About the Children and Young People as Social Actors research
The well-being and rights of children and young people (including those with disabilities) are the focus of this research cluster. Our research concerns how children participate in and contribute to society and how their growing competence is supported or placed at risk in this process. Children's voice and the extent to which it is heard and acted upon in families, the legal, health, social welfare and education systems, are a key theme of the Cluster's research interests.
We are committed to understanding children's experiences and conducting research that includes and values children and young people's perspectives. Central to this are research approaches and methods that enhance children and young people's participation in research and respect their rights throughout the research process. We have particular expertise in conducting research with children and young people and the methodological and ethical issues related to research involving children and young people. Theoretical frameworks include ecological, sociology of childhood, poststructuralist and socio-cultural perspectives, and Childhood Studies, that challenges traditional views of children as vulnerable, incompetent and powerless and instead regards children as:
… social actors, who have purpose, and who influence as well as being influenced; as people who construct relationships and childhoods, and who can report on and discuss their experience. (Mayall, 1999, p. 12)
The Children and Young People as Social Actors research cluster was established in 2003 by Professor Anne Smith and is now administered through the Children's Issues Centre.
Coordinator
- Professor Nicola Taylor, Children's Issues Centre
Cluster Membership
Currently, the Cluster has a cross-disciplinary membership, with members from the following University of Otago departments and centres:
- Children's Issues Centre
- College of Education
- Faculty of Law
- Department of Geography
- Department of Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry
- Department of Preventive and Social Medicine
- Department of Sociology, Gender and Social Work
- Social and Community Work
- Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology
- Te Tumu School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies
Acknowledgement and tributes
The Cluster acknowledges with sadness the deaths of five respected colleagues and valued members of the Cluster:
- Emeritus Professor Anne B. Smith (May 2016)
- Professor Judith Duncan (March 2015)
- Lyn Foote (December 2014)
- Dr Tamar Murachver (January 2013) and
- Professor Anne Bray (June 2008)
Tributes to Anne B. Smith and Anne Bray
The Cluster is deeply saddened by the passing of Emeritus Professor Anne B. Smith, Inaugural Director of the Children's Issues Centre who established the Cluster in 2003. Anne's scholarship and commitment to children's rights and well-being leave an enduring legacy.
Read a tribute to Anne B. Smith
Read a Tribute to Anne Bray (PDF, 165KB)
Cluster Members and Research Interests
- Associate Professor Christina Ergler
- Dr Sonya Gaches
- Dr Michael Gaffney
- Professor Anita Gibbs
- Professor Alex Gunn
- Associate Professor Bryndl Hohmann-Marriott
- Associate Professor Emily Keddell
- Professor Karen Nairn
- Dr Fathimath Shiraani
- Dr Judith Sligo
- Dr Lee Smith
- Professor Nicola Taylor
- Professor Patrick Vakaoti
Associate Professor Christina Ergler
Department of Geography
email: christina.ergler@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 470 4647
Christina is an Associate Professor in Social Geography in the Department of Geography at Otago. Her research interests lie at the crossroads of geography, sociology and public health. In the past, she has been largely interested in the geographies of health and wellbeing that relate to inequalities in experiencing and utilising urban environments from the perspectives of families. Through this work she started to develop methodological approaches that acknowledge children's expertise or what she calls "beyond passive participation".
Dr Sonya Gaches
University of Otago College of Education
email: sonya.gaches@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 8949
Sonya Gaches' research interests include how policy, practices and issues of social justice and inclusion impact children's rights, voice and participation in their away-from-home lives. Additionally, Sonya's research has focused on intersections of teachers' narratives, children's and families' lives and policy effects on the experiences of and relationships between teachers, children and families.
Dr Michael Gaffney
University of Otago College of Education
email: michael.gaffney@otago.ac.nz
Michael Gaffney has been involved in a number of research areas: early childhood and school policy in New Zealand; the use of computers in New Zealand schools; children's video and television; access arrangements for children following parental separation; early childhood professional development; disability studies; and links between school culture and bullying and school-wide approaches to behaviour management.
Professor Anita Gibbs
Department of Sociology, Gender and Social Work
email: anita.gibbs@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 5677
Anita Gibbs's research interests include: fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD); inter-country adoption policy and practice; auto-ethnographic research and service user voice; the needs of fostered and adopted children; transcultural parenting; and hidden disabilities.
Professor Alex Gunn
University of Otago College of Education
email: alex.gunn@otago.ac.nz
I am interested in beliefs and practices, and in how the things we do in education come to reflect and produce taken-for-granted norms. Furthermore, I am intrigued by how we take up so-called norms of practice in ways that enable and constrain the authorisation of particular subjects, understandings and ideas.
Associate Professor Bryndl Hohmann-Marriott
Department of Sociology, Gender and Social Work
email: bryndl.hohmann-marriott@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 8753
Bryndl Hohmann-Marriott is an Associate Professor in Sociology. As a family demographer, she focuses on young children's family environment. Some of Bryndl's research has examined fathers' involvement with young children, and her current work explores the processes of adding siblings to a family.
Associate Professor Emily Keddell
Department of Sociology, Gender and Social Work
email: emily.keddell@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 9019
Emily Keddell's research interests include: the links between child welfare policies and socio-political contexts, judgment and decision-making in child protection social work, and ethnic identities including the construction of multiple ethnicities.
Professor Karen Nairn
University of Otago College of Education
email: karen.nairn@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 8619
My research portfolio is interdisciplinary with contributions to education, youth studies, qualitative research, and geography education. My current research focuses on youth identities, post-school transitions and creative methodologies for researching with young people. My book (with Jane Higgins & Judith Sligo, 2012) Children of Rogernomics: A neoliberal generation leaves school connects the stories of young people with the wider social and economic story of NZ during the last three decades. I am currently developing another strand of teaching and research with a new postgraduate course Writing for publication in the Social Sciences which I introduced in 2015.
Dr Fathimath Shiraani
Department of Tourism
email: fathimath.shiraani@otago.ac.nz
Fathimath Shiraani is a PhD student studying at the University of Otago Tourism Department, under the supervision of Professor Neil Carr and Dr Gill Rutherford. Her current research interest lies in exploring lived travel and tourism experiences of children with disabilities. The multidisciplinary nature of this study allows her to investigate the intersections between tourism; disability; and childhood studies. Additionally, Shiraani enjoys teaching – from 2014 she has been working as a tutor for the University of Otago (Department of Management; and Disability Information and Support). Frequently she engages in voluntary roles, with recent work done with the Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council as an Executive Member and a Coordinator of a migrant women's group.
Dr Judith Sligo
Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine ,
Dunedin School of Medicine
email: judith.sligo@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 7223
Judith Sligo is the manager of the Next Generation Studies at the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit. These studies focus on the children and stepchildren of the Dunedin Study cohort. She has also been involved in several different research projects with children and young people, including a project looking at young people's transition from school, participation in public life and socializing without drinking alcohol. She recently completed her PhD, which focused on young people's transition from compulsory education into further education and paid work. Judith Sligo's research interests include children, young people and their families; social policy; parenting; research methods.
Dr Lee Smith
Department of Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry
email: lee.smith@otago.ac.nz
Lee Smith has recently undertaken a number of collaborative studies focusing on children's/young people's experiences of oral health and their rights during oral health care. Currently, she is leading a study exploring Pasifika adolescents' conceptualisations of oral health and their past experiences of oral health care. Study findings, in collaboration with Pasifika peoples, oral health care workers, and interested stakeholders, will be used to design a more culturally competent model of oral health care, which is aimed at addressing the poorer oral health outcomes of Pasifika youth and inequities in access to oral health services. Dr Smith also has an interest in gender-sexuality and has previously undertaken a number of studies with queer youth.
Professor Nicola Taylor
Children's Issues Centre
email: nicola.taylor@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 4919
Nicola Taylor is the Director of the Children's Issues Centre. She undertakes socio-legal research with children, young people, parents and professionals (primarily judges, lawyers, social workers, psychologists and parenting support staff) on a broad range of child and family law, welfare and parenting issues - particularly those concerning separation/divorce; guardianship; day-to-day care; contact; relocation; abduction; care and protection; the impact of legal and welfare proceedings on children and families; the participation and views of children in family law proceedings; judicial meetings with children; international law and human rights issues affecting children; rural childhood; citizenship and nation building; the ethics of research involving children and young people; the discipline and guidance of children; strengthening parenting in Southland; New Zealand university graduate longitudinal outcomes. She is also a Board member of the Childwatch International Research Network (based in Norway) and co-chairs their Thematic Groups on Children and the Law and Child Research Ethics.
Professor Patrick Vakaoti
Te Tumu School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies
email: patrick.vakaoti@otago.ac.nz
phone: +64 3 479 3074
Patrick Vakaoti is interested in sociological and community development work with young people. His research based mostly in Fiji and the Pacific focus on young people's issues like street-frequenting and political participation.
Research
Dislocation following the Christchurch earthquake: Children and young people's experiences, University of Otago Research Grant (2011-2012)
This Cluster-initiated study investigated the temporary and permanent dislocation of children and young people from their homes after the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010/2011. The perspectives of 94 children and young people who relocated to Dunedin and Central Otago and those who remained in Christchurch were ascertained. The experiences of schools that accommodated relocated children were also investigated. This research will make an important contribution to knowledge about children's post-disaster recovery and to the development of improved post-disaster planning mechanisms.
Researchers: Associate Professor Claire Freeman, Megan Gollop, Associate Professor Nicola Taylor and Dr Karen Nairn
Publications
Two special-issue journals and an edited book have been produced
- Higgins, N., & Freeman, C. (Eds.). (2013). Childhoods: Growing up in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Dunedin: Otago University Press. (An edited, Cluster-initiated book with chapters from 17 Cluster members).
Download a copy of the New Book Information for Childhoods: Growing up in Aotearoa/New Zealand (PDF, 450 KB) - Childrenz Issues, 13(1), 2009, 'Children and Young People's Identities and Experiences', edited by Megan Gollop. (A collection of papers from 10 Cluster members). For a copy of Childrenz Issues, 13(1), 2009, 'Children and Young People's Identities and Experiences'
contact Megan Gollop at megan.gollop@otago.ac.nz - International Journal of Children's Rights, 15(1), 2007, 'Children and Young People as Social Actors', edited by Anne Smith. (A publication arising out of the 2006 'Children and Young People as Social Actors' research symposium).
Advocacy
Submission to the Ministry of Social Development on the Green Paper on Vulnerable Children (2012)
In 2011 the Government released the Green Paper on Vulnerable Children - a discussion paper about how New Zealand can better protect abused, neglected and disadvantaged children. The 'Children and Young People as Social Actors' Research Cluster made a submission in 2012.
Download a copy of the submission on the Families Commission Amendment Bill (2012) (50KB