engleski

Participatory Research in the Field of Social Pedagogy in Croatia

Although participatory research with children does not represent an innovative theme, when it comes to practice in the field of social pedagogy in Croatia, it is rather a new concept. During the past ten years a small team of researchers at the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences had developed a few different scientific projects with children and young people based on participatory principles. Social pedagogues as experts (and thus as scientists) are immersed in everyday life and living environment of their beneficiaries. The way in which beneficiaries experience their lives and their own situation, is almost inevitably the focus of interest for social pedagogues. Because of that, participatory research is - without a doubt - condition sine qua non in our context. So, in this paper we will focus on describing our trip through participatory research with children and young people. We shall try to answer the questions like: Where are we in comparison to the participatory research models and compared to key dimensions of participatory researches, do we have actually changed the position and relationship between policy makers, researchers, professionals and beneficiaries, what did we learn so far, and where do we want to go in children-centred participatory research? The vision to which we aspire is that children and youth, in research and in practice, “become not only the passengers but a crew”.

participatory research, social pedagogy, Croatia, reflections

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