Spaces of Participation in Pre‐School: Arenas for Establishing Power Orders?

This article reports an ethnographic study of pre‐school children's social knowledge domains. Results show how the children's shared knowledge concerning social status and social differentiation in the group was strengthened and confirmed during a traditional teacher‐led ring game, where they were supposed to choose a friend. We suggest that from the perspective of the children, the game situation may be understood as, at the same time, a space of participation and an arena for establishing the power order. From the perspective of the teacher, pedagogical intentions may be challenged as they encounter and are mediated and interpreted by children's peer‐cultures.     

Children's agency and its contradictions in the context of transnational labour migration from Vietnam

In this article, we contribute to the growing and diverse literature on the lived experiences of children and their agency in the context of migration. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with children whose migrant parents have left them behind, as well as with those who care for them in Vietnam, we demonstrate that the various ways in which they affect migration decision‐making and transnational communication shape the children's imaginations of migration. The context‐specific social construction of childhood, or more specifically adult perceptions of children's agency and needs, in turn structures these processes. We emphasize the need for debates on children's agency to take into account both broader socio‐economic processes at the macro level and the concrete and local scale at which children's lives unfold. By outlining how children's experiences of parental migration are constitutive of their attitudes toward this livelihood strategy, we also argue that the ability of those ‘left‐behind’ to exercise agency is closely intertwined with processes of social becoming and navigation in the transnational social fields constructed for them by adults.     

Children's participation in ethnographic research: Issues of power and representation

The recognition of children's social agency and active participation in research has significantly changed children's position within the human and social sciences and led to a weakening of taken‐for‐granted assumptions found in more conventional approaches to child research. In order to hear the voices of children in the representation of their own lives it is important to employ research practices such as reflexivity and dialogue. These enable researchers to enter into children's ‘cultures of communication’. Drawing on detailed examples from an ethnographic study on child health and self‐care, the article examines issues of power, voice and representation central to the discussion of children's participation.     

Children's talk and social competence

This article reviews research on the organisation of children's talk. It outlines the range of disciplinary concerns that contribute to the study of children's talk, and focuses on a range of work which foregrounds linkages between children's talk, social interaction and wider social processes. Paying particular attention to studies in conversation analysis, the emphasis is on how talk in peer‐group and in child‐adult interaction contributes to various theoretical and practical interests in children and society.     

Learning language regimes: Children's representations of minority language education

Minority language education initiatives often aim to resist dominant language regimes and to raise the social status of migrant or autochthonous minorities. We consider how participating children experience these alternative language regimes by analysing drawings made by children in two minority education settings—a Slovene‐German bilingual school in Austria and an Isthmus Zapotec (Indigenous) language and art workshop in Mexico. We examine how children's drawings represent language regimes in the social spaces they inhabit. Considering these drawings in relation to ethnographic observations and interviews with educators, we illustrate differences between how the social spaces are planned by educators and how they are represented and experienced by learners. Generally speaking, the children in our studies depict flexible, multilingual experiences and spaces, in contrast to the educators’ agendas of separating or emphasizing languages for pedagogical purposes. Mexican children's perception of themselves as participants in fluid language regimes, and Austrian children's increasing appropriation of multilingual space over time through both (school‐like) routines and (fun) exceptions can inform the efforts of minority language educators.     

Childhood Career Development in Mainland China: A Research and Practice Agenda

Career development in adolescence and adulthood has been widely researched; however, less is known about childhood career development, particularly in non‐Western cultures. This is especially the case in mainland China, where children grow up in a unique context. The Confucian tradition of emphasizing education as an important social ladder and parents' role in their children's development may restrict children's development of career‐planning skills. By contrast, the shift from a planned economy to a market economy enables individuals to choose careers and demands that individuals have career‐planning skills. The elementary school years could be a starting point to develop such skills by providing career guidance for children. This article considers childhood career development in mainland China, discusses the status quo of childhood career development research and practice, and considers an agenda for future research and practice.     

Civic and Political Participation of Children and Adolescents: A Lifestyle Analysis for Positive Youth Developmental Programs

Social participation plays a key role in predicting positive youth development (PYD). As a previous step of this link, this research examined how children and adolescents' relational lifestyles influenced their participation in political and civic activities. This research provides a multi‐dimensional approach to the study of children's social participation, based on six children's lifestyles factors (i.e. family dialogue, risky behaviours, cultural activities, civic values, family supervision and peer group relationships). Using data from an international survey that included 6130 participants (2198 Spanish, 3932 Italian, Mage = 13.8), this study's results show that relational lifestyles (especially family dialogue and out‐of‐school cultural activities) are positively related to political and civic participation among children and adolescents. On the contrary, some peer group relationships decreased their social participation in those key dimensions for PYD. Limitations of the current study, implications for future policy decisions and applications to children social programs are discussed.     

Adolescents’ Daily Experience of Fathers’ Emotional Support and Self‐Evaluation in Korea

Recently, fathers’ role in children's development has been recognized internationally. In Asian countries, similar conversations have emerged but there has been a lack of empirical studies that considered the unique cultural contexts. As a response, based on Bronfenbrenner's process‐person‐context‐time model, the present study examined the daily dynamics and individual differences in the experience of fathers’ emotional support and self‐evaluation in social roles among 283 Korean adolescents in 5th and 8th grade. Through Hierarchical Linear Modeling, within‐person associations between adolescents’ experience of fathers’ emotional support and self‐evaluation in social roles on the same day and the next day were found, with individual differences by grade level and family affluence. Theoretical and practical implications within the relevant cultural context are discussed.     

Children's work and children's well‐being: Implications for policy

This article argues for holistic consideration of children's work. Dominant discourse on “child labour” attends only to dangers of children's work, leading to policies that damage some children's chances for development. Far from being universally negative in children's lives, appropriate work contributes to their well‐being and development, and to transitions to adulthood. Children's work can convey benefits for sustenance and quality of life, provide learning to complement and support school, offer psycho‐social benefits, particularly in building self‐esteem, and help develop social relations and responsibility. These benefits are especially critical for marginalized children. Common policies of abolishing child labour based on age of employment rather than potential harm deny such benefits to younger children.     

Children's experience of public space

Children and young people regard the external physical environment as important for their needs. Their use of space varies according to age and circumstance and includes designated play and leisure facilities as well as other informal areas within their neighbourhoods. However, children have little influence over the development of public space as they do not have the opportunity to contribute their views to local processes. This paper explores children's and young people's views and experience of public space in regeneration areas. It considers whether children's perspectives are accurately reflected in public policy. It draws on primary research with young people aged ten to 14 years and representatives from local organisations in a disadvantaged urban area in Scotland.     

THE ROLE OF PARENTS IN THE MAINTENANCE OF SECOND GENERATION VIETNAMESE CULTURAL BEHAVIORS

Although previous research shows that biculturalism is adaptive for the children of immigrants, in the United States there is a great deal of pressure for assimilation. This study examines whether parents who model cultural behaviors and encourage interaction with co-ethnics increase the likelihood that their adult children will engage in cultural behaviors. Data are from a survey of second generation Vietnamese members between the ages of 18 and 30 (N=66) living in Atlanta. Results indicate parents' cultural behaviors (speaking and reading) affect adult children's cultural skills and the ethnic composition of their social networks enhances the likelihood that their children's networks are ethnically based. Moreover, the parents' influence is direct, not mediated by children's social networks. Mothers exert stronger influence than fathers, but respondents' own gender does not predict cultural retention. We discuss results in terms of implications for maintaining ethnic cultures in a context that encourages assimilation.     

The Promotion of Children's and Adolescents’ Social Participation in Italy and Scotland

This article presents the theoretical framework, methodology and the main results of a comparative research on the promotion of children's social participation in Italy and Scotland, which was based on politicians’, managers’ and practitioners’ representations. Promotion of participation here is considered a form of social intervention in which adults construct and treat children as citizens entitled to be involved in decision‐making processes, due to their competence in self‐expression and making choices. The study revealed a coexistence of different images of childhood and social intervention, as well as some interesting differences and similarities between the two socio‐cultural contexts.     

Understanding Gender Differences in Context: Implications for Young Children's Everyday Lives

This article reviews recent UK‐based research that has prioritised children's accounts of their experiences of their daily lives, and focuses on gender differences in these accounts of family life, friendships, use of public space, use of out‐of‐school care, popular culture and consumption, and children's views of gender differences—drawing mainly from research with children in middle childhood. It then discusses some of the implications for practice and training for a range of professionals working with children. The article suggests that a re‐evaluation of theories of gender differences in practitioner textbooks could usefully be undertaken to integrate more sophisticated, contextual notions of gender identities based on children's experiences. Copyright © 2006 The Author(s).     

Developing a Common Language in Children's Services through Research‐based Inter‐disciplinary Training

Two sources of inertia to improving services for children in need are the difficulties of getting evidence into practice and the complications of inter‐agency working. Current training arrangements in social work and disparities between children's services professions as regards training requirements are contributory factors. The Common Language project is a work in progress, adopting a research‐based, inter‐disciplinary approach to working with social workers and other children's services professionals. It comprises core ideas and methods to complement the more specialist knowledge and skills required in each profession. Underpinned by a child development perspective and a scientific development cycle, it rests on a conceptual framework including need, threshold, service and outcome. The approach has three components (each of which includes training): (1) the implementation of practice tools; (2) the planning and development of integrated services; and (3) supporting materials, including practitioner‐orientated modules and a curriculum for PhD students. Distinguishing features include research utilisation, notably a focus on inculcating research‐mindedness as opposed to imparting findings, and also collaborative professional working, in particular via practical connections between different agencies, stakeholders and countries. The project is being evaluated in terms of uptake, change in professional thinking and practice and effects on child well‐being. Next steps for the project relate to broader lessons for social work training emerging from research and development elsewhere.     

Participation for children exposed to domestic violence? Social workers' approaches and children's strategies

This article explores social workers' approaches to children exposed to domestic violence and children's strategies in encounters with these professionals in the context of family law proceedings. Investigator approaches as well as child strategies are reconstructed from children's narratives. Furthermore, possible links between the social worker's approach described by a particular child, and the child's own strategies are outlined. Participation can offer children validation of their experiences and support their recovery after exposure to violence. However, it is suggested that it seems to be a challenging task for social workers to both validate children's experiences of violence and simultaneously offer them participation in the investigation process.     

The Relationship Between Maternal Education and Children's Academic Outcomes: A Theoretical Framework

The importance of maternal education for children's academic outcomes is widely recognized, and yet the multiple potential mechanisms that explain this relationship are underexplored. The authors integrate theories of human, cultural, and social capital with 2 developmental psychology theories—bioecological theory and developmental niche theory—to draw attention to how maternal education may influence children's academic outcomes through a range of parenting mechanisms, some of which have been largely neglected in research. This framework provides a more complete picture of how maternal education shapes proximal and distal influences on children's academic outcomes and the ways in which these mechanisms interact and reinforce one another across time and context. The implications of this framework for future family research are then discussed.     

Ambivalence in the Relationship of Adult Children to Aging Parents and In‐Laws

The concept of ambivalence emphasizes the complexity of family relations and the potential for individuals to evaluate relationships as both positive and negative. Using multilevel models, we investigate ambivalence in adult children's relationships with their aging parents and in‐laws (N= 1,599). We focus on factors predicting adult children's ambivalence toward parents and in‐laws within a gendered kinship structure that shapes these relations. We conclude that ambivalence is a useful concept for representing the complexity of parent‐child relationships and is produced within the context of social relations structured by gender and kinship. Results show greater ambivalence among dyads of women, toward in‐laws, among those in poor health, for daughters providing assistance, and for adult children with poor parental relations in early life.     

Researching the Social Worlds of Autistic Children: An Exploration of How an Understanding of Autistic Children's Social Worlds is Best Achieved

Since United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, social research has encouraged the involvement of children in research concerning them. However, there is little evidence to demonstrate how autistic children can be involved. Little is known about which methods are appropriate to research the social worlds of autistic children: adult‐centred or child‐centred methods? Empirical research with autistic children is used to illustrate the contribution that methods which involve children, and methods that do not, can make to the understanding of autistic children's social worlds. I argue while autistic children's participation contributed towards greater understanding, the understanding was enriched for having parents and teachers participate too.     

Children's perspectives on their economic activity—Diversity,motivations and parental awareness

This research investigates how children from an affluent city in the UK exercise agency to construct their economic worlds. A survey (n = 484) showed that children (ages 10 to 14 years) conduct a range of monetary and non‐monetary activities. A second study (n = 83) with diaries, self‐documentation, and parental questionnaires, showed that children's economic activity involves individual and social motivations, occurs in formal and informal contexts, and is often self‐regulated. Parents acknowledge children's monetary activities and neglect non‐monetary activities. The results suggest that children's agency unfolds in diverse economic activities shaped by contextual factors and interactions with peers and parents, thereby supporting a relational view of children's agency.