Page 91 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 3-4: Convention on the Rights of the Child: Educational Opportunities and Social Justice, eds. Zdenko Kodelja and Urška Štremfel
P. 91
u. boljka et al. ■ who calls the shots? the insiders and outsiders ...
for just participation, but also on the concepts of power, privilege and re-
spect, which shed light on the obstacles faced by vulnerable groups of chil-
dren and thus on inequalities in participation outcomes.
Methods
In order to answer our research question, we adopted a qualitative re-
search approach. In total, 15 focus groups with 157 children were organ-
ised (as part of the project Implementation of Council of Europe Child
Participation Assessment Tool (Council of Europe, 2016)), 12 with chil-
dren from the so-called general population of children from elementa-
ry schools and 3 with children who were invited to participate by NGOs
working with and for vulnerable children (especially by advocating for
their rights, empowering, supporting and encouraging them to address is-
sues in their lives whether this involves a quarrel at home, a notice of ex-
pulsion, bad grades or being in trouble with the police).
Participants
Elementary schools which participated came from different statistical
regions (9 out of 12), from rural and urban areas (as shown in Table 1).
Despite efforts to ensure balanced representations according to statistical
regions, more focus groups were conducted in the Central Slovenia (7 in
the capital city of Ljubljana). This can be justified by the concentration of
the population in the Central Slovenia and by the diversity of schools in
Ljubljana’s districts. The number of focus groups in the sample was deter-
mined based on saturation. When topics began to repeat, further data col-
lection became redundant (Hennink et al., 2019; Glaser and Strauss, 1967;
O’Reilly and Parker, 2012). One focus group per participating school was
conducted. The teachers (or other contact persons) did not receive any
specific and formal instructions for the selection of children but only
asked to select approximately 10 children aged 10 to 14 years. They were
informally encouraged not to select only high performers but a cross sec-
tion of their school population, although this was not always the case (see
Chapter 6). The number of participating children per focus group varied
from 7 to 14. The selection of children was gender-balanced and children
came from different age groups, yet most were 10- to 14-years old. One fo-
cus group with younger children (6–9 years old) was conducted. Each fo-
cus group lasted two school hours (1.5 h), with a 5-minute break. The focus
groups were held between 20 September and 4 November 2019.
While selecting the sample of focus groups with vulnerable chil-
dren, we tried to cover as many possible different categories of children
89
for just participation, but also on the concepts of power, privilege and re-
spect, which shed light on the obstacles faced by vulnerable groups of chil-
dren and thus on inequalities in participation outcomes.
Methods
In order to answer our research question, we adopted a qualitative re-
search approach. In total, 15 focus groups with 157 children were organ-
ised (as part of the project Implementation of Council of Europe Child
Participation Assessment Tool (Council of Europe, 2016)), 12 with chil-
dren from the so-called general population of children from elementa-
ry schools and 3 with children who were invited to participate by NGOs
working with and for vulnerable children (especially by advocating for
their rights, empowering, supporting and encouraging them to address is-
sues in their lives whether this involves a quarrel at home, a notice of ex-
pulsion, bad grades or being in trouble with the police).
Participants
Elementary schools which participated came from different statistical
regions (9 out of 12), from rural and urban areas (as shown in Table 1).
Despite efforts to ensure balanced representations according to statistical
regions, more focus groups were conducted in the Central Slovenia (7 in
the capital city of Ljubljana). This can be justified by the concentration of
the population in the Central Slovenia and by the diversity of schools in
Ljubljana’s districts. The number of focus groups in the sample was deter-
mined based on saturation. When topics began to repeat, further data col-
lection became redundant (Hennink et al., 2019; Glaser and Strauss, 1967;
O’Reilly and Parker, 2012). One focus group per participating school was
conducted. The teachers (or other contact persons) did not receive any
specific and formal instructions for the selection of children but only
asked to select approximately 10 children aged 10 to 14 years. They were
informally encouraged not to select only high performers but a cross sec-
tion of their school population, although this was not always the case (see
Chapter 6). The number of participating children per focus group varied
from 7 to 14. The selection of children was gender-balanced and children
came from different age groups, yet most were 10- to 14-years old. One fo-
cus group with younger children (6–9 years old) was conducted. Each fo-
cus group lasted two school hours (1.5 h), with a 5-minute break. The focus
groups were held between 20 September and 4 November 2019.
While selecting the sample of focus groups with vulnerable chil-
dren, we tried to cover as many possible different categories of children
89
