A new paradigm for the sociology of childhood?

Let US tell YOU! South Asian, Muslim girls tell tales about physical education

“…Increasingly young people are being viewed as experts in their own lives (Hill, Prout, and Tisdall 2004), rather than 'cultural dopes' (Prout and James 1997). Although acknowledged in legislation (The Children Act 2004); policy (Department for Education and Skills 2004); human rights (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child); and research in childhood studies (James, Jenks, and Prout 1998), PE research has been slow to value the insights of young people.…”

Transformational design literacies: children as active place-makers

“…Holloway and Valentine (2000) stress the necessary epistemological break from previous sociological work that studies children as social actors, suggesting an imperative to understand children 'as beings in their own right rather than pre-adult becomings'. Within this new social studies of childhood children's interactions with adults position them as active local citizens of today who are capable of bringing a uniquely valuable perspective to civic discourse (Mannion 2003): in other words children are perceived as 'beings' and not 'becomings' (Prout and James 1997). This sense of agency has been described by Dale and Onyx as 'the capacity to take the initiative and be proactive' and recognizes young people's accumulated skills, knowledge and competence from working with community members.…”

Play from the Perspective of Future Pedagogues’ Childhood and Adulthood

“…Viewing children as participants in the construction of their own childhood and in the production of the adult world [14], or children as social actors who construct their everyday life and the world around them [15] influenced a shift of focus in childhood research from the perspective of adults -"top-down" to the perspective of children -"bottom-up" [16] and on research methodology: from quantitative to qualitative, interpretative methodology. The interpretative research approach acknowledges the construction of meaning, meaning making in sociocultural frameworks.…”