A scoping review to establish the relationship of community to the lives of looked after children and young people

Friendship networks and relationships with communities are important parts of the lives of looked after children and young people (LACYP). Much of legislation, policy, practice and research focuses on „the care experience‟ itself, as distinct from young people‟s everyday lives and their connectivity with wider environments. Considerable lack of understanding remains about what being „in care‟ means. This often results in prejudice and stigma. Groups set up specifically for LACYP offer opportunities to develop networks and relationships with adults and young people, and to raise awarenesses. Transitions may happen early and be experienced frequently by LACYP, however, they can offer new opportunities and positive relationships with different people. Meaningful participation in communities such as schools is an important factor in developing stability in relationships. Concepts of participation and empowerment form part of an ecological framework which locates the community context as central to building resilience for LACYP. What constitutes community cohesion and connectedness for LACYP requires a fine balance between the interests of protection and participation. Successful interconnectedness is a matter of shared concern for all. The key challenge remains that of identifying how stable community relationships for LACYP may be strengthened and supported to dynamic mutual benefit. These documents are outputs from the same project: 1) an end of project discussion paper; 2) an extended version of the discussion paper; and 3) four short guides for practice and polic

Children and poverty across Europe - The challenge of developing child centred policies

Although poor children are often the target of policy, policy itself is rarely informed by their subjective concerns. This article takes a child-centred approach to understanding the lives and experiences of children who are poor and explores how policy interventions aimed at reducing child poverty can have both, positive and negative impacts on children\u27s lives. It discusses one example drawn from recent UK welfare-to-work policies for lone mothers - a key element of the UK state\u27s anti-poverty programme - to explore the tensions that can exist between policies, which seek to alleviate child poverty and the lived experiences of poor children themselves. The key argument of this article is that it is essential to locate and understand children\u27s experiences of poverty in childhood through a direct engagement with low-income children themselves. (DIPF/Orig.)Obwohl arme Kinder oft Gegenstand von Politik sind, ist Politik nur selten über deren subjektive Belange informiert. Um die Lebensweisen und Erfahrungen von Kindern, die arm sind, zu verstehen, wird in diesem Artikel ein kindzentrierter Ansatz benutzt. Es wird herausgearbeitet, dass politische Interventionen, die Kinderarmut reduzieren sollen, sowohl positive wie negative Auswirkungen auf das Leben von Kindern haben können. Am Beispiel von Auswirkungen der aktuellen \u27welfare-to-work\u27 Politik für alleinerziehende Mütter - einem Kernelement des staatlichen Armutsbekämpfungsprogramms in Großbritannien - werden Spannungen untersucht, die zwischen einer Politik, die Kinderarmut verringern will, und den Lebenserfahrungen armer Kinder bestehen können. Das zentrale Argument dieses Artikels ist, dass die Erfahrungen, die Kinder mit Armut machen, nur dann genau bestimmt und verstanden werden können, wenn die Forscher sich mit diesen Kindern selbst befassen. (DIPF/Orig.

Affective issues in learning technologies: emotional responses to technology and technology's role in supporting socio-emotional skills

This paper focuses on some of the author's research studies over the past thirty years and places these in a wider context to reflect on research into affective issues in learning technologies over this period, and to consider whether and how the issues uncovered by research have changed as technologies have developed over time. Three issues are given particular attention: firstly the reasons for learners' use or lack of use of technologies for their learning; secondly adult learners' attitudes towards using technology for learning and thirdly how technology might support socio-emotional development and expression in children. The discussion of these issues is framed by two of the author's research projects. For the first two issues this is an early study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards using computers for tutorial learning in 1980. The factors that influenced the students' use of the computer tutorials are discussed (including access, assessment and anxiety about using computers) and also the extent to which some of these factors persist for many learners using (or not using) technologies today. The discussion of the third issue draws on a series of studies conducted in the 1990s to investigate whether educational technology could support children and young people's emotional expression and communication and development of socio-emotional skills. Finally the paper considers how these kinds of issues have been taken forward and how they are represented in contemporary research and suggests that trust is an important factor in using learning technologies

Affective issues in learning technologies: emotional responses to technology and technology's role in supporting socio-emotional skills

This paper focuses on some of the author's research studies over the past thirty years and places these in a wider context to reflect on research into affective issues in learning technologies over this period, and to consider whether and how the issues uncovered by research have changed as technologies have developed over time. Three issues are given particular attention: firstly the reasons for learners' use or lack of use of technologies for their learning; secondly adult learners' attitudes towards using technology for learning and thirdly how technology might support socio-emotional development and expression in children. The discussion of these issues is framed by two of the author's research projects. For the first two issues this is an early study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards using computers for tutorial learning in 1980. The factors that influenced the students' use of the computer tutorials are discussed (including access, assessment and anxiety about using computers) and also the extent to which some of these factors persist for many learners using (or not using) technologies today. The discussion of the third issue draws on a series of studies conducted in the 1990s to investigate whether educational technology could support children and young people's emotional expression and communication and development of socio-emotional skills. Finally the paper considers how these kinds of issues have been taken forward and how they are represented in contemporary research and suggests that trust is an important factor in using learning technologies

Developmental Implications of Children\u27s Virtual Worlds

As virtual worlds for children increase in popularity, it is important to examine their developmental implications. Given the limited research on this question, we use extant social science research on youth and digital media to understand how children \u27s participation in virtual worlds might mediate their development. We identify four different pathways by which new media can potentially mediate development. Then we review relevant research on video games, which, like virtual worlds, contain three-dimensional online fantasy worlds; we also review research on online communication forums, which are like virtual worlds in that they allow users to create online selves and interact with one another. These studies also provide concrete examples of the pathways by which media influence development. We examine three specific questions about children \u27s use of virtual worlds: what they typically do in them, their learning potential, and whether virtual world participation mediates development. We conclude that children\u27s virtual world activities resemble their offline ones, indicating that their offline and online worlds may be connected. The potentialforl earningf rom virtual worldp articipationi s as yet unknown and requires further research. Children\u27s online selves are connected to their offline ones and this has implications for their safety; although their interactions in virtual worlds appear to mirror offline patterns, we do not as yet know their potential benefits or costs. The Article concludes that although children\u27s virtual world activities and interactions may be connected to their offline lives, there are several pressing questions about their participation that must be addressed

Leading and managing collaborative practice: the research : ESRC Seminar 3 Proceedings

Publisher PD

Virtual Geodemographics: Repositioning Area Classification for Online and Offline Spaces

Computer mediated communication and the Internet has fundamentally changed how consumers and producers connect and interact across both real space, and has also opened up new opportunities in virtual spaces. This paper describes how technologies capable of locating and sorting networked communities of geographically disparate individuals within virtual communities present a sea change in the conception, representation and analysis of socioeconomic distributions through geodemographic analysis. We argue that through virtual communities, social networks between individuals may subsume the role of neighbourhood areas as the most appropriate units of analysis, and as such, geodemographics needs to be repositioned in order to accommodate social similarities in virtual, as well as geographical, space. We end the paper by proposing a new model for geodemographics which spans both real and virtual geographies

Towards an online ethnography of children\u27s virtual worlds: A review of current literature and research methods

The research around children’s use of the Internet has focused on some of the benefits and risks of online play, as well as the digital skills children require to use the Internet safely, particularly virtual worlds. These benefits, risks and digital skills have been examined in European studies, but minimal research attention has been given to young Australian children’s use of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are simulated environments embedded with social network functions, which allow young children to explore and experiment with identity formation, interactive play and social networking. These Web sites for young children have become increasingly popular. Young children’s use of popular Internet sites, including social networking sites (Facebook) and young children’s online games (Club Penguin) have been researched using a diverse range of research methods. Some of these methods have been limited to offline observation of game play, surveys, and interviews. Whilst many of these methods have brought new insight into children’s use of the Internet, they have not examined children’s game play in real-time in order to identify how children use their digital skills (or lack thereof) to negotiate online risks, as well as how they maximise the benefits afforded by various online games, as they are playing. Thus, these methods limit the depth of understanding researchers can gain about young children’s online play. This paper reviews the literature on the known risks and benefits to young children playing within online worlds. It also identifies the digital skills that are known to help protect children against online risk. The article suggests that more research is needed to understand the risks and benefits to young Australian children and the digital skills they require when using virtual worlds. It also recommends that current research methods need to include more observation and participation techniques, which capture in real time, children’s use of virtual worlds