3 Review(s)

The 1990s have been marked by a growing emphasis, in various professional contexts, on obtaining the views of clients, including children. This position is an international one, shared across the developed world, and encapsulated in the UN Convention on the rights of the child. This volume addresses the issues and practicalities surrounding the obtaining of children's views, particularly in the research context. It takes a deliberately and explicitly pluralist stance. Its distinctiveness rests on the scrutiny of methodological issues pertaining to the collection of children's views and the inclusion of sample data collection instruments. Thus it makes transparent issues about the rationale and means of collecting children's views. The book is structured around two main sections. The first examines five aspects of theoretical and conceptual issues (ethical issues and codes of conduct, children's rights, the legal perspective, developmental dimensions and sociological issues). The second section illustrates these aspects by focusing on methods and applications in obtaining children's views in specific projects.