Transcript Expect the Unexpected Natalie Bolzan and Fran Gale University of Western Sydney

Expect the Unexpected
Natalie Bolzan and Fran Gale
Social Justice Social Change Research Centre
University of Western Sydney
Hearing from Children and Young
people is becoming orthodoxy
Desire to hear from service users
 Greater accuracy in understanding what
is being explored
 Response to the UN Convention on the
rights of Children to participate in
decisions which affect them

Researching with children and
Young people is not easy
Protection form unethical researchers
 Those who participate will not be
disadvantaged
 Issues around how to communicate with
children
 How to collect data and how to record it

Social Foundations of Resilience
Young people in three sites in New
South Wales.
 ‘Interrupted space’

Youth worker
 Small budget
 Regular time to get together
 The projects would last for 18mnths

The unexpected

Creativity

Entrenched relations

Authenticity

‘Through the Looking Glass’
Creativity
Entrenched Relations
Young people had internalised adults as
the decision makers.
 Adults wanted the young people to
succeed
 Adults had internalised themselves as
ultimately responsible
 ‘Adults know best’
 Us and them

Authenticity
Adults believed they were giving young
people the power
 Young people know this does not/can not
happen
 Young people have power and they will
exercise it
 A relationship grounded in reality

Lessons for us

Young people have a lot to teach us, learning
is a way of life for them and they are keen to
share the experience
 They can be extremely patient but…
 If we are too obtuse, unresponsive or
patronising they simply stop and won’t bother
with us.
 The best results seem to emerge with the
journey toward understanding is shared and
the differences are acknowledged as are the
similarities.

‘We are but older children dear who fret
to find our bedtime near’.

(Through the Looking Glass. Lewis
Carroll)

We really are all in this together.