Researcher in Childhood Research: Attitudes, Beliefs, Their Manifestation and Change

Abstract

Modern childhood research is more and more positioned towards the child, his/her abilities to perceive himself/herself and the world. In this case, the child becomes the subject of the research who has his/her own “voice”. It is characteristic of the research when it is conducted in the interaction of childhood sociology and historical and cultural psychology. In such research, the introduction of the adult filter becomes especially complicated, because they are children, not adults, who represent their own world of childhood. It is attempted to start the research from the analysis of a particular child and his/her situation of being in the present. Thus the child’s changed status and his/her new social roles are acknowledged. Researchers think that children have their opinion on all the issues of life: educational, cultural, political, economical ones, etc. Involving children in the research, it is suggested that they need to be interviewed individually and information need to be collected, focusing on the fact that the information might be important not only to children but also to adults. Information also helps the researcher himself/herself better understand the modern world of childhood and the child. Adults are only involved in the research when it is attempted to find out the links by which they are related to children and the role they perform in their life.

Expression of the Needs of the Characters of Fairy Tales Created by Children Growing Up in Families at Social Risk and Their Satisfaction

“…It can be said that the fairy tales of children growing up in families at social risk illustrate theoretical statements about the peculiarities of social and personality development characteristic of this age period, unsatisfied or insufficiently satisfied physiological, social, emotional needs of the child. However, the most important thing is that the fairy tales of children growing up in families at social risk allow to look at the phenomena of these children's world from the child's perspective and, paraphrasing the words of D. Malinauskienė and A. Juodaitytė (2019), to understand more clearly what it means to be a child in a family at social risk.…”

“…In many countries, as the attitude towards children changes and children are perceived as a social group with a certain social status, there is an increasing focus on childhood research and various research from a child's perspective (e.g., Tangen, 2008;Maybin, 2012;Tay-Lim & Lim, 2013;Livesley & Long, 2013;Nimante et al, 2018;Rouvali & Riga, 2018;Malinauskienė & Juodaitytė, 2019;Urbina-García, 2019). Such research takes place focusing on the situation of the child's being in the present and allows to get to know the child's real experiences.…”