Child-Centred Research Workshops: A Model for participatory, rights-based engagement with children

Over the past two decades, there has been an ideational shift about children's place within policy-making and service delivery in Australia. The once rather radical view that children are social actors, who engage with, influence, and are influenced by, their social worlds, has moved toward the mainstream. The idea of children's right to express their views on matters affecting them, as stated in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, has permeated both thinking and practice about children's issues and children's participation. This is not to suggest that children are located equally alongside adults within social hierarchies, or viewed as full members of society. Generation, and particularly youth, remains a powerful social category, which often marginalises children and their views, experiences and priorities (see Alanen, 2009). There have, however, been important - if tentative, and occasionally ineffectual - steps forward.