Childcare in Ireland: Themes and Issues

In Ireland the policy has been to view childcare as parent\u27s private responsibility resulting in a dearth of public provision, regulation or support for parents since the foundation of the state. Utilising current literature in the field, this paper discusses the need to develop a flexible and responsive childcare system for all children, with special consideration given to the preventive role of childcare for at risk children. The gradual emergence of state responsibility for childcare is explored as is the need that this be informed by parents and the often forgotten key stakeholder - children

Child participatory research methods: attempts to go ‘deeper’

Along with the growth of child participatory research an increased focus on its complexity, specifically unaddressed power inequities in the research relationship and unreflexive use of methods, has developed. This article discusses a participatory research project with children in Ireland and reflects on attempts to achieve deeper participation through the use of children and youth advisory groups, mixed visual and discursive group methods. It argues that overly paternalistic frameworks adopted by ethical review bodies can hamper participatory research with children

Children and young people's experiences of participation in decision-making at home, in schools and in their communities

The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which children and young people, aged 7-17 and living in contemporary urban and rural Ireland, are able to participate and influence matters affecting them in their homes, schools and communities. The investigative focus of the study is shaped by Lundy’s (2007) conceptualisation of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which focuses on space, voice, audience and influence. With this in mind, the objectives of this research are: to consider the extent to which children and young people have a voice and influence in matters affecting them at home, in their school and in the community where they live; to identify the facilitators and barriers to giving children and young people a voice and influence in matters affecting them in each of these settings; to examine the type of approaches used in each setting and identify examples of good practice; to distil key messages for consideration by parents and families, teachers, schools and communities in Ireland

Report of consultations with children on after-school care

There has been an increasing focus on developing policy in the area of after-school care in Ireland in the past two years. In January 2015, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs announced the establishment of an Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) on Future Investment in Early Years and School-age Care and Education. The purpose of this group was to identify and assess policies and future options for increasing the quality, supply and affordability of early years and school age care and education services in Ireland. In order to inform the work of the IDG, an Open Policy Debate was held with a range of stakeholders and representatives from the early years and school-aged care and education sector and online consultations were also held with the general public. Future Investment in Early Years and School-Age Care and Education was published in 2015. In light of the commitment in the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making, 2015–2020 to consult with children and young people on policies and issues that affect their lives, in March 2016, a proposal was sought from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) for the provision of services to develop a report of consultations with children (age 5–12 years) on after-school care. These consultations were to be conducted by the Citizens Participation Unit of the DCYA with the aim of identifying what children like and dislike about after-school care and to identify the places where children most like to be cared for after school. Consultations were held with 177 children and young people in total comprising 81 children aged 5–7 years and 96 children aged 8–12 years from primary schools in Dublin, Dundalk, Limerick, Meath, Monaghan, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow. The research team from University College Cork: Attended all of the consultations with children on after-school care in May and June 2016; Removed, documented and analysed the data generated at each consultation; Produced a report on the process and findings of the consultations. This report provides an overview of the process and findings from these consultations with children. It analyses the data generated at the consultations and discusses the rationale, methodology and findings from consultations with children on after-school care

The Case of VPL and Industry Focused Programmes in Cork Institute of Technology

As organisations focus on economic indicators and return on investment their approaches to learning and development opportunities are transformed. In a challenging, competitive climate there is a need to ensure that the long and short term benefits are maximised. This masterclass describes the experience and issues raised for Cork Institute of Technology, a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Ireland in implementing programmes developed in partnership with industry which are mutually beneficial and maintain academic standards. It also addresses the enablers, challenges and barriers in customised course development

Children and Young People’s Participation in the Community in Ireland: Experiences and Issues

This paper presents the findings of research into children and young people’s experiences of participating in their communities in Ireland. Using a social and relational understanding of participation, the research found that children and young people are engaged in a wide range of activities in their communities. They are however often misunderstood in the community and have limited opportunities for participation in decisions affecting them. Despite these problems, they report positive experiences of participating in youth clubs and organisations, where their participation is supported by adults. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for research, public policy and community

Children's voice in the home: a relational, generational space

This chapter draws on data from a qualitative study examining the extent to which children and young people age 7 to 17 are able to participate and influence matters affecting them in their home, school, and community. It was commissioned by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in Ireland to inform the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making, 2015–2020. Utilising Lundy’s (2007) conceptualisation of Article 12 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Leonard’s (2016) concept of generagency, this chapter will examine children and young people’s everyday lives and relationships within the home and family in the context of agency and structure. In the study, home was experienced by children generally as the setting most facilitative of their voice and participation in their everyday lives reflecting research findings that children are more likely to have their initiative and ideas encouraged in the family than in school or their wider communities (Mayall, 1994). Key areas of decision-making included everyday consumption activities such as food, clothes, and pocket money as well as temporal activities including bed-time, leisure, and friends. This concurs with Bjerke (2011) that consumption of various forms is a major field of children’s participation. Positive experiences of participation reported by children and young people involved facilitation by adults whom they respected and with whom they had some rapport. This locates children as relational beings, embedded in multiple overlapping intergenerational processes and highlights the interdependency between children’s participation and their environment (Leonard, 2016; Percy-Smith & Thomas, 2010)

Walking and talking with girls in their urban environments: A methodological meandering

Young people spend a lot of time in their neighbourhood, yet little is known about the relationship between wellbeing, belonging and place from their own perspective. Our study sought to understand how young people navigate their neighbourhood and perceive various aspects of its health environment in its broadest sense. In this article we reflect on the walking methodology we used as part of a Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM) exercise with 11-year-old girls from a working-class school community who were participants in the PEACH Project. It was through walk-along interviews that students were able to tell us where events that matter to them happen; what these experiences look like (via photos that they took while we walked); and how these experiences unfold (via narratives and stories that they shared with us along the way). We reflect on the use of walking methodologies as both an emplaced approach and dynamic exercise that allowed us to access and generate visual and verbal data that privileged these young girls’ community knowledge. We conclude that this method facilitated the discussion of sensitive and political issues, as well as the emergence of unexpected data on child cultures, family and community life, belonging, wellbeing and futures

Sweets are "my best friend": belonging, bargains and body-shaming in working class girls food and health relationships

Research and policy on children’s food consumption commonly highlights the unequal impact of obesogenic environments on their health. Yet obesogenic theories risk pathologising certain communities, when assuming fixed relationships between ‘unhealthy’ environments and ‘obese’ bodies, and neglecting children’s multi-layered relationships to food and health. Drawing on participatory photomapping with 11–12-year-old girls in an urban Irish working-class neighbourhood, this study conceptualises children’s food environments as dynamic, regulatory assemblages which involve multi-layered ‘pushes and pulls’ of ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ foods, experiences and norms. Such foods, experiences and norms are related to in a variety of ways in the girls’ negotiation of belonging, bargain-hunting and body-shaming. The analysis challenges fixed, binary, adult-centred, classed and gendered ideas about healthy/unhealthy child bodies, foods and environments. We argue that viewing food environments as assemblages invites ‘obesogenic’ policy and research to inclusively engage children’s dynamic and multi-layered capacities to act, feel and desire around food