ABSTRACT
The claims that we can make about the impact of consultation reflect the nature of the research undertaken within this TLRP Project. One of our research strategies was to bring together schools already active in pupil consultation, to study the diverse initiatives in which they were engaged, and to try to develop shared understandings of the various possibilities open to schools for successfully fostering pupil consultation. One strand of this work focused on the different methods of consultation used, and led to the generation of A Toolkit for Teachers (MacBeath et al., 2003). Other strategies involved initiatives by members of the research team to explore the impact of consultation through, for example, acting as intermediaries in the consultation process or helping schools to develop ‘students as researchers’ projects. On the basis of these various strategies, we have been able to report what happened in different schools, and to develop evidence-based understandings of consultation processes and their impacts.
