Balancing the need to make a decision with an inclusive

that the participants understood collective decision making to be a complex process that involved balancing the need to make a final decision with the desire to include everyone's opinions. This was particularly the case in relation to the Enquire project (for the participants from the South West) and the performing arts course at college (for the participants from the North East). The following extract from an interview with Tommy illustrates how the participants experienced and articulated the process of balancing the need for inclusion with the focus on making a final decision in the Enquire project:

sometimes people would just think of something else and say...or like Emma, like she was the one who was saying, 'are you all happy with that?' and then some people were like... most of the people were like 'yeah, that's fine' but if we wanted to say something else then we would say it and it would be fine. (Tommy, South West, interview 1)

By referring to Emma's attempts to reach consensus on a particular course of action and the tendency of the other participants to agree, Tommy indicates the participants' awareness of the need to arrive at final decisions. However, his qualification of this with the assertion that people were free to disagree or offer alternative ideas indicates that this concern was balanced against the need to include everyone's ideas. The process of balancing these two interests was also evident in the following extract from an interview with another of the participants from the South West:

[it was] confusing at first because everyone was sort of thinking about their own thing and not really thinking how it would fit in with the group and we sort of struggled. (Jacob, South West, interview 1)

Jacob's interpretation that the group 'struggled' indicates a sense of difficulty involved in collective decision making, which he attributes to the conflict between the individual participants' expression and pursuit of their own ideas, and the need to work collectively to get something done. The complexity of decision making in this context had a lot to do with the fact that the participants

were genuinely committed to working inclusively. This is illustrated in the following extract, again from an interview with Tommy:

We all sort of put in equal ideas and stuff and basically it came to like a good project and yeah...We all like took them into consideration definitely and no one was left out if you know what I mean. (Tommy, South West, interview 1)

These comments show that, for Tommy, including everyone's ideas was an important concern, and one that was even associated with the quality of the project. They also demonstrate another important point, i.e. that the young people sometimes managed to decide on a direction for their collective project that also took into account the ideas and opinions of everyone concerned. At other times, however, the tension between these concerns resulted in different people doing different things because the participants were unable to arrive at a collective decision:

Well, we would say, erm 'who wants to do this?' and then we'd see how many people wanted to do it and then the other thing. If we could we'd try to get half the group doing what they wanted to do and then the other half doing something else. (Jacob, South West, interview 1)

This way of resolving the tension between the need for inclusion on the one hand, and the imperative to make decisions on the other, was also evidenced in Emma's comments about combining different people's ideas:

It was okay – this project was quite a long project spread out whereas if it had been a smaller project it could have caused a bit of friction, like I think they had their whole music idea didn't they, whereas like the girls probably weren't as much into that, whereas if we'd had a short project we probably wouldn't have been able to do both types of things, whereas because it was like larger, we could fit in all different aspects of it and different things. (Emma, South West, interview 1)

Balancing the concern for inclusion with the need to take decisions was a process that also emerged in relation to the North East participants'

experiences in the context of their performing arts course. This was evident in the following extract from an interview with Daniel:

Like the last performance we did, which was Henry VIII – there was Karen in there who was stage manager, but she was struggling with it so I was like, 'well, we'll do it this way and we'll do it that way, and this way might be good but if you've got any other ideas then that's fine'... we share ideas and we have a little debate about things about which ones will be better and then it all works out like that. (Daniel, North East, interview 1)

While Daniel felt the need to 'step in' and offer his own ideas about what would be a good solution in this instance, he also wanted to allow his classmate to disagree and offer her own opinions. As with the Enquire project, the inclusion of everyone's ideas was an important concern for the young people who participated in this context, as is evident in the following extract, again from an interview with Daniel:

Well we say, like, say one person isn't inputting any ideas, we sit down with them and say, 'do you have any ideas?' and it depends on whether they're shy or not because if they're shy they won't say anything but if you just sit down and talk to them, they will say, 'well, this could be good' and then we'll try it out and if it works, it works and if it doesn't it doesn't but they still contributed in some way by giving their ideas. (Daniel, North East, interview 2)

Daniel's comments show that the participants made deliberate efforts to include people's contributions on the course, negotiating barriers such as shyness to ensure that everyone offered their ideas in some way. The participants also described what they considered to be their success in balancing inclusion with the need to make a final decision in this context. The following comments from Dean illustrate this point:

We coped really well because everybody had their own ideas and we...we said to people 'right, have two or three ideas and we'll try to fit

every idea into the script', which we did, we got everyone's ideas and put them into the script. (Dean, North East, interview 2)

Dean clearly felt that he and his fellow students had successfully negotiated the problem of including everyone's ideas within the parameters defined by the need to produce a final script. Leanne's characterisation of decision making on the course also illustrates an understanding that the group were successful in balancing such competing concerns:

at the end we always make sure that the last decision is as a group so there’s no one like saying, 'oh well I don’t want this da da da da da.' Everyone’s got their own opinion whether they like the idea or they don’t and then we sit and think together and think of the right, like a good solution. (Leanne, North East, interview 1)

For Leanne, it appeared to be important not only that everyone was entitled to offer their opinion, but also that there was a final point after which people could not dissent or complain about the decision taken. The understanding of decision making as a complex and sometimes difficult process of balancing competing interests was a common feature of the young people's responses to both the Enquire project and the performing arts course. A plausible interpretation of this is that both the Enquire project and the performing arts course were contexts in which the participants had responsibility for decision making amongst their peers and where there was some external expectation that they should be inclusive of everyone's ideas. The first of these elements – the quality of the contexts as settings in which the participants were given responsibility for decision making amongst their peers – was evident in the observation notes from the Enquire project:

Laura stressed to the group that they must make a decision about how long to spend in the museum and what they would do there. She then physically distanced herself from the group and encouraged Kate and I to do the same so no adults were present in the discussion. (Enquire project observation notes, session 1)

This element was also a characteristic of the way the participants from the North East experienced the context of their performing arts course:

we're told] 'fine, fair enough its your production, you've got control over it, its up to you what you do' they're just the stage managers, the teachers are just there for light and sound, we're there to put the effort in and make sure the production works. (Dean, North East, interview 1) The second element – an external obligation to be inclusive of everyone's opinions in their decision making – was also evident in both the Enquire project and the performing arts course, although this was experienced slightly differently in the two contexts. In the case of the Enquire project, the aim of inclusion was built into the democratic intentions of the project and was evidenced in the way the participants were encouraged by the artist to take everyone's opinions into account when making decisions:

Laura asked the group about the use of sound in the room and whether they were happy with it. She asked them if it might need to change during the day for everyone to ‘get their turn’ in terms of their preference for use of sound in the room. (Enquire project observation notes, session 4)

In the case of the performing arts course, the participants' commitment to working inclusively when making collective decisions appeared to be related to the assessment criteria for the course, as was evident in the following extract from an interview with Daniel:

you have to try to egg them on to try and put their ideas so you can...so we can all work together as a big group and not as half and half, so everyone has their own ideas to input and...because...with the grading criteria, a lot of its like, 'how did you contribute?' and you get graded on how you contributed towards the piece, erm so we try to egg people on to contribute as much as they can so they can get a better grade for themselves. (Daniel, North East, interview 2)

Although the reasons why the participants felt the need to be inclusive of everyone's ideas in their decision making differed across the two contexts, in

both cases the structure and purpose of the participants' engagement in these settings appeared to result in their experience of decision making as a complex and sometimes difficult process of balancing the need to make a final decision with the need to include everyone's ideas. This dynamic was also evident in some of the participants' experiences of decision making in other arts contexts. Craig, for example, talked about having to make compromises when making decisions in his band:

Well it’s great because we have to...we don't all try to rush in and say, 'our idea's better than yours, you have to stop your idea so we can have this idea.' We kind of all, if we come to a split decision we just all sit down, we make sure we're all on agreement on it before we move on, so it kind of, it’s not just one person controlling everything, its say, the rest of my band's six people controlling everything between them, so you always get a fair decision instead of one person's view over five or five over one. You always have to come to an agreement and make compromises. (Craig, South West, interview 2)

Although Craig here represents decision making in his band in positive terms, his reference to having to make compromises also indicates an appreciation of the complexity of this process and the difficulties it can entail. Craig also described the reasons why he felt that he and his fellow band members made decisions in this way:

Kind of at home, you just get your parents telling you what to do, you get your parents nagging you going, 'you have to do this, you have to do that, make sure you've done this', whereas in my band its more, like there are no parents, but we've taken on the role of the parents, we have to make sure we're doing what we need to do without someone having to remind us to do it. (Craig, South West, interview 2)

As with the Enquire project for the participants from the South West, and the performing arts course for the participants from the North East, the band was a context in which Craig felt that he had responsibility for making decisions with his peers. Although there was no external obligation to include everyone's ideas in this context, Craig and his band mates appear to have imposed this

obligation on themselves. This was perhaps because Craig was already familiar with making decisions in an inclusive manner in other contexts, such as at home:

Well mainly my parents work out the decisions between them, they talk it over and that, but because we've moved house, they asked us before we moved they asked us what we thought of this house and this house. They ask us for our opinions and views on things before they go ahead and make the final decision. So my parents do involve myself and my younger brothers a lot, not too much but enough to make us feel like we're involved with it. (Craig, South West, interview 1)

Although Craig understood there to be a clear hierarchy at home, in which his parents had the final say over decisions, he also experienced decision making in this context as an inclusive process in which he and his brothers were consulted. It is possible that this kind of experience played a role in Craig adopting an inclusive approach to decision making in his band and in his characterisation of this as a context that involved the need to compromise. However, Craig's comments about family life also reveal that he viewed decision making in this context in fairly fixed and uncomplicated terms. Tommy and Emma viewed decision making at home in a similar way:

Its normally me and my mum who like discuss it probably. My dad doesn't, really well he sort of would discuss it but its normally like me and my mum who would sort of decide mainly and he'll just like get informed later. He'll get told what to do, he doesn't really get a choice in much stuff. (Emma, South West, interview 1)

Well my brother's at University and my mum's...well my mum and dad are separated so my dad lives somewhere else and I see him a few times a week so that's fine and like we eat at the table, like obviously and talk basically every evening. Like me and my mum and my sister usually, sometimes my brother but... and making decisions, we just, I don't really know really, we just do it together. (Tommy, South West, interview 1)

While in some contexts the young people therefore understood decision making to be a complicated process of balancing the need to work inclusively with the need to get things done (for example in the Enquire project, the performing arts course and in informal contexts such as bands), in other settings – such as home life – decision making was seen as a more straightforward and uncomplicated process in which people were assigned particular roles.