The successes and drawbacks of drug education within secondary schools from an adolescent viewpoint via co-production

My research focuses on illegal drug education within secondary schools. Its current effectiveness will be reviewed through documentary analysis of relevant drug policies and child centred research methods.

This research will aim to:
Understand how schools of different backgrounds educate teenage students about drugs, their uses, and their harms.
Understand and evaluate drug education from a teenage (14-16) viewpoint via peer interviews and other child-centred methods with co-production.
Influence future drug education policies to ensure teens are making educated choices surrounding drug use.

There is a long history of anti-drug campaigns relating to education, from 'Just Say No' to the new 10-year drugs plan to minimise drug related crime and death. Part of this plan is a 'comprehensive' education for children on the dangers of drug use (From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives, 2021). The current education received is not standardised and depends on the school's ethos, how they teach and what content is viewed as relevant. With new research from a longitudinal study showing that 10% of adolescents have taken a Class A drug by the time they are 17, and a third of adolescents have tried cannabis, there is a need to re-evaluate drug education (Fitzsimons & Villadsen, 2021). The primary research will be completed in secondary schools in both the midlands and Southeast England, where I have connections to schools through previous employment.

A key aspect of this study is the child-centred methods and co-production. This is where participants are actively involved in the research process, which can be useful when discussing sensitive topics such as drug use, or working with unique participant groups, such as adolescents (Koro-Ljungberg, Bussing & Cornwell, 2010). This is important for my research as adolescents have their own agency and therefore their own understanding of research (Morrow, 2008). By producing research alongside participants, their agency and self-discourse is addressed, creating willingness to participate and shape their drug education (Koro-Ljungberg, Bussing & Cornwell, 2010).