Mahr-Slotawa, Johanna: The Children’s Right to Participate in the Comprehensive School Health Programme in Kenya – How can this right become a reality? A participatory research project [...]. 2020
Content
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Literature review and research objective
- 2.1 What is meant by the children’s right to participate?
- 2.1.1 Children’s right to participate in the UNCRC and the ACRWC
- 2.1.2 Understanding of children’s right to participate as a dialogue
- 2.1.3 Understanding of children’s right to participate as contributors to community life
- 2.2 Why is the children’s right of participation important within school health promotion programmes?
- 2.3 Examples of children’s participation in school health promotion and in Kenya nationwide
- 2.3.1 Children’s participation within school health promotion programmes
- 2.3.2 Children’s participation within the CSHP in Kenya
- 2.3.3 Levels of practicing children’s participation
- 2.3.4 Initiatives aiming to realise children’s participation in Kenya
- 2.4 The specific context of my research
- 2.4.1 Legal framework of children’s right to participate in Kenya
- 2.4.2 The socio-economic situation in my research area of Ndeiya
- 2.4.3 German Development Cooperation’s support for the realisation of children’s right to participate in Kenya
- 2.5 The problem that my research addresses
- 2.5.1 Is the UNCRC’s definition of children’s right to participation appropriate for the Kenyan culture?
- 2.5.2 Are approaches applied to realise children’s participation meaningfully?
- 2.5.3 Can theoretical frameworks of children’s right to participation be applied within school health promotion in Kenya?
- 2.6 My research objective and question
- 2.6.1 Identifying children’s understanding of their right to participate within the CSHP
- 2.6.2 Defining concepts on how to realise children’s right to participation in the CSHP
- 2.6.3 Contributing to the theory on the children’s right to participation
- 2.6.4 Advancing the practice of AR with children
- 2.7 Current theoretical frameworks on children’s participation
- 2.7.1 Frameworks on children’s participation emphasising a dialogical process and community contributions
- 2.7.2 Social learning facilitates children’s participation within dialogical processes
- 2.7.3 Frameworks on children’s participation emphasising a dialogical process
- 2.7.4 Listening to children’s voices facilitates their participation within dialogical processes
- 2.7.5 Frameworks on children’s participation emphasising their community contributions
- 2.7.6 Supporting children’s action competence and agency facilitates their participation through community contributions
- 2.7.7 Teachers’ motivation to facilitate the realisation of children’s participation
- 2.8 The Action Research approach
- 3 Methodology
- 3.1 Overview of research design
- 3.2 Research preparation and organisation
- 3.2.1 Research preparation in Germany
- 3.2.2 Research preparation in Kenya
- 3.2.3 Organisation of data collection in Kenya
- 3.3 Sampling
- Figure 4: Overview of sampling of the Participatory Action Research (PAR)
- 3.3.1 Selection of primary schools
- 3.3.2 Selection of research groups and additional samples
- 3.4 Research team
- Figure 5: The research team, its relationships, roles and co-determination
- 3.4.1 The lead researcher
- 3.4.2 The research facilitators
- 3.4.3 The key persons
- 3.5 Data collection with the children
- Table 2: Overview of PAR’s field research period concerning data collection with children*
- 3.5.1 Subjects of research sessions with children
- 3.5.2 Procedure for each research session with children
- 3.5.3 Research techniques applied
- 3.5.3.1 Focus Group Interviews
- 3.5.3.2 Participant observation
- 3.5.3.3 Participatory Learning and Action methods
- Example 1: Web Method on what needs to happen to participate in the health club
- Example 2: Preference Ranking on children’s prioritised changes at their schools and health clubs
- Figure 8: Preference Ranking on children’s prioritised changes at their schools and health clubs (boys, girls Kiriri, 8.10.13*)
- 3.6 Data collection with specific adults
- Table 3: Overview of PAR’s field research period concerning data collection with specific adults
- 3.6.1 Discussions with research facilitators and interviews with key persons
- 3.6.2 Focus Group Discussions with the children’s parents
- 3.6.3 Interviews with additional teachers and selected experts
- 3.7 Data analysis
- Table 4: Overview of the data analysis procedure and data used
- 3.7.1 Data analysis during the field research period in Kenya
- 3.7.2 Data analysis by myself in Germany after the field research period
- 3.7.2.1 Coding of protocol content
- 3.7.2.2 Developing a framework to reflect the PAR
- 3.7.2.3 Structuring diary notes and formulating the final results
- 3.7.2.4 Discussion of the final results with research facilitator and others
- 3.7.2.5 Justification of external validity of final results
- 3.7.3 Clarifications for final presentation of the results
- 3.8 Reflections on and challenges of the research design
- 3.8.1 Assessing the quality criteria of the PAR
- 3.8.2 Challenges of the research sample
- 3.8.3 Challenges of my role as lead researcher
- 3.8.4 Challenges of key persons’ role during PAR
- 3.8.5 Challenges of research facilitators during data collection with children
- 3.8.6 Challenges of research facilitators during data collection with adults
- 3.8.7 Challenges of the data analysis process
- 3.8.8 Ethical evaluation of the PAR
- 4 Research results
- 4.1 First part: Modification of Cogenerative AR model
- Figure 9: Modified Cogenerative Action Research (AR) model
- 4.1.1 Specification of four AR phases
- 4.1.2 Criteria for AR with children
- 4.2 Second part: Children’s views on their right to participate and its realisation
- Figure 10: Puzzle model 1 on the nine categories of children’s views on their right to participate
- 4.2.1 Children’s perspectives on actions on how children’s right to participate can be realised
- 4.2.1.1 Children give their views
- 4.2.1.2 Children work together
- 4.2.1.3 Children take part actively
- 4.2.1.4 Children help others
- 4.2.2 Children’s perspectives on features that support the realisation of their right to participation
- 4.3 Third part: The realisation of children’s right to participate in accordance with Action Research principles
- Figure 11: Puzzle model 2 on components for understanding children’s right to participate in accordance with Action Research principles
- 4.3.1 Children’s participation is a collaborative dialogue between adults and children
- 4.3.1.1 Multilateral-controlled communication arenas are created
- 4.3.1.2 A cooperative and reciprocal learning process takes place
- 4.3.1.3 Decisions are made jointly between research facilitators and participants
- 4.3.1.4 Power structures are negotiated between research facilitators and participants
- 4.3.2 Children’s participation gives children a voice
- 4.3.2.1 All participants contribute with their critical voice
- 4.3.2.2 All participants’ views need to be listened to
- 4.3.3 Children’s participation takes place in real-life situations
- 4.3.3.1 Local expertise is central to the knowledge generation process
- 4.3.3.2 Changes addressed are grounded in real-life situations
- 4.3.3.3 Active involvement in the change process is needed
- 4.3.4 Children’s participation is action-focused
- 4.3.4.1 Existing action competence needs to be further developed
- 4.3.4.2 Participants’ commitment is essential for actions
- 4.3.4.3 Participants identify solutions for the problem focused upon
- 4.3.5 Children’s participation increases by granting them agency
- 4.3.5.1 Research facilitators give discretion to participants
- 4.3.5.2 Research facilitators interpret participants’ behaviour
- 4.3.5.3 Participants surprise research facilitators
- 4.3.6 Children’s participation requires an institutional culture of participation
- 4.4 Fourth part: Puzzle model on the realisation of children’s right to participate, in accordance with AR principles
- 5 Discussion
- 5.1 Final discussion of PAR design
- 5.2 Discussion of results on AR with the children
- 5.3 Discussing my results on the appropriateness for Kenya to realise the UNCRC’s defined children’s right of participation
- 5.4 Discussing my results on the meaningfulness of approaches to realise the children’s right to participation
- 5.5 Discussing my contribution to theoretical frameworks on children’s participation right in school health promotion in Kenya
- 5.6 Discussing the generalisability of my results
- 5.7 Final recommendations for realising children’s right to participate in school health promotion programmes
- 5.8 Final conclusions
- 6 References
- 7 Annex
- Table 6: Detailed Table of Contents
- Table 7: Initiatives aiming to realise children’s participation in Kenya (society, public policy, school, community/family level)1
- Figure 13: Summary models on children’s understanding of their right to participate in the health club1
- Figure 14: Interim results: series of posters summarising children’s recommendations for realising their right to participate*
- Figure 15: Three points of differentiation between token and genuine student participation (Simovska 2007)
- Table 9: Age range of selected children and average attendance during school and holiday times
- Table 10: List of selected experts I talked to on the implementation of children’s right to participation in Kenya
- Figure 16: Speech babble story to explain Article 12.1 to children
- Table 11: List of small tasks given to children at the end of each session
- Table 12: Overview of the field research period of my Participatory Action Research (PAR) (September 2013 to January 2014)
- Figure 17: One example of research facilitators’ instructions that I wrote for each of the 17 children’s sessions
- Figure 18: Example of children’s drawings on the subject of children’s participation1 (boy*, Kiriri, 14.1.14**)
- Figure 19: My standards for research facilitators’ preparation of each session’s protocol
- Figure 20: Information sheet and consent forms that parents signed
- Figure 21: Ranking Lines on likes and changes at school/health club
- Figure 22: The complementation to the sixth component of my Puzzle model 3 on ‘children’s participation requires an institutional culture of participation’*