Power relations among children and young people may have been neglected in previous research as adults have indeed claimed superiority Understandings of childhood during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries arise towards children and young people actively participate in the process of research. Ethical issues are relevant to all elements of the research process, up to and including dissemination. Research should be managed within an appropriate framework that includes an appropriate consideration of ethics, and when working with children and young people deliberation on their rights and viewpoints. Ethical issues are of the utmost important when researching to ensure the research is carried out in a morally correct way and should be based on values, beliefs and attitudes. The papers I shall be drawing upon are: ‘Negotiating Autonomy: Children’s Use of Time and Space in Rural Bolivia’ – Samantha Punch (2004) ‘Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School’ – Barrie Thorne (2004)
Throughout history and in all cultures adults exercise power over children, in all aspects of their lives from parental power, teacher/school regulation through to the passing of laws at national level that affect the lives of all children within that society. S. A. Taylor (2000) cited in Doing Research with Children and Young People Edited by Fraser et al, pointed out that it is adults and not children themselves who write about, debate and decide what rights children should have.. This can be seen as an indication of the power adults exercise over children which confines them to subordinate roles within society. Power means different things to different people, however, it is generally t...
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...esearch is not always an easy choice. There is often a fine balance between respecting the information gained from a child which has been freely given on a confidential basis and ensuring adequate protection for the child. Similarly ensuring that informed consent is given may result in some children not taking part in the research, but it also protects children from covert research which may not show them in a true light. As we have seen ethical issues are not always easy to resolve, but it is important to identify potential ethical problems so that ways of addressing them can be determined. Whether or not a piece of research is required to be approved by an ethics committee or not, by raising ethical questions during the planning stage it helps to ensure protection for both children and researchers and ultimately leads to better, well thought out research.
As adults, we have trouble representing children because, having once been children ourselves, we claim authority on the topic even though we no longer live as children nor do we see the world through their eyes. Even though we were once children, we cannot assume that we inherently know what it is like to be a child (Wilkie 100).
...even years parents must give informed consent as the child may not have the cognitive ability to understand what is being asked of them’ Institute of Medicine (2004 cited in Keenen and Evans, 2010:78). There are also incentives for the child which should be fair and not excessive. The idea of deception means that certain studies may require the researcher to hold back certain information however the researcher must show that such deception is necessary and justifiable. An important ethic is confidentiality where records of research should be kept in such a way to ensure participant confidentiality. However if some information reveals the child’s welfare is at risk then parents should be informed. Finally there is dissemination in early years practice the child is often too young to understand research findings so a summary should be given to the child’s parents.
“Children were often used as means of power, and those victims felt powerless out of fear of losing contact” (Drijber, Reijnders & Ceelen, 2013)
Children and Childhood: In History and Society. Ed. Paula S. Fass. Vol. 2. New York:
Wells, Karen C.. "rescuing children and children's rights." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 168-169. Print.
America is portrayed as a child-friendly society, but in actually, Americans are on the contrary to this notion. Henry Giroux explores the way that American culture shifts issues of capitalism onto children, confusing the separation between child and adult. In his argument Giroux points out three myths that contribute to corporate culture’s war on children. The first is the “the end of history,” (Giroux P.2). Under this myth citizens are thought to have no individual freedoms from norms, (P.2). The second myth is “childhood innocence,” under this myth children are in the purist form without much knowledge of the world, and in need of extreme protection from adults of said knowledge, (P.2). This essentially leaves children powerless and incapable of making their own discoveries. The final myth is “disinterested scholarship,” according to this myth; commercial culture is becoming the main targets of education instead of the dynamics of academics, (pg. 3).
It is in a child’s inherent nature to contemplate the meaning of his/her existence. Every child undoubtedly fights the battle to find his/her true identity and their family is a vital element in determining that character. A child unconsciously conforms to ideas exerted around them. A child’s parent exhibits a profound influence, in his/her desire to nurture their child to their apex potential, but it may not necessarily in the best interest of the government. In a society that is based on a totalitarian dictatorship, the government has its own ideal path from which its citizens cannot stray. Therefore, a government curtails the development of a child’s identity by separating the child from its family.
Research is viewed as a scientific human endeavour that is organised according to a range of protocols, methods, guidelines and legislation (Gerrish & Lacey, 2010). Research ethics is that domain of enquiry that identifies ethical challenges with a view to developing guidelines that safeguard against any harm and protects the rights of human subjects in research (Rogers, 2008).
Leach, Penelope. Children First: What Society must do - and is not doing - for
Throughout the article written by Hall and Rudkin, they discuss how children comprehend the essential rights and laws in a community. In this article, they tell us adults throughout society promote children’s understanding of responsibilities and rules in their community. Hall and Rudkin (2011) converse about “how to support children as protagonists in communities, that is, actors, agents, and co-constructors of civic life” (p. 52). Along with this, they state that we as society should not hide a world from children in which they are already a part of. This article gives us an example of how children can be apart of the community even in a very small setting. The children attempted to understand what Crystal, the hamster, wanted out of her
Social constructionism approach distinguishes different discourses of childhood as a result of different cultures, believes, experiences and time in history. It suggests that ‘child’ and ‘childhood’ only exist because adults made them meaningful (Aries, 1962). The approach sees our understanding and knowledge as a construction through our childhood experiences.
James, A. (1998). From the child's point of view: Issues in the social construction of
Somewhere around the beginning of the seventeenth century, the perception of the nature of childhood -- its duration, its perceived purpose, its requirements, its quality -- changed rather significantly in the Eurocentric world, a period Valerie Suransky identifies as a watershed for the modern notion of childhood (1982, p. 6). Actually, two things seemed to have happened: first, the idea of childhood as a separate developmental stage began to arise; second, the idea of who was deserving of childhood also began to broaden. The pattern was similar in Europe and America, with some minor variations which resulted from geography, religion, etc., but the differences are inconsequential. Generally speaking, the factors which influenced this change are the view of the nature of humankind, the development of industry, urbanization, parents themselves, and the women's movement.
Fass, P. S. (2004). Children's rights. In Encyclopedia of children and childhood: In history and society (Vol. 1, pp. 186-187). New York, NY: Macmillan Reference USA.
Childhood is a highly contested model because its meaning and interpretation varies from person to person as it is influenced by cultural-heritage, family-background and experiences (Alderson, 1995). For instance, the United Nations’ Convention on Rights of the Child (1989) defined children as everyone under the age of eighteen. Additionally, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (2005) postulated that the period of childhood is a special period during which a child should learn how to live and survive the world through schooling, playing, as they grow strong and develop their confidence with the affection and support fr...