Listening with children: Research, Policy and Practice

This paper explores the related concerns of ethics and method in developing child centred research practice. This paper draws from our report, "Listening to children: Children’s stories of domestic violence” (Hogan and O’Reilly, 2007, commissioned by the National Children’s Office). This research is framed with a vision of children, even those who have experienced violent and fractured childhoods, as being competent subjects in a social world. The main focus of discussion here is the ethical issues involved in including and interviewing children in research which explores sensitive intimate details of their lives. This paper also offers a discussion on methodological dilemmas where key methodological decisions are based on ethical concerns.