What is your role within ARK?
I am the Director of Kids’ Life and Times (KLT) which is an online survey of children aged 10/11 years attending primary schools in Northern Ireland. The survey began in 2008 and has been running annually since then. KLT was initiated because the views of children were often not taken into account in decisions that were being made on issues that affected their lives. My role involves working with the ARK team to seek funding for KLT and collaborating with the funders (and often children as research advisors) to develop the survey questions. I am also responsible for analysing and disseminating the survey data.
What do you most enjoy about your role in ARK?
I enjoy all aspects of my role as KLT Director, especially being part of a team of colleagues who love doing surveys as much as I do! However, I do get most pleasure from interacting with children – either as research advisors when designing modules or receiving feedback on their experience of taking part in the survey. They do this online in some of the open-ended questions on KLT or in-person when we get the chance to meet them in schools. Their insights are always insightful and forthright – which is what we need to hear in order to ensure the survey reflects what is important to them.
As a Senior Lecturer in Education at Queen’s University, what is the focus of your research?
My research focuses on factors related to children’s social and emotional wellbeing such as happiness, self-esteem and educational outcomes. Wellbeing is important for children’s ‘well-becoming’ as future adults but is also inextricably linked to children’s rights and the concept of a good childhood. I have worked collaboratively with colleagues in the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast to develop surveys that are based on the Centre’s child rights-based methodology of including children as co-researchers and advisors. Recent projects using this methodology have included a global survey of children on their rights and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic and a survey of children in Ukraine asking about their experiences during the on-going conflict affecting their country. The findings from my research help inform policy and service delivery and, I hope, contribute in some way to improving children’s lives.
Find out more about Dr Lloyd’s work: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/katrina-lloyd
