Researching children’s silences: Exploring the fullness of voice in childhood research

Spyrou, Spyros

doi:10.1177/0907568215571618

Cited by 136 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

120

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, researchers also began to look at children's voices in research within the complexities of their status as 'beings and becomings' and the relational nature of children's lives (Leonard, 2016;Nielsen, 2016;Wyness, 2013). Despite ongoing discussions about whose voice is heard (Jones, 2003;Mills, 2017;Philo, 2003;Spyrou, 2015;Thorne, 2002), children as researchers seems to remain the latest development on the participation front to reveal children's most authentic voice.…”

Section: The Development Of Employing Children As Researchersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advocating for a More Relational and Dynamic Model of Participation for Child Researchers

Ergler

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Primary school children participating as researchers has become a moral obligation to meet the goal of children's participation rights. Yet, critical voices rarely question the ethical and practical implications of turning young children into mini-clones of adult researchers. While enabling and constraining aspects of participatory methods and inherent power issues per se are widely discussed, adult researchers still seem to struggle to critically engage with celebratory accounts of children as researchers. In particular, the practical obligations, ethical challenges and tensions that impact on primary school children's research experiences, are underexplored. Findings from two projects on play, which engaged children as active researchers, suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the messy realities of becoming and being a child researcher. In particular, researchers should be more attuned to children's capabilities and the ethical hurdles for child and adult researchers. This article argues therefore for a more dynamic, meaningful and realistic model of participation, that speaks to the messy realities of becoming and being a child-researcher. In other words, the article questions the dominant orthodoxy of children as researchers as the 'gold standard' of participatory research with children.

show abstract

Section: The Development Of Employing Children As Researchersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advocating for a More Relational and Dynamic Model of Participation for Child Researchers

Ergler

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As has already been emphasised, children and parents were approached in similar ways when being interviewed. We look upon interviews as social and cultural constructs, made up of the institutional, discursive and interactional setting where they take place (Spyrou, 2016). This approach takes into account how children, parents and the interviewer individually and collectively construct the adoption return trip by talking about it.…”

Section: Research Materialinterviewing Children Parents and Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family memory trips – children's and parents’ planning of adoption return trips

Gustafsson

Lind

Sparrman

2019

Journal of Heritage Tourism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It can be argued that adoption return trips are a new travel industry. Today, transnational adoptive families make adoption return trips while their children are very young. The aim of such trips is to create positive links between the child and their birth country. Based on interviews with ten Swedish transnational adoptive families, this qualitative and interdisciplinary study sets out to explore how adopted children and their parents plan return trips. The analysis shows that both children and parents mobilise memories of places, people and heritage sites from the birth countries while planning their trips. In theoretical terms, the study draws on family tourism in combination with child studies and 'personal memory tourism.' The article challenges the idea that adoption return trips are exclusively for the benefit of the adoptee and suggests that the family planning of adoption return trips makes them into 'family memory trips.' ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

“…During the analysis, however, I came to realise that voices can never be confined to a set of products because voices also include how such products have been created. In his articles on the complexity of children's voices, Spyrou (, ) discussed the richness of the ‘silent or unsayable’ (Spyrou, , p. 157) and the importance of studying the non‐verbal, silent moments as well as the noise. In my research, I failed to consider that some children might have voiced their views or feelings silently.…”

Section: Reflections On Voice and Silencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This multi‐dimensional characterisation of the children's voices emphasises the situatedness and the silent (Spyrou, ), and the children's actions place the complexity and ambiguities of children's voices in the foreground (Elden, 2013; Komulainen, ). In other words, the children's voices were not only represented by the views that they shared during the 50 min of data collection through their photographs, drawings and discussions but also extend beyond the conventional definition to manifest themselves in the children's actions, silence and/or resistance.…”

Section: Reflections On Voice and Silencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, more attention has been paid to children's voices in research by listening to and involving children as main participants and/or co‐researchers (Clark and Moss, ; Einarsdottir, ; Einarsdottir and others, ; James, ; Maguire, ; Spyrou, ). Consequently, several researchers have developed and implemented methods that suit children's interests and lived experiences (Clark, ; Schiller and Einarsdottir, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Situating Children's Voices: Considering the Context When Conducting Research with Young Children

Khoja

2015

Children & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

I problematise my own concept of children's voices in research by reflecting on certain practices in a study that I conducted in a kindergarten classroom in a city in Saudi Arabia. I examine the cultural and social contexts of my research by drawing on my experience of obtaining children's assent or dissent, my assumptions regarding the possibility of reducing power differentials, and finally, my understanding of the ways children voice their feelings and views. I conclude that voices manifest themselves in multiple ways that extend beyond visual or verbal media. Voices are constructed socially and are shaped culturally to reflect norms regarding how individuals should express their views and feelings within a particular setting and time.

show abstract

Researching children’s silences: Exploring the fullness of voice in childhood research

Cited by 136 publications

References 22 publications

Advocating for a More Relational and Dynamic Model of Participation for Child Researchers

Advocating for a More Relational and Dynamic Model of Participation for Child Researchers

Family memory trips – children's and parents’ planning of adoption return trips

Situating Children's Voices: Considering the Context When Conducting Research with Young Children

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About