It’s Our Future, Ask Us: Centring Children’s Voice In Geoscience Educational Research

The world is facing a future of rising temperature, rising sea levels, and rising incidences of natural disasters. Key decisions in environmental, scientific, and educational policy taken now will determine what kind of world today’s schoolchildren will inherit when they come of age in an era of climate change. This paper reflects on the use of Children’s Research Advisory Groups (CRAGs) in geoscience educational research aimed at informing or influencing future policy. Building from the work of Lundy & McEvoy (2009) and Murphy et al. (2013), CRAGs are a method of including and centring children’s voice in geoscience educational research that will affect them. An ongoing mixed methods study of student engagement with and understanding of Earth Science in Irish secondary schools uses CRAGs to include the voices of school students. These CRAGs are convened in three representative schools in the study and comprise students representative in age and demographics of the participants of the study. The CRAGs are consulted at multiple stages, including before the pilot survey and after results are compiled, and their input guides key decisions within the project, including the language used in the survey, the format of the information provided to schools, and the conclusions drawn. This paper will discuss the benefits and challenges of incorporating children’s voices in research, particularly with regard to educational research and research aimed at impacting climate and environmental policies.