Response to Reviews of Doing Research with Children and Young People

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments 15(1), 2005 Response to Reviews of Doing Research with Children and Young People Vicky Lewis Sandy Fraser Sharon Ding Mary Kellett Chris Robinson Citation: Fraser, Sandy et al. “Response to Review of Doing Research with Children and Young People.” Children, Youth and Environments 15(1), 2005. As two of the reviews indicate, this book, along with The Reality of Research with Children and Young People (Sage Publications 2004), was produced for a course, Research with Children and Young People, available from the Open University in the United Kingdom. This is a compulsory third level course within the Open University’s Childhood and Youth Studies degree, which is designed for those who work or intend to work with children and young people, and for those who have more general interests in the new interdisciplinary field of childhood and youth studies. The reviews of Doing Research with Children and Young People make clear that research with, as distinct from research on, children and young people is gaining momentum across many different disciplines and we are delighted to be able to contribute to this important shift in perspective with this book and its companion volume. However, it is not just the acceptance of the necessity of actively involving children and young people, and concerns about how to involve them, which are crucial. Rather it is the added benefit that this involvement can bring to research which is at stake. Perhaps rather surprisingly, it is taking time for researchers to acknowledge that children and young people have much to contribute to the research process itself. We need to move to a position that not only values the contribution of children and young people in the research process itself but also facilitates it. As researchers we have always known that if we want to understand the nature and experience of childhood we need to access the knowledge and understanding that children and young people have. But too often we try to achieve that access through adult eyes. It is adults who build and read the theories, design the studies, and choose the methodologies. However, if adults alone are deciding what to research and what methods to use, and if adults collect and interpret the data, how can we be sure that the most appropriate questions are asked, that existing knowledge and skills are tapped, and that 383 theories draw on valid information? This degree of adult management seems likely to limit our understanding. The obvious answer is to involve those who have the knowledge and experience that we are trying to understand—the children and young people themselves. By listening to them and providing them with a forum for contributing to all stages of the research process, our understanding of childhood is sure to be enriched. One way of doing this is to support children and young people in carrying out their own research. The Children’s Research Centre at the Open University in the UK has been established to do just this (see http://childrens-research-centre.open.ac.uk/). However, advocating increased involvement of children and young people in all stages of research that concerns them is not unproblematic. What we hope we have been able to do in this volume is illuminate the complexities of research with children and young people and stimulate discussion around the philosophical, legal, ethical and power issues it raises. ...