Ethical Research with Children: Untold Narratives and Taboos

194 Pages·2015·0.855 MB·English

by  Sarah Richards, Jessica Clark, Allison Boggis (auth.)

Ethical Research with Children
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Ethical Research with
Children
Untold Narratives and Taboos
Sarah Richards, Jessica Clark and Allison Boggis
UniversityCampusSuffolk,UK
©SarahRichards,JessicaClarkandAllisonBoggis2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-35130-2
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To our children
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Contents
ListofFigures viii
Introduction 1
1 BoundariesandBattlegrounds:NegotiatingFormal
EthicalApprovalforResearchwithChildrenandYoung
People 14
2 EthicalSpacesandPlaces 32
3 TheRightsofParticipationandtheRealitiesofInclusion 62
4 TheIllusionofAutonomy:FromAgencyto
Interdependency 78
5 RamificationsofCategoryEntitlement:InWhatWays
DoesWhoWeAreDetermineWhatOthersWillSay? 99
6 PrivilegingVoices 121
Conclusion 146
References 155
Index 176
vii
Figures
2.1 ThisisastoryaboutwhereIwasborninChina 44
4.1 TheplacewhereIlivenow 91
4.2 Firstdaysinmyfamily 92
viii
Introduction
ThisbookbuildsonthelegacyofworkbyHobbsandMay(1993)and
BellandNewby(1977),someofthefirstresearcherstopublishcollec-
tionsofpersonalaccountsofdoingsocialresearch.Tellingstoriesisa
naturalpartofthehumancondition(Barthes1977).Theyhelpusto
understandourworlds,enableustoexplorewhoweareandfacilitate
ourinteractionswithothers.Indeed,suchistheinevitabilityofnar-
rativesitisarguedtobeproblematicalonlyinacultureinwhichthey
areabsent(White1980:5).Here,inthisbook,wetellsomeofoursto-
ries with the aim of shining a light on the ways in which research
withchildrenisconstructed,conductedandcritiqued.Movingfrom
the proscriptive accounts of how research should be conducted, the
latterdecadesofthe20thcenturysawariseintheexplicitconsidera-
tionofresearchasfarfromstraightforward(see,forexample,Devine
and Heath 1999). This book emphasises that by acknowledging and
talking about these challenges and ethical dilemmas, students, aca-
demics, researchers and practitioners are better placed to engage in
empiricalresearchwithchildren.
The rise in telling stories across the social sciences to understand
thelandscapesofourworld(seeFrank2010;Oakley2007;Plummer
2001) developed in parallel with an increased interest in the stories
of children and childhood (Cockburn 1998; James and Prout 1997;
Wall2010).Tellingstoriesisnotnew,exploringethicsintheresearch
process is not new and, as shall be seen in Chapter 1, research with
children certainly is not new either. In fact, research with children
isnowwellenoughestablishedtowithstandreflexivecritiquethatis
aimedatstrengtheningratherthandiminishingthefield(Gallacher
1