ETHICS IN RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN IN SCHOOL CONTEXT

This paper attempts to provide an overview of ethical issues related to social research with children in school context. It sets the discussion in the context of current debates about researching children in Europe, namely the Sociology of Childhood. In Portugal since 2000 there was an increase in the demand for children’s voices to be heard and their opinions to be sought in matters that affect them. The Portuguese government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 witch considerers in article 12 children’s right to participation: “1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. 2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law”. However, for a long time were not considered ethical procedures in the research with children, namely in school context. Some ethical procedures were considered, including applications for authorization made to schools management and teachers but almost never to children.
From several perspectives and lines of research developed in the last two decades, this paper tries to respond mainly two issues: the first regards the reasons which led to the (recent) emergence of the discussion about ethical issues in research with children; the second on the idea that children began to assume an important place in social theorizing about childhood and today, the legitimate role of the child in decisions about research participation is recognized. It would be identify some principles that help the adult researcher in research work with children in the school context. The paper concludes with an ethical roadmap for research with children.