1. Conversations With Children
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Conversations With Children
Theoretical Possibilities for Progressing Participation
Anne Graham & Robyn Fitzgerald
Southern Cross University, Australia
May 2008

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Context …
The Centre for Children & Young People at Southern Cross University
interdisciplinary Centre
research, education and advocacy
collaboration - researchers,
practitioners, children & young people
rural and regional emphasis
May 2008

3. Current research projects include:
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Current research projects include:
Children & YP in out of home care
Children’s involvement in decision-making in family law
Children’s social and emotional wellbeing
Children’s spirituality
Rural childhoods
Children’s citizenship
Children & the law
May 2008

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Work draws on a range of theoretical interests - sociocultural theory, childhood studies, constructivism, poststructuralism, critical theory, complexity theory, futures studies, hermeneutics….
May 2008

5. Core interest… Linking the theory and practice of participation
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Core interest…
Linking the theory and practice of participation
YPBV - ‘Young People, Big Voice’
- Advice on Centre’s activities - guide research projects; participate in seminars, conferences; develop grant applications; prepare govt inquiry submissions etc
May 2008

6. Today’s Agenda
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Children’s participation is increasingly characterised by ambiguity and contestation - the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of participation requires ongoing critical engagement - resonance or dissonance between theory and practice?
When we ask children about participation they tell us it is about their recognition. Such calls for recognition immediately direct us to consider whether & how our participatory practices facilitate/promote their recognition.
Much of the theory and practice of children’s participation incorporates an implicit or explicit emphasis on conversation and dialogue.
Purpose of today’s paper? To think critically about whether and how ‘participation’ that incorporates ‘listening to the voices of children’ facilitates their recognition.
May 2008

7. The Paradox of Children’s Participation in Theory, Policy and Practice
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Developments in new childhood studies, children’s rights jurisprudence
and research and socio-cultural theory reveal the paradoxical nature
of children’s participation
In Principle
In Practice
Children want to be heard
Evidence base – better decisions, better policy, better practice, responsive and accountable institutions, safer kids, happier kids
It is a right
Barriers to children’s participation are considerable
Participatory initiatives often tokenistic
Children themselves unsure about purpose of participation and whether they want to participate
Broader debates about participation generally suggest participation itself is hard to define and practice
May 2008

8. What do children and young people at the CCYP say participation is?
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“Participation is when are you actively involved in something”
“Being involved in things you choose to be involved in…having a choice”
“Presenting an idea and following through with it”
“Not just saying you are going to do it, but doing it”
“I think it’s about contributing to society”
“When the international researchers came we were given the opportunity to contribute to how youth are portrayed…so that’s making a difference”
“Participation is about making a difference”
“Participation should be a choice”
Young People, Big Voice
16 February 2008
May 2008

9. What do other children and young people say about participation?
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“Participation should be respectful”
“Participation should enable change”
“Participation should be genuine”
“Participation should be multi-faceted and multi-layered”
“Participation includes having access to information” ? ?
See for example Stafford et al (2003);
Wierenga et al (2002); Smith et al (2003);
Cashmore & O’Brien (2001); Butler et al (2002)
May 2008

10. Participation as a Process of Recognition
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Children do not envisage participation simply in formal or universal terms
Children do envisage participation as a process that takes place in everyday relationships which initiate, support and facilitate them to enable change
Children’s accounts of participation turn on their need for recognition – of who they are (their identity), of their place in social, cultural and political life (their status) and of what they have to say (their voice).
May 2008

11. Participation as a Process of Recognition
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Children describe participation as an important event in their lives for enabling (and preventing) them to discover and negotiate, in positive ways, the essence of who they are and their place in the world.
This event is also an event of recognition, an event described by Anderson and Honneth as:
“a dynamic process in which individuals come to experience themselves as having a certain status, be it as a focus of concern, a responsible agent, or a valued contributor to shared projects”
(emphasis added)
Anderson and Honneth, 2005, p 131
May 2008

12. Participation as a Process of Recognition
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Children’s participation can be linked to 3 aspects or modes of recognition:
Self-confidence - underlying capability to express needs and desires without fear of abandonment but instead with a high estimation of ability
Self-respect - possession of universal dignity and self-reflexive agency as persons
Self-esteem - a sense of one’s uniqueness, difference, value
“Due recognition is not just a courtesy we owe people. It is a vital human need”.
Taylor (1995, p.226)
May 2008

13. Participation as a process of recognition….and misrecognition
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When participation is viewed as a process of recognition, it becomes something more than just a process which children are (or are not) invited to talk about their views, experiences, fears, desires and uncertainties: it becomes a process linked to identity formation - of self discovery and self affirmation - being and becoming.
When participation is viewed as a process of recognition, it should also be seen as a process which holds potential for misrecognition.
Nonrecognition or misrecognition can inflict harm, can be a form of oppression, imprisoning someone in a false, distorted, and reduced mode of being. (Taylor, 1995, p.225)
May 2008

14. Children’s Participation: A Struggle Over Recognition
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Children’s recognition is not a ‘given’ - it emerges out of exchange or struggle
Children’s struggle over recognition requires that we critically engage with the intricate web of power relations which invite, resist and exclude the recognition of children as important and valuable participants.
….almost all discourse about young people’s participation refers back at least implicitly to notions of power; less often, however, does that involve explicit identification, clarification and deconstruction of what is meant by power and how power operates. (Hill et al, 2004, p.89)
May 2008

15. Conversation and Dialogue
Rethinking our Potential for Facilitating the Recognition and Participation of Children: Conversation and Dialogue
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Recognition
Participation
Conversation
and Dialogue
May 2008

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Conversation and dialogue – the cornerstone of participation, i.e. a priority issue
…efforts, claims and demands of an
individual (child,
adult or organisation)
for the recognition
of children
From…
…the inter-subjective space of children’s participation, where conversations with parents, carers, teachers, caseworkers, lawyers, policy makers etc. generate new insights and shared understandings
To…
…a shift in focus…
May 2008

17. What is Conversation and Dialogue?
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‘new’
dialogue
‘principled’
dialogue
‘non-violent
approaches’ and
dialogue
‘bilateral’
dialogue
May 2008

18. an openness to change together
“Conversation”
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conversari
“to dwell” or “to keep company with”
an openness to change together
convertere
“to change”,
“to convert”, “to alter”,
“to refresh” or “to turn”
May 2008

19. What do we seek to recognize?
“Dialogue”
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“the word”
or “truth”
logos
What do we seek to recognize?
dia
Site of Struggle
“through”
May 2008

20. The Implications of Conversation and Dialogue for Children’s Participation
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A focus on the dialogical nature of participation brings to light a number of issues we must continue to grapple with …
May 2008

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“before we can simply ‘give a voice’ to children, we need to acknowledge that there are ambiguities involved in human communication, and that these ambiguities result from the ‘socialness’ of human interaction, discourses and practices”
—Komulainen, 2007, p13
May 2008

22. Something to think about…
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Do we invite children into conversation and dialogue or do we simply invite their views?
Do we place our own experience at risk when we ‘listen’ to children?
Does what the child is saying to me help me see ‘differently’?
Are we (together) able to generate new understandings? How do we represent these? How do we negotiate the ambiguities?
How have I been ‘changed’, ‘turned’, ‘converted’, ‘altered’ or ‘refreshed’ through the dialogical encounter with the child?
How is this reflected in the evaluation of our participatory initiatives?
May 2008

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Thank you
May 2008