Doctoral Student Profile

James Richards

Supervisors: Jo Thakker, Cate Curtis, Jane Ritchie

Including Young People in Decision-Making Processes: Empowering Youth Encouraging Civic Engagement
We live in a society where the dominant discourses surrounding children and adolescents construct them as either 'vulnerable' (and therefore in need of protection) or 'unruly' (and therefore needing to be controlled). Recent research challenges these assumptions by demonstrating that young people are capable of becoming involved in community organisations and decision-making processes in meaningful ways, with positive outcomes for all stakeholders.

My PhD explores the ways in which adults perceive young people in New Zealand and examines the legitimate social pathways through which they may learn about and become connected with their respective communities. In order to gauge the benefits of community inclusion, an experimental paradigm will be employed with high school students to contrast the psychological and practical effects of a 'youth-directed community service project' against 'school-directed community service' and a 'no service' control group. It is hypothesised that the youth-directed project will be experienced as more empowering and more beneficial to self-esteem, empathy for others and community connectedness than the other conditions due to 'project ownership', the degree of trust placed in students and the collaborative nature of the scheme.