Is silencing children unethical? Gatekeeping, rights and ethics.
Harry Shier Note: This blog post is a personal reflection by the author. It does not reflect the views of the ERIC team, or of any research team or institution the author is or has been a part of. Despite recent progress in broadening our understanding of ethics in research with children (much of it […]
Promoting dignity in research involving children: An Afrocentric perspective.
Kathomi Gatwiri I am an African, and I love telling stories. One of my favourite stories to tell about dignity and recognition is about my first graduation day. It was customary then, that on one’s graduation day, people from your village gather at your university to celebrate your success. They celebrate and embody your success […]
Navigating complexity, risk and benefit in ‘sensitive’ research with children
Helen Beckett, Camille Warrington, Claire Soares What’s the issue? Whilst there is a growing recognition of the importance of involving children and young people in research, this does not yet equally extend to all areas of research or all groups of children and young people. This is particularly true of research on topics that are […]
Building ERIC together: Are we there yet?
By The ERIC Team Visitors to ERIC now join us from all over the world – 179 countries to date – with website statistics indicating the ERIC resources are viewed or downloaded by 2,500 – 3,500 visitors per month. This, together with other feedback we receive, suggests the resources are valued by a wide range of […]
Addressing ethical issues with children: A children’s rights-based approach
Laura Lundy, Michelle Templeton, Katrina Lloyd The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC or Convention) does not mention research directly, although its successful implementation depends up on it (Lundy and McEvoy, 2012). However, that does not mean that the Convention has nothing to offer researchers and nor does it mean that its provisions […]
Supporting children to make informed decisions about research participation
Julia Truscott It is now standard practice across most disciplines not only to seek consent from parents/carers but to honour children’s rights and dignity by informing them directly about research participation and seeking their own consent to take part. However, providing sufficient, clear and age-appropriate information to allow children to make a suitably informed decision, […]
Children’s images online: dilemmas of participatory research
Kay Tisdall, Marlies Kustatscher and Helen McAneney When – if ever – is it ethical to share images of children online for research purposes? We have found this a challenging question to answer. Our research is ever-increasingly online: we are carrying out research online, accelerated by the fall-out from COVID-19; we are working in […]
Anonymity or recognition? Seeking harmony in an ethical grey area between researcher and researched
Harry Shier What’s the issue here? In this blog I want to explore the problem of how to harmonise the apparent dissonance between the guarantee of anonymity we (researchers) are required to give to those children who engage in our research, and children’s desire to be seen, heard, identified, recognised and valued for what they […]
Ensuring research involving children with disabilities is inclusive, empowering and safe – what are the critical issues?
Stephen Thompson, Mary Wickenden and Mariah Cannon recently explored the main ethical challenges, and corresponding mitigation strategies, for involving children with disabilities in evidence generation. We discuss with them what important approaches researchers can take to ensure the ethical involvement of children with disability. How did you approach the project? We worked in partnership with […]
International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership’s Child and Youth Advisory Committee (CYAC)
The International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP) is a rights-based research collaboration, which was established following an international conference held at Ryerson University, Canada, in October 2015. The ICCRP involves scholars, researchers and practitioners from around the world. We asked their Child and Youth Advisory Committee (CYAC) to reflect upon the work of the Partnership, […]
