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A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 1
Paper EDW04583
‘A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches’
Refereed paper for presentation at the Annual Conference of the Australian
Association for Research in Education, Melbourne, 28 November – 2 December
2004.
Jan Edwards
Institutional Address
University of South Australia
Holbrooks Road, Underdale,
South Australia, 5032
Email: [email protected]
Home address
Jl Ungaran 3
Malang, East Java, 65112
Indonesia
Email: [email protected]
Postal Address
PO Box 3321
Norwood
South Australia 5067
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 2
Abstract
This paper argues that an analysis of ‘power’ needs to be central to research
approaches that involve students and young people as researchers. This centrality of
power needs to be in the conceptualisation, enactment and reporting of students as
researchers approaches. A model of a ‘nexus of relations of power in students-as-
researchers approaches’ was developed for my study that investigated the
subjectivities of poor and working class young women and girls and Australian
government Mutual Obligations policies. This model is described in this paper, and
locates power at the centre of the students-as-researchers approaches developed for
the study.
Introduction
This paper begins with a brief review of the literature on students as researchers
approaches. In so doing, I identify the ways that power is described as being an
aspect to the planning, implementation and reporting of research approaches that
include young people as student researchers. I then describe the Foucaultian concept
of ‘power’ used as a basis for developing a model of a ‘nexus of relations of power in
students-as-researchers approaches’.1 This model was developed for my recent study
that investigated the ways in which the subjectivities of poor and working class
young women and girls were formed in response to Australian government Mutual
Obligations policies. My model specifically focuses on power as a central concern to
the planning, implementation and reporting of research approaches that include
students acting as researchers. I conclude this paper with a summary of the features
of the approach I developed. These are based upon the development of positive and
productive power relations between students-as-researchers, teachers and adult
researchers.
1 Students as researchers approaches are described in the US and UK as Students as Researchers. I use
the style put forward by the author, and in describing my own work in this study and my work in theSCSP I use students-as-researchers. When discussing students as researchers as a body of work andmore generally, students as researchers is used without the hyphens.
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 3
Section one: Research approaches involving young people as researchers
A variety of approaches have evolved for including young people in research
projects. Frequently, these young people are students enrolled in schools, and this is
often because of the greater ease in locating young people to work with. I have
previously identified and described the features of four main types of research
approaches that utilise students acting as researchers (Edwards 2004). These
approaches are; students-as-researchers, students as course work researchers,
students as collaborative researchers and, students as participatory and participatory
action researchers. To begin, I summarise the main features of each of these
approaches and describe how each of these includes considerations of power.
Students-as-researchers
Students-as-researchers approaches are typically conceived of as being part of a
larger research project that involves a number of strands. Two Australian examples
include the Students Completing Schooling Project [SCSP] (Smyth, Hattam, Cannon,
Edwards, Wilson & Wurst 2000), and the Information Technology, Literacy and
Educational Disadvantage project [ITLED] (DETE 1999; Comber & Green 1999;
Comber & Thomson 1999; Fraser 1999). In these projects, students-as-researchers
approaches were conceptualised as being part of larger research projects linked to
explicit research, curriculum and learning goals. These goals in turn were intended to
make a contribution to research and knowledge outside of the school and to the body
of knowledge more generally.
In the case of the SCSP, student insights sought were on the topic of students leaving
school early, while in the ITLED project, student insights contributed to research
findings about information and literacy practices of students experiencing
educational disadvantage. The insights provided by the student research groups
contributed to the findings of the larger research projects. Both projects had clear
commitments to involve students in the collection and theorisation of information
generated. As well, both projects aimed to publish student work. However, neither of
these projects locate power as central to the approach. As a researcher on the SCSP, I
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 4
feel comfortable with the benefit of hindsight offering a critique of how the SCSP
considered power.
The conceptualisation of the students-as-researchers strand of the SCSP did not give an
adequate account of power. In the discussion paper I wrote with another researcher
(Edwards & Hattam 1999) we raised the possibilities of power arising as an issue in
terms of:
How to deal with the inherent power differential between the Research
Team and the students-as-researchers—especially in relation to choice of
research problem, and how the information will be represented and
disseminated (Edwards & Hattam 1999: 9).
Outside of this brief statement, power is not dealt with in the students-as-researchers
strand of the SCSP in any significant way because we (the Research Team) were absent
from the classrooms when the actual teaching and research occurred. As researchers
we lacked the everyday knowledge and experience of the research group to either
observe or deal with power and its exercise within the students-as-researchers groups
or in any other ways. Consequently our written accounts did not adequately account
for issues and relations of power (Edwards 1999; Edwards & Hattam 1999). This style
of approach differs from what I describe as students as course-work researchers below.
The main differences are those described above are constructed starting from a specific
research question in a larger project, whilst students-as-course-work researchers
approaches are principally designed to fulfil certain course requirements.
Students as course-work researchers
The main body of work reported in the literature, best described as students as
course work researchers, emerges from the United States [US]. These approaches
tend to be based on the research work of an adult researcher as opposed to research
that involves students as members of a research group. Kincheloe and Stienberg
(1998) edited a collection of the work of their students postgraduate teaching
students reporting on their own research projects, often in their own classrooms
(Berry 1998; Prettyman 1998; Fitchman Dana 1998; Hinchey 1998). In the reports of
these studies, the adult researchers act independently as opposed to working
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 5
together with a research group of school age students or young people acting as
researchers.
Others, including Reynolds and Tehan (2001) and Prieto (2001) focus on research
approaches with university students as researchers. The study reported by Reynolds
and Trehan (2001) is notable because they consider issues of power. Their critical
approach focuses on journal writing, with students encouraged to reflect on socio-
political issues such as gender, cultural marginalisation and power. Prieto’s (2001)
study in Chile involved university students working with school age students to
develop new ways of teaching. Again in Australia, Wilson (1998) worked with school
aged students to examine the school curriculum. These approaches have in common
a top-down approach with the primary purpose of student involvement being to
fulfill postgraduate and school course requirements.
Students as collaborative researchers
The enlistment of students acting as researchers as either paid or unpaid assistants to
university researchers is a feature of what I describe as students as collaborative
researchers. There are a number of studies in the US that report payment of students,
including Farrell, Peguero, Lindsey and White (1988).2 Nairn and Smith (2002) in
New Zealand (NZ) offer a five point rationale for involving peer researchers
including the possibility of the research process empowering students; and, offering
the possibility of students becoming involved in political action.
Others have enlisted their students as unpaid collaborators. For example, Schwartz
(1998) collaborated with his students who assisted him with photocopying and other
tasks. Described interchangeably as ‘research assistants’ and ‘collaborators’ it is
difficult to ascertain the precise role of the students as researchers. It appears from
the description of their activities by Schwartz that power over the research,
processes, outcomes and publications remained with him, despite him seeking
permission of his research assistants to speak at conferences about their work
together.
2 See also Farrell (1990, 1994).
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Jan Edwards 6
A study with primary aged student researchers in the US is reported by Nespor
(1998) who illustrates how the students he worked with attempted to take control
and assert some power over the research findings. The students found a way to
‘articulate collective complaints without fear of interruption or sanction’ (p. 381).
This is an important point that shows how students as researchers approaches can
assist students to find ways to exert power. It does however beg the question about
the existing power relations within the class that led students to act in these ways.
Students as collaborative researchers approaches have in common, power relations
embedded in hierarchical institutions and an apparent absence of student
engagement in the theorisation of the information they generate for adult
researchers. As well adult researchers remain in control of the process and outcomes
including publication, while payment creates relations of employment, typically
embedded in power.
Students as participatory and participatory action researchers
Student Action Research for University Access (SAURA) in Australia, involves
young people working with adult researchers investigating the access of themselves
and their peers to university. The process is aimed at empowering students and
involves demystifying universities for those with little information about higher
education. This approach has been used with students over a number of years,
(Atweh & Dornan 1997; Atweh & Burton 1995; Campbell, Cook & Dornan 1995;
Atweh, Chrsitensen & Dornan 1998; Atweh Cobb & Dornan 1997). Whilst
empowering the students in relation to university access, students appear to act at
the direction of adults in the research process investigating a predetermined topic.
The power they have in the conceptualisation and the research process itself remains
unclear.
A study by Shultz (2001: 4) reports how she worked with young ‘at-risk’ women, to
co-construct research projects so their ownership was shared’. Shutltz raises issues of
power only at a superficial level, that is she claims that power was examined with
the students, however she provides no detail as to how this may have occurred. This
study is best described as a participatory mentoring program for ‘at-risk’ students,
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 7
and involved Schultz developing one to one relationships with students through
providing assistance to them to complete personal tasks. It would appear from
Shultz’s description of her work that these relationships were not power neutral.
Like Schwartz (1998), Schultz (2001) asked permission to use students’ work at
conferences. Regardless, power relations in students as researchers approaches are
much more complex than this.
A further body of work in Australia is the Student Action Teams (Holdsworth 1998,
2000, 2001; Holdsworth, Stafford, Stokes & Tyler 2001). These studies along with
those reported by the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools (Groundwater-Smith
& Mockler 2003), in Australia, and those funded by the United Kingdom’s [UK]
Economic and Social Research Council [ESRC] (Raymond 2001; Fielding 2001; Bragg
2001; Crane 2001; Crudas 2001; Kirby 2001; Mitra 2001; 2002) all focus on issues in
schools and within local communities.3 This focus is common amongst participatory
and participatory action research approaches. The approaches take place within
existing institutional arrangements, and students are asked to promote researching
and promoting change within institutions that have investments in already existing
social and political power.
In the US, Diedre Kelly (1993) reflexively and critically reports on her work with
participatory action researchers. Power within the research group and in the school
are acknowledged by Kelly (1993: 9) who found:
[U]nequal power relations affected the research process in two distinct,
nested contexts. Within the research group, it shows how differences
among student researchers were sometimes used to gain power and
display such undemocratic behavior as racism and sexism. In the wider
field of action, an analysis is made of the dilemmas that arose as we tried to
implement small-scale actions that seemed to threaten the authority of
teachers and administrators both within the alternative school and the
conventional schools that fed into it (original emphasis p. 9).
A critique of student research is provided by Kelly (1993) who assumed an
anaesthetised and idealised student cohort and was surprised to find the student
3 See also MacBeath, Myers & Demetriou (2001) and Ruddack, Arnot, Reay & Lanskey (2002).
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 8
world to be less than ideal. Kelly worked with students marginalised within schools
and investigated issues and ‘school practices such as tracking, academic failure, and
in-grade retention that marginalize students’ (1993: 9). Kelly’s work is notable
because of the reflexive discussion of power relations both inside and outside of the
research group.
In summary, the key features of students as participatory and participatory action
researchers approaches show a focus on change within a school or institution whilst
simultaneously working within existing institutional arrangements. At the end of
these projects, students are often left with the task of negotiating change within
institutions and structures that may prefer to maintain existing social and power
relations. As well, these approaches are focused on the production and collection of
student ‘voice’.4 Below, I identify the key concerns with the literature on the variety
of students as researchers approaches and briefly describe some concerns with the
concept of ‘voice’ in students as researchers approaches.
Section two: The problems with students as researchers approaches
There are a number of issues that emerge and my focus here is on power and how
power operates in a variety of students as researchers approaches. Rather than draw
on conventional theoristaions of power, I use Foucault’s conception of power as a
productive capillary force located in the social practices of everyday life (Foucualt
1977). I elaborate on Foucault’s concept of power as I describe a nexus of relations of
power in students-as-researchers approaches. This model as developed and used in
my study considers the many ways in which power manifests in research approaches
that utilise students acting as researchers. I identify below, a number of different
layers, levels or ‘relations of power’ (Foucault 1977: 200). In this section, I develop the
model, a ‘nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches’. A
‘nexus’ is defined by the Macquarie Dictionary (1996: 1200) as ‘a tie or link; a means
of connection’.
4 I deal with the topic of ‘voice’ in students as researchers approaches in more detail in Edwards (2004).
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 9
Giroux (1997) argues that language, meaning and meaning-making in schools are
discursively constructed by dominant discourses, and indeed different school cultures
produce different power relations.
Within schools, discourse produces and legitimates configurations of time,
space, narrative, placing particular renderings of ideology, behaviour and
the representation of everyday life in a privileged perspective. As a
‘technology of power,’ discourse is given concrete expression in the forms
of knowledge that constitute the formal curriculum as well as in the
structuring of classroom social relations that constitute the hidden
curriculum of schooling (Giroux 1997: 121).
Not only does this occur, but pedagogical practice is aimed at the submission,
controlling and constraining of ‘difficult students’. This means that the lived quality of
voice, ‘are all dissolved under an ideology of control and management’ (Giroux 1997:
124). These approaches of control and management are evident in all forms of
conservative and contemporary schooling, and under these circumstances, students as
researchers approaches arranged within a curriculum organised around the transfer of
a top-down imposed knowledge, means that issues of power must always be central to
the ways in which these approaches are conceptualised, enacted, reported and
discussed.
It is necessary for students as researchers approaches to always contest the relations of
power. As the above brief review of the literature demonstrates, few researchers
engaged directly and in detail with issues of power. Furthermore, many of the above
mentioned studies either did not raise issues of power in schools, or when they did so,
raised them in simplistic ways and struggled to find ways to connect power relations
at this micro level to the broader socio-political economic constructs in which they are
constituted (Nairn & Smith 2002).
Power and Foucault
Rather than draw on conventional theorisations of power, I use Foucault’s conception
of power as a productive capillary force located in the social practices of everyday life
(Foucault 1977). There were three main phases Foucault’s writing about power:
‘archaeological’, ‘genealogical’ and ‘care of the self and ethics’. In an interview (1988:
103), On power, Foucault states:
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 10
The way in which power is exercised and functions in a society like ours is
little understood. … And I don’t believe that the question of ‘who exercises
power?’ can be resolved unless that other question of ‘how does it
happen?’ is resolved at the same time.
The main tenets of analysis of power after Foucault (1977, 2000) include the following:
power is productive not repressive; it constitutes subjects as in knowledge through
discourse; it belongs to and is possessed by all of those involved, but it is exercised
differently and at different times. In Discipline and Punish (1977: 194), Foucault writes:
We must cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative
terms: it ȇexcludes’, it ’represses’, it ’censors’, it ’abstracts’, it ’masks’, it
’conceals’. In fact, power produces; it produces reality; it produces
domains of objects and rituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge
that may be gained from him belong to this production.
Relevant to this study however, is Foucault’s discussion of power in The subject and
power (1982). Here, Foucault (p. 220) describes power as ‘always a way of acting upon
an acting subject or acting subjects by virtue of their acting or being capable of action.
A set of actions upon other actions’. Adopting this simple and partial explanation of
power at this point, enables me to describe issues of power existing in students as
researchers approaches that address complexities that the above discussion has raised.
Previous accounts of students as researchers approaches do not conceptualise, theorise
and examine multiple layers of power. As such, power in institutions such as schools is
conceptualised as being merely exerted in top-down ways by teachers in relation to
their students, by administrators in relation to teachers and students and so forth.
Rarely are there accounts about students as researchers approaches that recognise
students as having power in any other way than as exhibiting behavioural issues.
Indeed, Foucault (1982: 218) describes power in educational institutions such as
schools as ‘a block of capacity-communication power’. What he means is that:
… the disposal of its space. The meticulous regulations which govern its
internal life, the different activities which are organised there, the diverse
persons who live there or meet one another, each with his own function,
his well defined character—all of these things constitute a block of
capacity-communication power (p. 218).
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My project aimed to understand the relations between Mutual Obligations policies and
subjectivities and how policy subjects are regulated. Therefore, such an understanding
of power, enables me to identify eight forms of power within students-as-researchers
approaches that I problematise and conceptualise below.
These forms of power are both connected as a nexus and separate in the respect that
each is a distinct form of power. That is, following Foucault (1982), power is
conceptualised as a ‘block of capacity-communication power’ where power shifts and
moves, dependent on the relations between and amongst those present; it is therefore
best described as flexible, movable, and contingent.
The eight forms of power that I identify can be discussed and analysed separately and
together. Power around the research project and its outcomes is the first form of power
that I discuss. Second, I conceptualise that there is a form of power operating in the
school and related administrative issues that impact on students as researchers
approaches. Third, there is power around ‘disruptive students’, not only in the ways
that schools manage them, but how the students as researchers themselves choose to
manage them and questions about power, ethics and consent. Fourth, amongst the
research group itself, power relations are evident. Power relations between the
researchers, teacher and student research group is the fifth form I discuss. Power as a
curriculum issue, the sixth form, is distinct from the seventh form of power,
assessment and reporting.
Students as researchers power is the eighth type of power identified. Power, when
exerted by young people, often takes the form of behaviours constructed by adults and
institutions as negative. Often the power can be exerted by students through passive
resistance. It can be devalued by adults as bottom-up power, and seen as agentless.
When spoken about by adults this power is described in value laden terms that
privileges an adult perspective.
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 12
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Each of the types of power described above, and illustrated below is not discrete. The
types intersect with each other in complex, dynamic and relational ways. The students-
as-researchers approach I have developed aims to address the gaps in previous
approaches, therefore, my analysis of other approaches has been and continues to be
critical. Aiming to be critical following Foucault (1990: 107), does not ‘mean a
demolition job, one of rejection or refusal, but a work of examination that consists of
suspending as far as possible, the system of values to which one refers when testing
and assessing it’.
The following discussion maps my conceptualisation and the complex, intersections
between these forms of power within students as researchers approaches.
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 13
11111111
Figure 1: A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Power nexus 1: Power around research and its outcomes
The first conceptual type of power that I discuss is power around the research and its
outcomes. Adults instigate and conceptualise students as researchers approaches, both
in their roles as teachers and as researchers. It can be expected that adults have power
over the ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘how’ and ‘if’ of these approaches, their occurrence
and the determination of their outcomes. As such, students are often invited to
investigate an issue in a narrowly defined area, chosen by an adult teacher or
researcher. The outcomes and modes of reporting of students as researchers
Students asresearchers
power
Groupdynamics
Power,consent and
ethics
Curriculumpower
Professionalpower
Assessmentand reporting
power
Power aroundresearch and its
outcomes
Administrativepower
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 14
approaches are generally defined within the scope of a project constructed by adults
and negotiated with students (DETE/Edwards 1999b) In this negotiation, power
relations are again evident.
Power nexus 2: Administrivia
Forms of power within school and administration systems exist and function at a
number of different levels. For example, the space a program occupies on the school
timetable reflects the value placed on it by those in the school who have power
through their status. Schools which participated in the Bedford Schools Improvement
Project ([BSIP] Raymond 2001) timetabled student research outside of regular
classroom time and in the marginalised lunchtime space, as did Nairn and Smith
(2002). Few have been able to locate projects within the valued curriculum and
timetabling of the school. In conceptualising my approach I recognised the importance
of occupying a place within existing curriculum and I attempted to integrate the unit of
work across existing curriculum frameworks, occupying timetable space and
embedding the students-as-researchers approach as an integral feature of the valued
curriculum of the school. This was necessary at that time to make the approach work,
and to have it considered important by students and staff alike.
Deidre Kelly (1993) also managed to locate students as researchers within the valued
curriculum and privileged timetable space of the school. In terms of power in the
school, Deidre Kelly argues that the project was:
[S]haped by what those with more power would allow us to do, aimed at
encouraging the students themselves to change. None of the ‘collaboration’
was geared to allowing the high school students to have a direct impact on
changing the institution. Instead, with teachers and administrators now in
the lead, individual ‘solutions’ were applied to largely structural
problems… (p. 17).
These types of power relations are reflected in many schools where problems are
positioned as belonging to individuals, rather than acknowledging the structural
nature of what is wrong with schools. For example, timetable space, curriculum and
assessment and reporting operate in schools alone, collectively and powerfully with
complex intersections. It is often not possible to speak of each one in isolation.
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 15
However, the point I understand Kelly (1993) is making is that in order to resist
change, teachers and administrators can seize the agendas designed to make students
powerful. Fielding (2001: 1) inquires ‘… are we presiding over the further
entrenchment of existing assumptions and intentions using student or pupil voice as
an additional mechanism of control?’ This question needs to continue to be asked
about students as researchers approaches.
However, occupying a place in the valued curriculum and school timetable does not
necessarily make something valued by the students themselves, and this is a matter I
take up when discussing the withdrawal of consent by students in the section below.
Power nexus 3: Power, ethics and consent
Students described as being ‘disruptive’ or who show forms of resistance are exerting
agency. Resistance and disruption by students can be constructed as occurring along a
continuum between aggressive and passive. There are a number of potential forms of
disruptive power in students as researchers approaches. For example, students within
the research group may disrupt in ways that can be constructed or represented as
negative. Such power relations can be seen circulating in everyday classroom life.
There is also the power of passivity that results in mindful withdrawal, or ‘internally
dropping out’ (Fine 1991). Resistance in classrooms can manifest as participation and
also non-compliance. This intersects with my point above, that students themselves
may not necessarily see this learning as valuable, or interesting, as in the case of Nairn
and Smith (2002)
I raise this issue because informed consent and ethics is not only about students as
researchers understanding these issues and how they apply to those they interview,
but it also applies to the teachers and researchers working with the students as
researchers groups. For example, in researching others we are mindful of our
responsibilities to those we research. However, by enlisting students as researchers in
our research, what are our obligations to them? What happens when a student
participating as a researcher withdraws their consent? How do we manage this
withdrawal when the research task is included in the curriculum? These issues are
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 16
often not mentioned in research literature reports of students as researchers
approaches.
In her account of participatory research in schools Kirby (2001), raises the issue of
informed consent around children being interviewed by other children, stating that ‘[a]
child should be able to withdraw their consent at any time, for a rest, [or] to stop
completely. It can be hard for a child to tell an adult or a peer that they no longer want
to continue…’ (p. 76). Farrell et al (1998) used this possible future withdrawal as a
rationale for paying students to participate as researchers, arguing that payment
created an incentive for student researchers to complete the work. Payment therefore
operates as a and obligation and form of power over students, where students as
researchers refusing to complete the work is not conceived of as students
demonstrating their power over their own lives, interests and learning. That is,
payment or financial reward as coercion is a way of removing any power that students
might have to exert agency over their role in the research process. In many ways then
the insertion of a students as researchers approach within the curriculum and
timetable might achieve the same result where withdrawal might mean failure.
The literature, generally, leaves aspects of students as researchers’ power and agency
unexplored. I deal with the issue of power among and between members of students
as researchers groups below and tackle other forms of students as researchers power
further on. In the approach I planned, I aimed to develop a group as interested and
excited about the research as myself. However, recognising this is not always possible,
I therefore planned alternative assessment tasks for those few who might want to
withdraw from the research. The alternatives ensured that students were not
disadvantaged in assessment and reporting and kept me true to my commitments to
students about not disadvantaging those who chose to withdraw.5
Power nexus 4: Group dynamics
Power between and amongst members of the research group is discussed by Reynolds
and Trehan (2001) in their exploration of difference within a participative research
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 17
design with their postgraduate students. Reynolds and Trehan (2001) highlight how
group members rejected the research process as a pedagogical approach and utilised
humour and ridicule as the ‘”power” subgroup’s main mechanism’ for resistance (p.
363).
Similarly, Kelly (1993), who worked with school age students, identified both internal
and external power relations as affecting the research group. She wrote that ‘the story
of this project is as interesting for what did not get asked, researched and proposed for
action as what did … the role that internal group dynamics played in suppressing
certain interests and questions while legitimizing others’ (p. 16). Kelly’s observations of
power are significant given that many researchers have remained silent about this
issue in students as researchers approaches. This silence further contributes to the
romanticisation of students as researchers approaches as always being democratic
through significant student participation.
In my approach, I taught students skills, specifically, to enable them to participate in
group processes. This was to ensure that group leadership was established through
shared group norms and that the skills for listening to others were explicitly discussed,
developed and practised. In so doing I attempted to teach the value of respect for
others and for their ideas. These ideals are those that teachers continue to strive
towards in the classroom everyday. The above intersects with the notion of
professional power that I discuss below.
Power nexus 5: Professional power
Between the university based researcher, the teacher and the students as researchers
group, power operates in a range of different ways. For example, teachers have the
power to allow the university based researcher into the classroom and to exert control
over what happens with the students as researchers group on a daily basis, as well as
power in influencing how the research plan is devised and enacted. The university
researcher has power over the conceptualisation of the research and authority over
intellectual authorship. In the SCSP, I and other members of the research team found
5 The Information Sheet and Consent Forms for this study provided to and signed by students at the
beginning of the study included a statement that students who chose to withdraw would not be
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 18
that teachers only wanted guidance from us about research methods, (Edwards 1999)
preferring to have the classroom to themselves. Therefore, we were at a distance and
power relations between the research team and students-as-researchers did not arise.
In this present project I worked in a school. Therefore, I negotiated on a daily basis the
activities of the research group as both teacher and researcher. Because of this, I am in
a better position to identify the roles of each participant in the study and the social
relations between us. Others, for example Schwartz (1988), did not identify the
relations between himself and his research assistants/collaborators as being embedded
in relations of privilege and power. Similarly, Schultz (2001) did not identify her
relationships with students as problematic. For example, Shultz (2000) states that she
helped student researchers to run errands. Whilst this can be taken as relationship
building, it raises questions nonetheless about the creation of obligations or relations of
power between researchers and students. How much of this professional power can be
described as coercion ? How much teaching requires coercion, particularly for groups
described as ‘at-risk’? Professional power intersects with the issues raised in the earlier
section on consent and ethics.
Power nexus 6: Curriculum power
Curriculum, assessment and reporting are sites of power in the institutional context of
the school. I deal with curriculum first. What is taught, how it is taught and in whose
interests is a reflection of power relations in broader social contexts (Cherryholmes
1999; Pinar 1998, 1995). The school curriculum is a site of contestation, with groups and
individuals at various levels, competing for attention, status and control. Few
researchers have managed to find a space for students as researchers within the
officially sanctioned curriculum mandated by a school authority. One of the costs of
inserting students as researchers approaches within the sanctioned curriculum is that
the demands of curriculum frameworks may impact on the research. An approach that
is intended to be collaborative and co-operative may become shaped and constrained
by curriculum frameworks designed around a competitive academic curriculum
(Edwards 1999).
disadvantaged in any way.
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 19
Power nexus 7: Assessment and reporting power
Assessment and reporting practices also reflect and are constitutive of power relations.
Assessment and reporting power intersects with power produced through the
curriculum and administrative bureaucracy. The insertion of students as researchers
approaches into curriculum and assessment and reporting processes is therefore
problematic. This is because practices and products of learning are assessed and
valued according to mandated curriculum frameworks. The published accounts that I
have described earlier do not mention how and if the research work completed by the
students as researchers was assessed. This is a silence in accounts about students as
researchers approaches.
Power nexus 8: Students as researchers power
This notion of sharing power and authority with students is one that schools,
administrators and teachers have always found difficult. All students as researchers
approaches are conceptualised around this sharing of power and authority. The
difficulties arise in how the students as researchers approaches are played out in
schools when relations of power intersect with the ideals of the approach. Curriculum,
assessment, reporting and timetabling are a few of the sites where the notion of
students having power is contested. There are many ways that student power in these
approaches can be subverted. The challenge is to find ways in which students as
researchers’ power and agency can productively find a place both in and outside of
schools.
I identified previously how students as researchers may have power through passive
forms of resistance, non-compliance and mindful withdrawal. Others have written
about students as researchers as having the power to disrupt and harass others
(Reynolds & Trehan 2001; Kelly 1993). I conclude this paper with a description of my
students as researchers approach that is based around positive and productive power
relations between students-as-researchers and adult researchers/teachers.
My approach also recognises that students-as-researchers groups also have power and
this can be manifested in a range of ways. For adult researchers involved in these
approaches, either as teachers or researchers, reflexivity and self-reflexivity need to be
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 20
present for honest and open accounts of power and its various manifestations to
emerge.
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 21
Section three: Planning a students-as-researchers approach
In this next section I describe some further features of an ideal approach to planning,
implementing and documenting a students-as-researchers approach. I have identified
these features from my reading of the literature and my practical experience teaching
in schools and developing school and system curriculum. In essence, what I propose is
a model of having students as researchers approaches influenced by praxis. This
section is organised in the following way. To begin, I identify reflexivity and self-
reflexivity as central to my approach. I then discuss the romantic and idealistic notions
that are features of students as researchers approaches. In contrast, I suggest an
approach that is critical of itself, not only in practice, but in the ways in which accounts
might be written to contribute to the advancement of a range of students as researchers
approaches. I then describe developing my students-as-researchers approach that
encourages students to question the construction of knowledge, both in the already
existing curriculum and in relation to the research of others and of themselves. These
are important in a study that examines gender, class and subjectivities and how it is
possible to work with young people as students-as-researchers to investigate
contemporary social and political issues in their communities.
Research skills
Some of the projects described above in the review of the literature have attempted to
explicitly teach students research skills. These training programs are described in the
literature as: lasting a day; sometimes run by university researchers; and, some
programs include the teachers as part of the group being trained. The inadequacy of
existing approaches as they are described in the literature stems from the following:
• They do not engage students in the process of thinking about research
done by others, in any critical way;
• Nor do they engage students in examining the construction of
knowledge. It is assumed that students know what research is when in
fact there are a number of ways of thinking and speaking about
research;
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 22
• Programs lasting an hour or a day or two can do nothing more than
introduce rudimentary knowledge to students and such programs fail
to engage them in thinking about bigger issues;
• The general failure to include students as researchers in the theorisation
of data suggests that those providing the training either believe that
students are incapable of doing so, or they are not conceptualising the
approach adequately;
• As well, the issues of ethics, informed consent and other matters
affecting students as researchers, normally attended to as a matter of
course by trained social researchers, are not described in the literature.
It appears that these issues are regarded unproblematically by those implementing
students as researchers approaches. Finally, it is because of the above that students as
researchers approaches lack rigour and their findings are often not disseminated
outside of the school, except in rare cases. I will deal with each of these issues in turn
and describe how the approach I developed sets out to address the above concerns.
Reflexivity
Feminist praxis requires ‘evidence of reflexivity and self-reflexivity of researchers and
a willingness to be open to criticism’ (Weiner 1994: 140). The approach that I propose
involves reflexivity, in the sense that it requires the researcher to be aware of the way
that research positions some with power and some without. My description of the
nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches in the preceding
section shows that I am aware of the way that power operates in research and in
schools.
The approach that I developed not only identifies what has been done in the past but
also identifies what could be done in the future. That is, students as researchers
approaches discussed earlier are not located in relation to what has occurred in the
past. Therefore, there has not been a process of building on the experiences of others
either in practice or in the literature. As well, in the reporting of the research I aim to be
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 23
as critical of my own work as is possible, with a view to contributing to the ways that
students as researchers approaches are understood, described and discussed.6
Self-reflexivity
When using the term self-reflexivity, I mean the presence of the researcher in the
accounts they write of their research and an identification and discussion of successes,
failures and events that occurred in the field. When difficulties are identified in
students-as-researchers approaches they are often around issues such as
administration and organisation of students, and other topics about which it is
considered safe for a researcher to admit to weakness. Often the flaws described are
outside of the control of the researcher and this form of disclosure is safe. A
consequence of remaining safe means that continued romanticisation of students as
researchers approaches occurs. In reporting on my approach I have identified my own
failures so that these might contribute to the advancement of students as researchers
approaches. Therefore, I seek a balance between ensuring professional safety and
welcoming critique.
Critical engagement
Students as researchers approaches are complex and complexly enacted. The literature
review above, demonstrates the diversity of approaches and ways that students as
researchers are conceptualised and carried out. I locate myself and my approach in
feminist and poststructural theories. I describe what this means below.
Thinking critically and constructing knowledge
Critical literacy skills are important and these skills are taught to students as part of my
students-as-researchers approach. In so doing, I encourage students to look at what
has gone before and what might come after. Students are invited to examine how
knowledge has been constructed in the past, and the various ways that truth is socially
constructed, and by whom and in whose interests.
Knowing what research is?
Students often rely on what they already know about constructing research and there
is a tendency in the approaches discussed in my review of the literature to rely on
6 These issues are discussed more fully in Edwards (2004).
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 24
survey instruments. As well, in schools, it appears that, generally students are taught
survey approaches, and might consider that all research is done in this way. The
students-as-researchers approach I developed challenged students to critically examine
data collected and students were invited to explore a range of other ways to collect and
analyse information.
Theorisation of data
In my approach I aimed for students to theorise their own data. In their training, they
were taught the skills of concept mapping and other practical processes such as
writing the key ideas on index cards and arranging them, in an effort to assist students
to theorise their own data. Students were also responsible for the completion of a final
written report with the aim that they would present their findings to audiences inside
and outside of the school. There are risks in allowing students to theorise their own
data, and these risks are discussed in detail in Edwards (2004).
Ethics and informed consent
Researchers planning students-as-researchers approaches should follow the guidelines
on research ethics and informed consent within their own institutions and disciplines.
When planning my approach, I aimed to teach the students-as-researchers about ethics
and informed consent because I was delegating the field work to them. How they
interacted with the poor and working class young women and girls they interviewed
was something that I was concerned was handled with respect, honesty and integrity.
As well, there was a responsibility on my part that follow up discussions back in the
classroom were respectful of the young women and their circumstances. The approach
I developed and taught included information and instruction about ethics, informed
consent and respect for research participants.
Knowledge and knowing
I have mentioned the subject of knowing what research is above, and stated that
research skills around critical literacy need to be explicitly taught. The following
intersects with the topic above. Here I discuss in greater detail precisely what I mean
by knowledge, knowing, and constructing young people as ‘knowers’. One of the main
aims of my students-as-researchers approach was to position students as ‘knowers’. By
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 25
knowers, I mean that their knowledge of their worlds is valued and considered to be
important.
When I describe students as knowers, I am supporting their right to be regarded as
legitimate holders of knowledge about themselves and their worlds. Students and
young people clearly ‘know’ things. The whole concept of youth research and student
research is based on the premise that students and youth should be asked for
information and that they have access to information that adults do not.
By constructing students-as-researchers as ‘knowers’ I am arguing that
students and youth have a means to explore and understand what it is that
they know about their own worlds and the world around them. I also aimed to
investigate issues of current and future importance to these young people,
located as they are, at the margins. These issues for investigation are the bigger
issues such as policies that impact on their own lives and those of their
communities, generally considered to be off limits or outside of the scope of
what students and young people are asked to investigate. As well, there is
much research interest in young people and subjectivities, but young people
themselves are rarely if ever invited to work with researchers to investigate
these issues.
Conclusion
Students-as-researchers approaches need to consider issues of power more fully in the
conceptualisation, implementation and reporting of students that utilise students
acting as researchers. Students-as-researchers approaches are ideally placed to provide
a means to work with students to examine subjectivities. An examination of
subjectivities can occur at a number of different levels. These include the subjectivities
of the researchers, the students and the researched. As I envisage them, students-as-
researchers approaches should involve a critique of society, a critique of values, beliefs
and social constructions and a challenge to how each of us develops these. Therefore,
the students-as-researchers approach I conceptualised for this project was ideally
positioned to assist in the investigation of the formation of subjectivities and an
examination of power has been central to this task.
A nexus of relations of power in students-as-researchers approaches
Jan Edwards 26
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Acknowledgments
Thanks to the two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments and toGeoffrey Sanderson for editing assistance.