Harnessing the “Unique Voice” of the Child for Programme Evaluation and Development in Education Research in the United Kingdom: Methodological and Ethical Challenges

Abstract

Children with high levels of wellbeing are more engaged in learning and achieve greater academic success. Conversely, psychological distress has a detrimental impact on children’s learning experience and ability to achieve their potential. Effectiveness studies show that interventions can help students identified with socio-emotional difficulties, but few programme evaluations investigate process issues underlying behaviour change in recipients. Moreover, children themselves need to be engaged in the evaluation and development of services that affect them. This chapter discusses how behaviour change interventions can be fully understood only through the “unique voice” of the child, not through inference and assumptions on the part of researchers. A case study of a specific intervention illustrates how a child-focused approach was utilised to understand improvements in wellbeing and educational outcomes.