Young People as Researchers in Schools: The Possibilities of Peer Research.

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the politics and practicalities of using, training, and paying young people as peer researchers in their schools. It begins by presenting a five-point rationale for involving peer researchers in research about young people. The paper also discusses the ethics and politics of negotiating peer research in four New Zealand secondary schools, in particular the issue of payment for peer researchers. Two sections follow that focus on the relevance of research about students' rights to the nine peer researchers who worked on the project and their perceptions of the relevance of a peer research methodology. The paper includes an analysis of the quality of the data collected from the perspective of education researchers. The conclusion revisits the five-point rationale in light of what peer researchers had to say about their research experiences. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 00 Young people as researchers in schools: the possibilities of peer research Dr Karen Nairn (School of Education) and Prof. Anne Smith (Children's Issues Centre), University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Email of first author: [email protected] Paper presented at American Education al Research Association Conference, Chicago, 21-25 April, 2003.