Ethical complexities in participatory childhood research
Rethinking the 'least adult role
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3103530 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C Atkinson (0000-0002-2211-6405, Bath Spa University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 186-201 |
| Publication date | 2019-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Childhood (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0907-5682 • E-ISSN: 1461-7013 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0907568219829525 |
| OpenAlex | W2914517784 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 24 |
| References cited | 24 |
This article draws on data from a comparative ethnography of two UK primary schools to explore the complexities inherent in Mandell's 'least adult role'. In the interest of gaining insight into children's informal productions of sexuality and gender, this role was used to gain access to peer group cultures and diffuse the imbalance of power between researcher and researched. However, while found to be productive in a number of ways, 'least adulthood' was revealed as a positionality suffused with practical, ethical and emotional complexities, and characterised by a fundamental misconstruction of the workings of 'power'. In line with recent critiques that have recognised both 'power' and 'agency' as largely under-theorised in childhood research, I conclude this article by offering a tentative alternative to least adulthood, which attempts to respond to some of the key methodological and ethical challenges in contemporary childhood ethnography
Agency (philosophy · Childhood studies · Developmental psychology · Ethnography · Human sexuality · Participatory action research · Power (physics · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Children's Rights and Participation · Early Childhood Education and Development · Gender Studies · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Psychology
The co-constructed ethnographer
Ética e investigação em educação
Diversities in transitions
In the middle of a standardized test
Learning Shame, Learning Fear
Beyond yes or no
Machinic assemblages—The role of school policies in producing children's sense of agency
Research with young children
The caring adult role
So you’re literally taking the piss?! Critically analysing and accounting for ethics (and risk) in interdisciplinary research on children and plastics
Collaborating with children
Exploring alternatives
They don’t really talk about it ‘cos they don’t think it’s right’
I have a story for you”
The role of nature-based leisure activities in enhancing the well-being of Syrian asylum-seeking children living in Türkiye
Taking the perspective of the child in the light of micro-ethical issues
Whose ‘voice’ is it anyway? The paradoxes of the participatory narrative
It’s never okay to say no to teachers’
Embodying the least‐adult role
So That I May Hope to Honor You”
The least adult role or a playful researcher? Considering an adult's role when researching with children
Attending to children's voices within environmental education
Positionality and Power
Then we decided not to tell the adults'. Fieldwork among children in an international school
Beyond ‘voice’, beyond ‘agency’, beyond ‘politics’? Hybrid childhoods and some critical reflections on children's emotional geographies
Doing Children’s Geographies
Girls, Boys and Junior Sexualities
The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader
Doing Visual Research with Children and Young People
Ethnographic Methods
A ‘sense of failure’? Everydayness and research ethics
Multiple methods, complex dilemmas
The ‘voices’ of children
Power is not an evil’
Power, Positionality and Practicality
Being seen and heard? The Ethical complexities of working with children and young people at home and at school
Beyond gender identity
Questions of agency
Is it fun?” developing children centred research methods
Reaching critical mass? Theory, politics, and the culture of debate in children's geographies
Betweenness at work
The public school washroom as analytic space for troubling gender
The practice of everyday life
Not so 'new'? Looking critically at childhood studies
Power, agency and participatory agendas
Can't Talk, Won't Talk
The Least-Adult Role in Studying Children
| Unique citing works | 24 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,43 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 22 |