Ethics, Social Research and Consulting with Children and Young People
Alderson, Priscilla and Morrow, Virginia (2004).
Ilford, United Kingdom: Barnado’s; 153 pages. $£13.95. ISBN 1904659071.
This book is a second edition of the 1995 publication Listening to Children: Children, Ethics and Social Research. The text has been fully updated, contains a wealth of new information and still manages to meet the authors’ own target of a short, accessible resource for a wide readership. Although clearly written from a UK perspective, the major aims of the book—raising awareness and improving ethical practice in relation to consulting children—are relevant to a much wider audience. It is a particularly timely publication given recent political shifts towards greater participation of children and young people in matters that affect their lives and current debates spotlighting children’s rights and status.
Priscilla Alderson is Professor of Childhood Studies at the Institute of Education in London. Virginia Morrow is also based at the Institute and is Course Leader for the MA in Childhood Studies. Both authors have international reputations in their field and are particularly well known for their work in the area of ethics and listening to children.
The book begins with an introductory section discussing the latest debates about children’s rights and new initiatives around listening to children. The authors acknowledge that much has changed in these areas since the first edition of their book in 1995 and welcome this while also indicating that there is still a way to go. This introduction is followed by ten high-impact chapters of core issues focused on ethics and listening to children. These ten chapters are arranged in three parts: The Planning Stages; The Data Collecting Stages; and The Reporting and Follow-up Stages, guiding the reader in a linear process which is both logical and helpful. The chapters are succinct, readable and laid out in easily navigated sections with helpful boxes to draw the eye to key information.
Part 1 of the book centers on the planning stages and is built around a children’s rights agenda. It draws on examples from medical research and harm-benefits frameworks to extrapolate wider lessons for social researchers. Each chapter poses challenging questions encouraging the reader to reflect on the policy and practice implications of, for instance ethical issues relating to social exclusion, the role of ethics committees, payment of child participants and ethics arising from modern research experiences such as use of the Internet.
Part 2 looks at the data collection stages and provides helpful examples of information leaflets that can be produced for children. This is a strong section of the book and deals with matters adults often overlook but which are very important to children—such as returning drawings, photographs or other material belonging to children that have been used for data purposes. The authors discuss the participation of children and young people in adult research projects in a sensitive way, referring to them as “consultants” rather than “interviewees” and there is a strong sense of respecting and valuing young participants throughout. This extends to ownership of their own data, where the law extends no rights to minors but the authors maintain that ethics demand this. The chapter on “Consent” is the jewel of the book and should be compulsory reading for anyone engaged in research with children and young people.
Part 3 is a brief section dealing with dissemination issues and the impact that research can have on the lived experiences of children. Here there is a welcome focus on positive images of childhood and the move away from representations of children—particularly in the Majority World—as helpless victims.
The concluding chapter looks forward and addresses many of the ethical challenges that have still not been resolved. In looking forward, the authors also acknowledge the growing importance of children being empowered to undertake their own research.
The material at the back of the book is far too valuable to be consigned to appendices and I would have liked Appendix 1 to have been included wholesale in the concluding chapter. This appendix poses a series of challenging questions and reflections around the content of each chapter. These would make useful discussion points in diverse learning environments.
This book will be of interest to anyone who is engaged in research with children and young people, ranging from educators to policy makers to practitioners. Appendix 1 crystallizes all the core principles on which any ethics committee should reflect. Ethics, Social Research and Consulting with Children and Young People deserves a wide readership. I thoroughly recommend it.1
1. Editors’ note: The authors of Ethics, Social Research and Consulting with Children and Young People are planning a further edition, relating to experiences in the Southeast Asia Pacific region, written with researchers working in Southeast Asia.
Reviewer Information
Children’s Research Centre
The Open University, UK
Mary Kellett is the Founding Director of the Children’s Research Centre (CRC) at the Open University where she is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Award for Childhood and Youth Studies. The CRC (http://childrens-research-centre.open.ac.uk) is a center dedicated to supporting and promoting research by children and young people. She comes from a strong practitioner background having worked for many years in children’s social work and primary teaching before embarking on an academic career. Her doctoral study focused on developing sociability and communication in children with profound learning difficulties. She has published widely in the fields of special educational needs, children as researchers, ethics and adult-child power relations.