Who am ‘I’: Reauthoring self, stories and subjectivity in research with children

Abstract

The ‘new’ sociology of childhood sees an emergence of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding self, experience and subjectivity of children. As debates frame research with children, concerned with ‘ethics’ and ‘agency’, what is meant by the ‘subject’ of experience is given little attention. In this article, I ask whether narratives are a true representation of ‘self’; who is the ‘experiencer’ that stories refer to and what are the implications for claiming subjectivity through narrative structures? I suggest that ‘experience’ is an irreducible quality of reality that transcends personal self, and that a core subjectivity serves as the dative of experience, ‘ as natures sole ontological primitive. Understanding self, experience and subjectivity in line with an “Analytical Idealism”’, offers fresh insight into current sociological debates in Childhood Studies.

Next steps in children and young people’s research, participation and protection from the perspective of young researchers

“…Contemporary research with children and young people prioritises the telling of personal stories in the pursuit of social truths. Self, experience and stories are treated synonymously, "sustaining an idea that children and young people are their stories, whether painful or soothing" (Thomas, 2019). Fictional storytelling as a method for representing experience allows children and young people to become disentangled from their inner narratives, as one young person notes: "it's almost like it's not you, it's the fictional character" (young person).…”

“…Fictional storytelling as a method for representing experience allows children and young people to become disentangled from their inner narratives, as one young person notes: "it's almost like it's not you, it's the fictional character" (young person). The epistemological position of the young person shifts from the "story I", to a collective "I", developing a "transpersonal reflexivity" (see Thomas, 2019) about self, experience and the ideas being shared.…”

“…In research with children and young people, stories have a significant value for making sense of the world and UCan use stories to initiate, generate, analyse and disseminate research. Stories co-create peer relationships (Bamberg and Georgakopoulou, 2008) and enable storytellers to "negotiate and renegotiate a sense of self" (Thomas, 2019). The storytelling process in writing this paper involved critical reflexivity (see Larkins, 2016Larkins, , 2019 with other discourses ("the things other people have written about child participation") and their own shared experiences of participation.…”

Experiencia de una niña de nueve años ante la separación parental

“…Recientemente se ha reconocido su participación en los procesos sociales, lo que promueve pensarlos y mirarlos como actores (Caro et al, 2017). Ello posibilita que sean signi$cados como agentes expertos en sus vivencias, con plena dignidad humana, reconocidos como tales por diversas áreas en la sociedad (Cabrera, 2017), con la capacidad de tomar decisiones al estar plenamente motivados e informados sobre su participación (Hart, 1993;Thomas, 2020). Esto favoreció el traslado de los estudios sobre niños y niñas a aquellos con y por los y las niñas (Rovetta-Cortés, 2017), atendiendo y escuchando sus opiniones, para intentar comprender sus experiencias al recuperar sus propios testimonios (Graham et al, 2015).…”