Conversations with Children: Working with Generational Issues

Abstract

This chapter is about how adult researchers can learn about children’s knowledge. The basic assumption here is that we adults need to take account of children’s knowledge in the work of trying to understand relationships between social groups. Children constitute a social group, a permanent feature of society, and thus their knowledge of what it means to be a child and what it means to children to engage with adult individuals and adult social groups is needed as part of the task of improving our understanding of how the social order works. Complementary to such proper understanding is the need to consider what, if anything, should be done to improve the social condition of childhood.