Session Information
25 SES 09, Problematising Concepts and Categories
Paper Session
Contribution
Across multiple domains ‘the child’ is a figuration for potentiality, change and becoming that is deeply implicated in the construction of adult worlds, including that of research (Casteneda, 2003). This is the case irrespective as to how the signifier ‘the child’ actually touches down in the actual lives of specific children. The notion of ‘voice’ likewise exercises a powerful hold on the imagination in its linkage of identity, representation and claims to authenticity (Baker, 1999). In recent years the twin figurations of ‘child’ and ‘voice’ have become forged together in the expression ‘the child’s voice’, which has become something of a mantra in educational research with children. The quest for ‘the child’s voice’ has led to a diverse range of adult practices in relation to children from the personalization of services to innovative research practices designed to promote children’s participation and elicit their views.
Notwithstanding the significant accomplishments associated with getting children’s voices heard and these innovations in research methods, there may be reason to voice some disquiet in relation to the agenda that comes in its trail. The purpose of this paper is to problematize some of the consequences of mobilising ‘the child’s voice’ for research in children’s rights. This, it will be argued, simultaneously promotes a particular kind of research, disparages others, while eliding from view a series of issues that are mandated by its claim to authenticity. The intention, in short, is to provoke discussion around some of the key terms that both inform and frame the discourse and associated research practices in relation to children’s rights.
The paper argues that practices associated with ‘the child’s voice' are rather more ambiguous than they at first appear. Not the least concern is the extent to which researchers, as authors of texts, exercise power in the crafting of 'the child's voice' as this appears in their writing. For example, as James (2007: 265) drawing upon Clifford (1988) observes: '[a]s writers of texts, it is adults who retain control over which children’s voices are given prominence and over which parts of what children have to say are to be presented’. And yet the inclusion of a child's voice can rhetorically close down such critical questioning in the name of authenticity. The voice, as reported, can appear self-evidential and beyond challenge. One of the effects of this is to effectively ‘black-box’ the series of performances that variously frame, and produce, the child’s voice. Furthermore, in its apparent privileging of a particular child/ren, wider issues that exceed a focus on particular standpoint - such as the social construction of childhood - may be elided from view.
How, then, might it be possible: (i) to acknowledge the real achievements associated with children's participation in research practice, whilst (ii) sustaining due criticality in this regard, (iii) acknowledge broader theoretical agendas that may, quite legitimately, exceed this focus upon standpoint, whilst nevertheless connecting to this? These are some of the issues that this paper seeks to address in relation to a children's rights agenda in educational research.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Baker, B. 1999 ‘What is Voice? Issues of Identity and Representation in the Framing of Reviews’, Review of Educational Research, 69:4, pp. 365-383. Castaneda, C. 2003 Figurations: Child, Bodies, Worlds, London: Duke University Press. Clifford, J. The Predicament of Culture, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. James, A. 2007 ‘Giving Voice to Children’s Voices: Practices and Problems, Pitfalls and Potentials’, American Anthropologist, 109:2, pp. 261-272. James A and James, A. L. 2004 Constructing Childhood: Theory, Policy and Social Practice, London: Palgrave.
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