Children’s encounters with professionals – recognition and respect during collaboration

Abstract

In the context of Child Welfare, collaboration is used to ensure that families receive the best public services. In these working processes children have the legal right to participate. Research has demonstrated that children are sensitive to whether they feel they are treated with respect. The issue of partnership relations can be demanding. This article examine children's experiences with recognition in the context of service collaboration. Based on a Norwegian qualitative research project about professional-child interactions in the context of public services and a narrative analysis of two accounts, we have identified key professional actions associated with recognition in collaborative processes with children. A dialogical form of communication, as well as the exploration of children's troubles, abilities and skills, highlighted the children's experiences of recognition and respect. Further research should concentrate on how to ensure that recognition occurs during communication with children in Child Welfare Services.

The What, Why and How of Child Participation—A Review of the Conceptualization of “Child Participation” in Child Welfare

“…The exceptions are Carter (2014), who studied children receiving community-based interventions for children exposed to violence, and Larsen (2011), who explored children's experiences with their support persons and support families. A couple of the authors explore the conditions of participation in CW practices (Warming 2011; Nybell 2013: Thørnblad and Holtan 2012; Aamodt 2015), and aspects of CW cooperation practices with children (Roose et al 2009;Gulbrandsen et al 2012;Ulvik 2015;Husby et al 2018aHusby et al , 2018b.…”

“…Participation could help the child feel connected and committed to the decisions that are taken (Woolfson et al 2010), and at the same time motivate the child to accept the decision or the intervention being made (Van Bijleveld et al 2014), and in this way give better provision and outcome. Ethical reasons are also mentioned as a reason children should participate, which might both be seen as a question of rights and intrinsic and instrumental value (Nybell 2013;Goodyer 2016;Husby et al 2018aHusby et al , 2018bInchaurrondo et al 2018).…”

“…According to Ulvik (2015), the dominant term "effective participation" in the research literature on children's rights analytically privileges the result over the process, since many authors define participation by its result. A different perspective, in addition to being rights-oriented, is offered from those studies more concerned about participation as a relational concept, and as a part of a relational discourse (Roose et al 2009;Nybell 2013;Aamodt 2015;Seim and Slettebø 2017;Husby et al 2018aHusby et al , 2018b. Participation always takes place in a social context.…”

Challenges in dealing with involuntary clients

“…Reluctant client behaviour is often expressed by terms such as denial and resistance (Husby et al, 2019;Okamoto et al, 2019). Irrespective of the term used, this kind of client behaviour is associated with strategies of non-engagement during a therapeutic treatment (Scott & King, 2007).…”

Honneth and positive identity formation in residential care

“…In another type of relationship, Turney () explored how Honneth's work could help reinvigorate the professional relationship with involuntary clients. Husby, Kiik, and Juul () applied Honneth's concept of recognition to their analysis of two accounts of young people engaging with welfare services to understand how communication and collaboration can be improved. A similar approach was taken by Warming () who applied Honneth's three forms of recognition (love, rights, and solidarity) to a case study analysis to illuminate the experience of one young homeless person's struggle for recognition.…”