Chapter 3: Who’s Afraid of Research With Children? Perspectives and Reflections

At the root of this short chapter is an enduring curiosity and puzzlement as to why – despite significant and meaningful participatory research with children taking place across disciplines and geographical borders – there is still an element of trepidation related to ethical considerations for research with children within current university procedures.

In 2001, the author sets off to do her PhD fieldwork on children’s participation rights, with groups of displaced and street-working children in southern Mexico; this was 12 years after the near-universal ratification of the UNCRC, just 1 year before the creation of a Research Ethics Committee (REC) at the author’s university, and at the height of scholarship within the ‘new sociology of childhood’ (James et al., 1998). In this context of a time before university RECs, the author offers some retrospective reflections on doing research with marginalised children without ‘formal’ ethical approval, addressing questions about ‘real ethics’ and ‘tick box ethics’ to think about how we might move away from risk-averse perceptions of ethical processes.

A fundamental aim is to question entrenched assumptions about children and the persistence of fear and apprehension about including children in research projects. Specifically, this chapter attempts to shed light on these ongoing fears by addressing the conceptual, procedural and disembodied notions of child-centred research ethics.