Rethinking the adult child relationship:What happens when adults and children converse?

This paper will discuss the ’lived experiences’ as told by the adult and child participants, findings and implications for practice from my PhD thesis exploring how conversations shape an adult’s ability to understand a... [ view full abstract ]

This paper will discuss the ’lived experiences’ as told by the adult and child participants, findings and implications for practice from my PhD thesis exploring how conversations shape an adult’s ability to understand a child’s perspective.
Background
In light of the child’s rights agenda proposed in response to The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) governments are now considering the voice of children in policy making, where children are seen as citizens and have a right to be heard. With a growing recognition of the invisibility and marginalisation of children it is important that practitioners and policy makers find ways to hear the perspectives of children to inform thinking and create social change.
Methods
Narrative Inquiry Methodology was used to hear the stories of 4 alumni students from the Bachelor of Child and Family Studies (Griffith University, Australia) and 3 children (aged 5,7 and 9) to inquire into what happens when adults and children converse and how that impacts on their relationship. People’s lived experience are not the only focus of this inquiry, it is also an inquiry into the social, political, cultural and systemic narratives within the individual's experience and across landscapes.
Results
The resonant story threads across the stories included: building trusting relationships, power and agency in relationships and landscapes that enable or constrain conversations between adults and children.
Implications for Practice
It is proposed in order to develop pedagogical understandings of how adults work with children consideration needs to be given to the way in which childhood is socially constructed and the skills required by practitioners to talk with and listen to children.