DEBATING A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR CHILDREN FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.

AuthorSmithies, Rachel

Abstract

The recent "Seminar on Children's Policy" had the central objective of launching the development of a New Zealand children's policy and research agenda. This paper outlines some of the ideas and issues that have been raised as relevant to the development of a children's research agenda and discusses some points of debate. It draws on one of the papers presented to the Seminar, as well as on comments by Seminar participants. The paper: presents a stocktake of contemporary, policy-focused, children's research in New Zealand; discusses the main aspects of the dialogue to date on future directions for children's research; and identifies key gaps in children's research in specific areas. It is intended as a resource in the ongoing debate on the future direction of children's research in New Zealand.

INTRODUCTION

This paper builds on a briefing paper presented by the Ministry of Social Policy to the Seminar on Children's Policy in July 2000.

The Seminar, a Government initiative, had one of its roots in issues surrounding New Zealand's compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). In its 1997 response to New Zealand's first report on its compliance with UNCROC, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that New Zealand develop a comprehensive policy statement with regards to the rights of the child.

The suggestion of holding a seminar on children's policy initially emerged from the Labour Party's 1999 policy statement on a children's agenda. In this, Labour indicated plans to undertake a national conference on children's policy, and to ensure that community and sector groups were involved in ongoing policy development in relation to children. The Alliance Party's 1999 policy statement also indicated that meeting the needs of children and young people was a high priority.

Accordingly, the Seminar on Children's Policy undertook to launch the development of a New Zealand children's policy and research agenda, and to begin the process of obtaining advice and input from those working in the area. The Seminar brought together individuals and organisations concerned with children's issues, including around 30 from the government and public sector, and a further 40 from non-governmental groups and organisations. A range of government agencies presented discussion papers on their planned and present work programmes relating to children. Participants at the Seminar were asked to discuss key issues for children and ongoing implications of UNCROC.

"A Research Agenda for Children for the Next Five Years" -- the Seminar briefing paper prepared by the Ministry of Social Policy -- was produced through a process of surveying researchers and organisations known to be working on policy-relevant child research. These included: government agencies; funding bodies such as the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and the Health Research Council of New Zealand; organisations involved in research on children's issues, such as the Children's Issues Centre of the University of Otago, the Centre for Child and Family Policy Research of the University of Auckland, and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research; and a number of individuals working in the field of research on children.

Those surveyed were asked to describe all the research in which they were involved which met the criteria of being: policy-related research; on children from birth to 17 years of age; and focused on outcomes for children and the factors that influence outcomes for children. Respondents could be undertaking the research themselves, or could be funders. All research recently completed, currently underway, or being planned, was considered within the ambit of the stocktake.

The results from this initial survey were written up into a stocktake paper. The stocktake paper was then distributed back to the respondents, as well as to policy people in relevant government agencies, and all were asked for feedback on what the gaps in research appeared to be, and what possible future directions of children's research might be or ought to be. From these two survey stages, the paper presented to the Seminar was created; it contained a stocktake of policy-focused child research, and a discussion on gaps in research and future directions.

Developing a Research Agenda for Children for the Next Five Years

The Seminar on Children's Policy was the first major step in developing an agenda for children's policy and research. The information obtained from the Seminar is one of the main inputs into the development of a draft agenda, which will become the focus of a wide consultation process. The completed agenda is expected to provide a framework for and inform policy development and research relating to children across government agencies for the next five years.

This paper aims to be a resource in the ongoing discussion around the development of a child research agenda. It does not make any definitive statements on what a research agenda should look like, or on what research priorities in the next five years should be; these matters are part of the ongoing process of consultation for developing the research agenda. Rather, this paper gives information on contemporary policy-focused child research in New Zealand, catalogues some of the ideas and issues that have been raised as relevant to the future direction of children's research, and outlines some of the points of debate. It draws on two sources: the paper presented by the Ministry of Social Policy to the Seminar on Children's Policy and discussions by Seminar participants on child research issues.

This paper has three main sections: a stocktake of contemporary policy-focused children's research in New Zealand; an outline and discussion of the main aspects of the debate to date on future directions for children's research; and details of some key gaps in research in specific subject areas.

CURRENT POLICY-FOCUSED CHILD RESEARCH -- A STOCKTAKE

Contemporary policy-focused child research encompasses a wide range of topics, methods and conceptualisations of the research task.

The research projects canvassed here tend to have one of two approaches to conceptualising and analysing "child outcomes". One approach, taken by many projects, is to focus on a particular milestone or indicator during childhood, with the research concern being to determine what comes "before" the milestone or indicator, i.e. what feeds into creating it. In this approach, the milestone or indicator in question is assumed a priori to be important to child development. So, for example, one might look at educational achievement at age 12, and what it is that affects the level of educational achievement at age 12. This type of analysis is used by many discrete projects within specific subject areas.

The other approach to conceptualising and analysing "child outcomes" does not focus on individual milestones and indicators, and what comes before them. Rather, it looks at a variety of milestones and indicators and how they all combine to create what comes "after" them -- the grand picture of a child's development into an adult. Such research aims to determine how various indicators and milestones operate and interact, and their relative importance, in feeding into "overall" child development. Projects taking this approach tend to be larger in scale and are by necessity multi-faceted in their scope.

Contemporary child research involves a range of methods and approaches, including quantitative analysis of existing data, the development of new data through both large-scale and small-scale surveys...

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