)...

Children’s analysis processes when analysing qualitative research data: a missing piece to the qualitative research puzzle

Children’s role in the research process is often limited to a passive role as subject, recipient or object of data rather than as active contributor. The sociology of childhood considers children to be competent social actors and advocates for them to be recognised as such. This recognition is yet to filter into mainstream research agendas with children often remaining a passive provider to research that seeks to elicit their perspectives. This article presents an examination of the processes that children use when analysing their own qualitative research data as observed within a qualitative research project. It provides insight into the ability to increase the richness of data obtained when researching with children, by including their perspectives and contributions in the data analysis process. Children’s capacity as capable and competent contributors to research beyond the more passive role of participant is described and the ways that children can have a greater participatory role in qualitative data collection and analysis processes are discussed.

Unintentional power plays: interpersonal contextual impacts in child-centred participatory research

Abstract Background Approaches to conducting research with children afford them varying degrees of participatory power. Despite children’s varying roles within research, more needs to be understood about the influences of unintentional power plays and, in particular, interactions between participant and non-participants on children’s participation in in situ research. Purpose This paper considers the methodological and practical dimensions of research data collection in situ, and the effect of adult–child power relations within child-centred research. Method Participants were children involved in a wider research project across five Australian primary schools that explored how 8 to 12-year-old children conceptualised and defined the notion of wellbeing. Drawing upon researcher observation and children’s commentary and actions, a reflexive approach exploring the effects of unintentional power plays during the research activities was utilised. Data were analysed qualitatively, using a hermeneutic frame. Findings and conclusions Three case study vignettes from the data are presented and the effect on the researcher–child relationship in each instance is discussed. Analyses of these cases offer insights into the unintentional power plays experienced by many researchers who engage in research that includes children in the naturalistic but institutionalised setting of a school. Managing effects from non-participant adults during research represents a critical ethical consideration for researchers seeking to afford children a forum to freely express their perspectives within school environments.

‘It’s the Worst, but Real Experience Is Invaluable’: Pre-service Teacher Perspectives of the Costs and Benefits of Professional Experience

Professional experience, or practicum placements, is an important component in the education of pre-service teachers and preparing them for their own classrooms after graduation. However, while the pedagogical and personal development benefits of participation are well documented, the personal costs of participation have been less comprehensively explored. This chapter identifies the perceived costs and benefits of participation in practicum from the perspective of undergraduate and postgraduate pre-service teachers attending an Australia university. The research study reported in this chapter reveals that the practicum experience is, on the whole, associated with positive feelings and the opportunity to gain practical ‘real-world’ experience and professional development. However, the financial hardship that can be created or magnified as a consequence of participation in practicum can negatively impact the practicum experience and the well-being of a pre-service teacher. The chapter concludes by reflecting on approaches that universities and accrediting bodies may consider to manage the financial and other impacts of practicum participation on pre-service teachers without decreasing their educational and experiential value.

Foreign aid and inclusive education in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati: A question of ownership

ABSTRACT This study examines the influence of foreign aid and local ownership in the introduction of inclusive education in Kiribati. The data reported in this paper were collected through interviews with key local stakeholders and these data are part of a larger study. Data were analysed under the major theme of ownership, and were grouped into the four sub-themes of: local responses to inclusive education initiatives; support for inclusive education principles; local attitudes regarding the contribution of Australian Aid; and, sustainability with or without aid support. The results indicate that a positive commitment towards inclusive education is emerging and that Australian Aid provided essential advocacy for children with disabilities in Kiribati through direct management of initiatives by the expatriate administered Kiribati Education Facility. Inclusive education initiatives remain dependent on Australian Aid for direction and sustainability. Sustainability of inclusive education initiatives in Kiribati will depend on continued development of local ownership including community support and commitment by the Government of Kiribati, particularly budgetary support.

Complex, compound and critical: recognising and responding to the factors influencing diverse preservice teacher experiences of practicum

The practicum (or professional experience) is an entrenched feature of initial teacher education programs. In recent years, there has been an emphasis on improving the quality of practicum experiences in both academic research (e.g. Grudnoff & Williams, 2010; Lawson, Cakmak, Gunduz & Busher, 2015) and in teacher education policy (e.g. TEMAG, 2014). However, while the practicum is generally considered by participants to be one of the most influential experiences in their preservice teacher education (Busher, Gunduz, Cakmak, & Lawson, 2015) it is also recognised as being one of the most stressful (Gardner, 2010). As a result, there is an increasing tendency in recent work to explore the practicum through the eyes and experiences of participants (Buckworth, 2017; Grant-Smith & Gillett-Swan, 2017). However, despite increasing recognition of the personal factors that can influence experiences of practicum, and the impact that of practicum participation can exert on other life domains and commitments, these ideas are rarely centred in discussions of practicum (Grant-Smith, Gillett-Swan & Chapman, 2016). It could, however, be argued that in the pressurised environment of the practicum, these considerations are especially influential and of growing importance as a result of the increased participation of non-traditional students in teacher education programs...