Transcript

Interviewer

Can you tell me what difference it made to the children, the young people, to actually have their views listened to?

Meera

So as a part of the process, a lot of the times, I worked with a professor at The Open University, who was teaching alongside of me. And so a lot of the time, with consent, a lot of our lessons were filmed or they were recorded in some way. Students were able to record their ideas in some form, whether in their books or at home. And valuing their voices in different mediums really meant that they felt they were being valued and they were being listened to.

But also when we were creating a space in which they were talking and having those rules and boundaries really being adhered to, they felt they were being listened to there. And I think it’s really important to mention, at that point, before we had these discussions, we were very clear around the classroom rules around talk. And that provided a really safe space for students to bring their own views into the classroom.

Interviewer

And would you do it again?

Meera

Yes. So I’m currently trialling it in a different setup with another class, and I’m looking other ways in which I can encourage children to be researchers in different formats throughout the journal that I’m editor of.