This book celebrates the rights of the child, through including student voice in educational matters that affect them directly. It focuses on the experiences of children and young people and explores how our educational policies, practices and research endeavours enable educators to help young people tell their own stories. The respective chapters illustrate how listening to young people can help them attain new positions of power, even though doing so often creates discomfort and requires a radical change on the part of the adult establishment. Further, the book challenges researchers, teachers and practitioners to reconsider how students are involved in research and policy agendas, and to what extent radical collegiality can create fundamental and positive changes in the lives of these learners. In recent decades, greater attention has been paid across policy, practice and research discourses to involving children more meaningfully and actively in decisions about their participation in both formal and informal educational settings. The book's goal is to illustrate how researchers have systematically involved students in the pursuit of a richer understanding of educational experiences, policy and practice through the eyes and ears of young people, and through their own cultural lens.

The imperative to include children and young people in educational research, and in more participative ways, is educationally important when exploring policy and practice contexts. It is also critical to recognise that children have the right to contribute to debates, and can express their views through educational research, on matters that affect them. However, the freedom to research alongside young people is only afforded if we continue to unmask the illusion that well-intentioned research is always ethical. This book presents an international set of storied experiences, where researchers have been challenged and have changed the way they think, incorporating and exploring ethics in research. The contributors highlight the ethical dilemmas that can arise when children and young people are included in research agendas, and their reflexive approaches to these dilemmas include being responsive to the cultural, political and social contexts of the lives of the children and developing child-friendly research approaches to ensure their 'voice' is accessed in multiple ways. These solution-focused and local approaches facilitate a more ethical, deliberative process where the establishment of trust is central to an ethical engagement with young people and their families and where the explication of ethical dilemmas can improve research practice. This book is a critical resource for researchers and practitioners researching with and alongside children and young people. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Inclusive Education.

The imperative to include children and young people in educational research, and in more participative ways, is educationally important when exploring policy and practice contexts. It is also critical to recognise that children have the right to contribute to debates, and can express their views through educational research, on matters that affect them. However, the freedom to research alongside young people is only afforded if we continue to unmask the illusion that well-intentioned research is always ethical. This book presents an international set of storied experiences, where researchers have been challenged and have changed the way they think, incorporating and exploring ethics in research. The contributors highlight the ethical dilemmas that can arise when children and young people are included in research agendas, and their reflexive approaches to these dilemmas include being responsive to the cultural, political and social contexts of the lives of the children and developing child-friendly research approaches to ensure their 'voice' is accessed in multiple ways. These solution-focused and local approaches facilitate a more ethical, deliberative process where the establishment of trust is central to an ethical engagement with young people and their families and where the explication of ethical dilemmas can improve research practice. This book is a critical resource for researchers and practitioners researching with and alongside children and young people. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Inclusive Education.

This book celebrates the rights of the child, through including student voice in educational matters that affect them directly. It focuses on the experiences of children and young people and explores how our educational policies, practices and research endeavours enable educators to help young people tell their own stories. The respective chapters illustrate how listening to young people can help them attain new positions of power, even though doing so often creates discomfort and requires a radical change on the part of the adult establishment. Further, the book challenges researchers, teachers and practitioners to reconsider how students are involved in research and policy agendas, and to what extent radical collegiality can create fundamental and positive changes in the lives of these learners. In recent decades, greater attention has been paid across policy, practice and research discourses to involving children more meaningfully and actively in decisions about their participation in both formal and informal educational settings. The book's goal is to illustrate how researchers have systematically involved students in the pursuit of a richer understanding of educational experiences, policy and practice through the eyes and ears of young people, and through their own cultural lens.

Author Dr Roseanna Bourke takes the reader on a fascinating exploration of learning: the theory, practice and young people's take on it. What do you say to a young person who tells you her brain is an eighth full? Or to the one who says he only knows he has learned something when he receives a stamp or a sticker? This book is about how learners conceptualise learning, how they self-assess their own learning and why context matters. It shows how, just as a chameleon changes colour, learners change and adapt their approach to learning depending on the situation. It draws on examples of learning by Years 7-8 students from the classroom and out of school, looking at how their views and values are shaped and how they satisfy their own learning needs. Dr Bourke is a senior lecturer in the School of Educational Psychology and Pedagogy at Victoria University and has previously worked as a teacher and education psychologist. She currently teaches postgraduate courses in learning and motivation, and in assessment and evaluation.