Overview of Youth Booth Project

Young people have valuable and unique insight into their own wellbeing and their quality of schooling. Actively engaging with youth as key stakeholders, this project trialed a qualitative visual participatory research method to document secondary school students’ experiences of education. Youth participation in this research extends beyond consultation to an active and ongoing role, (co)creating a methodology and exhibition that reflects the notions of inclusiveness and equity.The youth informed exhibition will showcase the inclusive participatory research practices through:- a short digital series sharing the youths’ reflections of (co)collaborating in research;- a visual exhibition of youths’ experience of schooling and the strengths and challenges of being a youth in today’s time.--This
video featured in the Youth Booth
exhibition showcasing the work of 10 Victorian young people produced over the
2019-2020 Australian summer. Their work captures their collective experience:
being digitally savvy, the stress of study, influence of social media, climate
change and the impact of poor mental health. These perspectives, along with our
video series produced alongside this, allow us to see the complex situations
that impact the youth experience of education.For
schools, teachers, parents and policy-makers it highlights the importance of
listening and collaboration with young people, particularly when developing
policies and implementing practice to build more inclusive communities. For
researchers, we hope this exhibition highlights one way to use participatory
visual research methods to support and strengthen the voice of youth.

The
exhibition adopts a rights-based perspective which emphasises the importance
not only of listening to youth, but actively and authentically collaborating on
matters that directly affect them.

The
study was conducted by researchers Dr Christine Grove and Louisa Trainer in
2019-2020 at Monash University and is funded by the Monash Education Small
Grant Award.