Children Writers: Methodology of the Rights-Based Approach

The paper examines the rights-based approach utilized in research with children. This approach aims to encourage children's participation in every stage of the research process (planning, monitoring, evaluating, and writing up the results) on issues that impact their lives. The rights-based framework is more inclusive than the traditional approach that limits children's participation to the data collection segment of the study. The traditional approach of research excludes children's perspectives in the research agenda and therefore the implementation of the findings in social policy. Alternatively, this paper discusses the Palestinian journaling project as a prototype of transformation utilizing the rights-based approach whereby children create possibility for ownership over the agenda and the process of research. These concepts could transform child research participants from co-researchers to writers, as well as highlight the possibilities of including children at the conceptual stage of the research process.