How a Researchers View on Children Can Influence the Outcome of Resear

Power relations among children and young people may have been neglected in previous research as adults have indeed claimed superiority Understandings of childhood during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries arise towards children and young people actively participate in the process of research. Ethical issues are relevant to all elements of the research process, up to and including dissemination. Research should be managed within an appropriate framework that includes an appropriate consideration of ethics, and when working with children and young people deliberation on their rights and viewpoints. Ethical issues are of the utmost important when researching to ensure the research is carried out in a morally correct way and should be based on values, beliefs and attitudes. The papers I shall be drawing upon are: ‘Negotiating Autonomy: Children’s Use of Time and Space in Rural Bolivia’ – Samantha Punch (2004) ‘Gender Play: Girls and Boys in Schoolà ¢â‚¬â„¢ – Barrie Thorne (2004) Throughout history and in all cultures adults exercise power over children, in all aspects of their lives from parental power, teacher/school regulation through to the passing of laws at national level that affect the lives of all children within that society. S. A. Taylor (2000) cited in Doing Research with Children and Young People Edited by Fraser et al, pointed out that it is adults and not children themselves who write about, debate and decide what rights children should have.. This can be seen as an indication of the power adults exercise over children which confines them to subordinate roles within society. Power means different things to different people, however, it is generally t... ...esearch is not always an easy choice. There is often a fine balance between respecting the information gained from a child which has been freely given on a confidential basis and ensuring adequate protection for the child. Similarly ensuring that informed consent is given may result in some children not taking part in the research, but it also protects children from covert research which may not show them in a true light. As we have seen ethical issues are not always easy to resolve, but it is important to identify potential ethical problems so that ways of addressing them can be determined. Whether or not a piece of research is required to be approved by an ethics committee or not, by raising ethical questions during the planning stage it helps to ensure protection for both children and researchers and ultimately leads to better, well thought out research.