Youth sport research based on the CREATE principles, and giving young people a voice

Karin Redelius
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm

This book sits right in time. It resonates well with the current so-called youth voice agenda; the notion that young people should have a say and be able to influence matters that concern them. This agenda, in turn, emanates from The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), especially Article 12, which recognizes the right of every child to express their views freely in all matters that affect them and to have them accounted for in accordance with age and maturity. Therefore, having a youth voice agenda means recognizing youth as rights bearers and as agents who have much to offer and contribute.

The youth-voice agenda is receiving a growing interest in sport, although the voice of young athletes is still largely unheard. Now the time has come to research, and there is a growing interest in the need to facilitate young people’s voices also by researchers and within research. This book is surely not the first one addressing children and research, but its focus on Physical Education and youth sport research is a novel approach. There are four editors of the book, who are all active researchers within the field. Their ambition is that this book will serve as a practical and theoretical guide for educational researchers who work with children and young people in Physical Education and youth sport contexts. The mission is to provide a framework – with applied examples – for conducting good research, not just on or about children and youth but for and with them.

This is a book you start to read, then jump forward and perhaps back again, then you head on to the last chapter, before, putting it down, just to see yourself grabbing for it again.

In the first part, we get an introduction to core concepts and an understanding of how challenging – yet rewarding – it can be to navigate the landscape of research with children and young people. We also get acquainted with a specific research design; the paradigm shift and the seminar work and principles behind it. This research design is made up of the CREATE principles: Connections, Reflexivity, Empathy, Adherence, Transparency and Empowerment. Their characteristics are first outlined in theory, and then the letters come to life in the second part of the book.

In this second part, the practical orientation is enhanced by ten diverse case studies, which demonstrate how meaningful research can be conducted with (and for) young people. These case studies address various contemporary issues, including disability, gender, race, ethnicity, and social disadvantage, and the research projects described are carried out in different parts of the world. Some were conducted a while ago and the authors reflect introspectively on the CREATE principles and in what way they were applied or not during the study, and its consequences. Other research projects applied the principles from the start and the authors reflect on, for example, what it takes in terms of resources to follow all the five principles. Having a framework or research design seems to help to navigate in this landscape but judging from the case studies described, there are still tensions and critical aspects to consider (it would be strange otherwise).

In the third and last part of the book, more critical questions are raised and discussed. One is the problematisation of ‘voice’ (what is it and whose voice is heard) and the notion to ‘give’ or ‘facilitating’ voice (is it a gift from adults or do kids have voices regardless?). Another question that I found very interesting concerns the relationship between rigorousness, relevance, and impact – can research be both rigorous and relevant?  The background to the question is that rigour traditionally  has had a more privileged position but nowadays impact has moved forward as the key point. A third question raised is what impact means if we are to conduct research for children and young people. This makes me reflect on my own research – mostly on but I hope also for children. When researching, for example, young people’s experience of being selected or not for football teams or receiving the highest or lowest grade in Physical Education, it is easy to empathise with the often vulnerable position of young people. What would the studies be like if they were truly for children and youth – not just about early selection or the distribution of grades in PE? The book does not answer this question but it sure provides food for thought.

This is not a book you read through and then put down. This is a book you start to read, then jump forward and perhaps back again, then you head on to the last chapter, before, putting it down, just to see yourself grabbing for it again. This book will stay with me, and I will return to it and talk to PhD-students about it regularly. However, it is not an easy read, and perhaps the editors should have, in some part, been stricter with the editing. All the details and background information are not needed and tend to obscure other content that is important, new, and thought-provoking for anyone researching children and young people. That said, the book is a valuable contribution for everyone interested in research (on), with and for youth, and in making a difference.

Copyright @ Karin Redelius 2024