Ethnography and Discourse Analysis: Dilemmas in Representing the Voices of Children

Particular ethical and political dilemmas arise in representing the lives of people who are marginalised within, and by, the domain of public knowledge. In order to remain critically self-aware about the decisions we take as researchers we need to be able to make explicit both the nature of the dilemmas we face, and the losses, as well as gains, that result from our decisions. This chapter discusses some of the representational dilemmas of research work with children, that is, issues arising in our production of research accounts for dissemination in the public sphere. What claims to represent children’s voices can adult researchers legitimately make? And what meanings may we unwittingly reinforce as we make such public re/presentations?