How is participant privacy protected?
A core value of the study is ensuring the voices of children are heard in relation to matters that directly affect them. The Children’s School Lives research team is committed to ensuring the rights, safety and wellbeing of any child who participates in the study.
All members of the research team are Garda vetted and have engaged in the Children First E-Learning Programme. CSL fieldworkers are dedicated professionals, many with extensive experience working with children in educational settings.
All CSL schools received detailed information about the study procedures, requirements and schedules and signed a memorandum of understanding to participate.
Parents were asked for their informed consent for their children to participate. Children’s consent is also obtained in advance of any data generation activities. No data are used where parents/children do not consent to this.
Principals and teachers are given detailed information about the data collection procedures and what participation involves in advance of each wave of data collection.
Participant personal data (e.g., name, school) are stored by the CSL research team to allow us to continue to follow the same sample over a longer period of time (for example, during second level education and into further and higher education or employment). Only core members of the CSL research team have access to personal data which are kept securely in line with data protection guidelines.
For all other data (e.g., the other answers to the surveys and interviews), any identifying data (for example, name) are removed and replaced with a pseudonym or ID number. These de-identified data are made available for other researchers to analyse. Researchers outside of the core CSL team will not be able to identify individual participants.
Participant personal and de-identified data will be stored by the CSL research team indefinitely, to allow us to continue to follow the same sample over a longer period of time (for example, during second level education and into further and higher education or employment).
Yes, participation in the study is completely voluntary and participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any time, by contacting the study team by email (csl@ucd.ie), phone (01-7167903) or by post to CSL, UCD School of Education, Roebuck Offices, UCD, Dublin 4, Ireland.
If you have been a participant in CSL, you have the right to restrict processing of your personal data and to erasure of personal data. If you have any concerns or would like to discuss this, please contact the team at cslschools@ucd.ie, or on 01-7167903.
If you would like to make a complaint in relation to data processing, please contact the UCD Office of Data Protection at gdpr@ucd.ie, or the NCCA Data Protection Officer at dpo@ncca.ie.
You can contact the UCD researchers at any time if you have any questions or require any additional clarifications. You can contact us by phone (01-7167903) or you can contact us via email cslschools@ucd.ie.
The CSL study uses a cross- sequential longitudinal design, producing a rich
set of mixed methods data. This is generated through a nationally representative quantitative study and in-depth case studies of a sub-sample of schools.
The Children’s School Lives Study has been approved by the University College Dublin Human Research Ethics Committee.
International experts in specific areas of research design and researching with children are involved in advising the CSL team on their study methods.
