Friday (17/9) UGM Center for Lifespan Development (CLSD) again held a series of International Online Summer Courses on Disability and Lifespan Development: Indonesian and Global Perspectives. At the 12th meeting, the theme raised was Self Determination and Agency in Children and Youth Voices.
The event took place from 16.00 WIB until 18.00 WIB. The event, which was held online and free entry, was attended by 100 participants from within and outside the country.
The speakers at this event were Elga Andriana, S.Psi, M.Ed, Ph.D. Lecturer of the Faculty of Psychology UGM as well as the Head of CLSD who has expertise in the field of educational and developmental psychology. On this occasion, an alumnus of the University of Sydney, NSW, Australia shared his experiences he got in undergoing several researches. Guided by moderator Wuri Handayani, SE., Ak., M.Sc., MA, Ph.D., researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business UGM, for two hours Elga explained about self-determination in children when they were involved in research on sound. children and about photovoice research methods.
According to Elga, involving children’s voices is an effort to erase the gaps that often occur in the school environment. In its implementation requires great efforts and steps to get rid of the power imbalance.
“What I mean is concrete action and dialogue where one has to commit to listening, respecting, opening minds, and challenging existing beliefs, biases, or prejudices,” Elga explained.
In her presentation on child determination, Elga took her indications from the three research projects she had carried out. The first project was at the time of completing his doctoral program, namely when researching children’s voices regarding inclusion. In this research, Elga introduces a visual research method using photos and images as media.
The second project is a research funded by The American Institute for Indonesian Studies, namely Amplifying Children’s Voices Within Arts-Based Service-Learning: Emerging Inclusive Education Practice in Indonesia. In this study, which also uses the photovoice method, we want to understand and share the children’s point of view regarding their ideas about inclusion, collaboration, community, and the social environment.
Furthermore, in the third project, two webinars were held by ECCD-RD supported by the Tanoto Foundation, namely “Hearing Children’s Voices: The Covid-19 Pandemic from the Eyes of Children” and “What do you want to say about children’s rights?”. In the two webinars, Elga recorded the entire process of the event and analyzed the comments and stories of the children in the event.
From the observations of the three projects, Elga observed that there was self-determination in the children who participated in the event. This can be indicated by the emergence of feelings of interconnectedness with the surrounding environment, competent and autonomous. Of course it will produce a positive impact on the development of children.
In the second session, Elga explained a lot about research methods on children’s voices which are relatively new, namely photovoice. This is very interesting because it is still rarely done in Indonesia. This research also allows the active involvement of children in research.
“In research on children’s voices, children’s voices are the focus of research, surrounded by various interconnected domains. The theoretical framework and research methodology support children’s participation as well as the research themes raised,” explained Elga.
The CLSD summer course class in this 12th edition is very special. Elga also invited three children who were actively involved in his previous research, namely Keanu Arya (SMKN 5 Yogyakarta), Raditya Setadewa (Tumbuh High School), and Ezra Prabu (Indonesian Art Institute). They were also given the opportunity to participate in presenting their experiences of participating in photovoice research as well as telling their respective activities at this time.