Discovering what children think: connections between research and practice

Abstract

Nigel Thomas qualified as a social worker in 1976. He worked as a social work practitioner, manager and advisor in Derbyshire and Oxfordshire before taking up his current post as Lecturer in Applied Social Studies at University of Wales Swansea. Until recently he worked occasionally as a guardian ad litem. He is director of the MA in Child Welfare and Applied Childhood Studies at Swansea, and his recent publications include Area Child Protection Committees (Ashgate, 1997) with Robert Sanders, On the Move Again: What Works in Maintaining Stability for Looked After Children (Barnardos, 1999) with Sonia Jackson, and Children, Family and the State: Decision making and Child Participa tion (Macmillan 2000). Claire O'Kane graduated in psychology at Southampton before training as a social worker in Swansea. She has worked with children in play and participatory activities and is currently employed as a practitioner-researcher with the Butterflies programme of street and working children in New Delhi. In 1996-97 she was Senior Research Assistant in the Centre for Applied Social Studies at University of Wales Swansea. She contributed a chapter to Research with Children: Per spectives and Practices, edited by Pia Christensen and Allison James (Falmer 2000).