Social justice as tool and process in research: progressing insight into children's right to participation through interpretative phenomenological analysis

Drawing on research conducted by O’Driscoll (2023), this chapter demonstrates how the adoption of a social justice lens can inform methodological research design decisions in the context of social research. This chapter reports on a research study in Ireland which investigated the views of social workers regarding the right of children to participate in decisions which will impact their life trajectories, in this instance, decisions that need to be achieved when children are the subject of child welfare concerns. The research reported here sought to uncover how social workers conceptualise their efforts to support the activation of the child’s right to participate in such decisions regarding their safety and well-being, and the extent to which they perceive how their work supports the child’s participation in these matters. This chapter demonstrates how Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), as the main research methodology, served to illuminate the experiences of social workers involved in direct work with children including how their interventions can play a crucial role in determining the extent to which children are consulted, heard and listened to in the context of child welfare work.