Working with a young people’s advisory panel to conduct educational research: Young people’s perspectives and researcher reflections

Abstract

Participatory research with young people centres their knowledge and experiences to generate research outcomes which are meaningful to them. In recent years, there has been an increase in participatory research within education, yet there is still little methodological insight into this approach. In this project, which explored adolescents’ reading motivation and engagement, a young people’s advisory panel was convened to ensure the perspectives and experiences of young people were central to the research. The panel consisted of 6 young people (13 – 15-years-old) from 3 schools in Scotland. The panel worked with researchers at the Universities of XX and XX and a national literacy organisation across one academic year to plan and design the project, carry out data collection and interpret the findings. To achieve this, online group meetings, an online interview training workshop, online 1-1 interviews with the first author and in person peer-interviews were conducted. In this article, the methodological practice of working with a young people’s advisory panel to carry out a research project is evaluated using thematic analysis of panel members’ reflections and meeting content. A discussion of the benefits, limitations, and practicalities are provided for researchers interested in working closely and collaboratively with young people to conduct educational research.

Adolescents' perspectives on the barriers to reading for pleasure

“…Despite this, the perception remains that adolescents should take responsibility for their own reading motivation and practices. By acknowledging the imbalance of power that exists between adults and adolescents (see Heath et al, 2009;Bennett and Brunner, 2022), and by meaningfully involving adolescents in reading research and practice, their experiences and needs can be at the heart of the work which seeks to support them (Webber et al, 2022b;Webber et al, 2023).…”

“…Such changes have the potential to exert significant effects on adolescents' motivation and ability to read for pleasure and represent a distinctly different context from childhood, yet these factors are often not considered within the discourse surrounding adolescent reading motivation. Furthermore, the majority of reading motivation research has used quantitative data gathering methods to measure reading motivation (Conradi et al, 2014); however, this approach is largely unsuited to understanding adolescents' own perspectives of their reading experiences and what does (and does not) motivate them to read (Webber et al, 2022b;Webber et al, 2023). To date, and to the best of our knowledge, there is no large-scale qualitative research that seeks to explore young adolescents' perceptions of barriers to their reading for pleasure.…”

“…Exploring adolescents' own perspectives of the barriers to reading motivation is important for aligning educator and researcher knowledge with the lived experiences of adolescents themselves, rather than simply reinforcing adult assumptions about their lives (Fielding, 2004). Therefore, a Young People's Advisory Panel (YPAP) collaborated with the adult research team throughout this project, co-designing the project, collecting data alongside adult researchers and interpreting the findings together (see Webber et al, 2022b). In this way, the voices of adolescents have been built into the project from the outset, representing a unique contribution to the literature on adolescent reading motivation.…”