News
Public Lecture: 'Children’s participation – challenges for research and practice'
On 15 June, 2010 the Children's Research Centre hosted the public lecture, 'Children’s participation – challenges for research and practice'. The speaker was Prof. Nigel Thomas, Professor of Childhood and Youth Research at the University of Central Lancashire, Co-Director of the Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation.
In this lecture Nigel Thomas reflected on twenty years of research and practice in children and young people’s participation in decision-making, taking in both individual participation in private matters and collective participation in public affairs. In the twentieth year of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is a good time to consider what has been learned from the experience of implementing Article 12, and how that learning can contribute to an understanding of the place of children in society.
Launch of Structured PhD in Child and Youth Research - 12th October 2009
Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway are pleased to announce the launch of the structured PhD in Child and Youth Research on October 12th.
The programme responds directly to society’s need to better understand the lives of children and young people, including those facing significant adversity, and the widely recognised need for evidence-informed policies and practices. As well as developing a whole new cohort of researchers with strong expertise in a wide range of research methods, the programme will produce cutting-edge research tailored to the needs of policy makers and service providers.
Seventeen graduate students have registered for the four-year programme which will increase research and understanding of the lives of children and young people in Ireland. According to Professor Sheila Greene of the Children’s Research Centre in TCD, the programme will greatly enhance existing capacity for child and youth research in Ireland, while for Professor Pat Dolan of NUI Galway’s Child and Family Research Centre, a major outcome will be a research community highly responsive to the needs of those working with children and young people and the needs of children and young people themselves.
Emily Logan, Ombudsman for Children; Prof Sheila Greene, TCD; Sylda Langford, Office of the Minister of Children & Youth Affairs; Prof Pat Nolan, NUI Galway; Dr Sinead Hanafin, Office of the Minster of Children & Youth Affairs.
This programme is the first of its kind in these islands and as well as bringing together the resources of the two research centres in TCD and NUI Galway it involves four Schools: the School of Psychology and the School of Social Work and Social Policy at TCD and the School of Psychology and the School of Political Science and Sociology in NUI Galway. The programme will include lectures from experts in other third level institutions, both national and international. The Programme Directors welcomed the support received from the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and during the launch Emily Logan, Ombudsman for Children, announced a studentship for this course has been awarded.
Structured PhD - 4th March 2009
Trinity College Dublin and National University of Ireland Galway are delighted to offer a new full-time Structured PhD programme in Child and Youth Research, as part of an emerging Life-Course Studies research and education agenda.
The interdisciplinary four -year programme responds to an identified need for researchers with the requisite, high-level and wide-ranging experience and skills to undertake the kind of work that is needed in an evidence-informed policy environment. By pooling the expertise of both institutions and their international affiliates, the programme offers a doctoral degree programme leading to what will be a very valuable final qualification.
Unlike traditional, thesis-only PhDs, this programme incorporates a suite of taught modules in key areas of child and youth research. These modules will provide course participants with the opportunity to widen their knowledge and skill base as well as feeding into the development of their core thesis work.
Each thesis will have a strong disciplinary base since thesis supervisors will be drawn from the staff of the four sponsoring Schools.
