Researching Young People’s Engagement in Society

Abstract

In this chapter we will describe and discuss the means by which we can understand issues about young people’ engagement in society and what schools are doing (and could do) in order to promote that involvement. Our approach was determined by the need to achieve impact that only emerges from collaborative dialogue with both professionals and young people. Our methods set out to ensure that bridges were built between formal and informal, official and unofficial characterisations of community. We adopted a mixed methods design that combined a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the literature, online survey targeted at lead teachers in secondary schools, secondary analysis and data linking of existing datasets and in-depth case studies. As part of the research process, we held dissemination events and consulted relevant reference groups to assess the validity of emerging findings and set about the establishment of sustainable structures for continued work in this field.