Hallet, Christine & Prout, Alan. (Eds.). (2003).
Hearing the Voices of Children: Social Policy for a New
Century. N.Y., N.Y.: RoutledgeFalmer.
Pp. xv + 264
$27.95 ISBN 0-415-27642-X
Reviewed by Lisa Miller
Arizona State University
August 4, 2005
This book is concerned with introducing the
child’s voice to the social policy arena and examining the
various discourses related to children and children’s
services. The content of this book may be beneficial reading for
sociologists, academics, and researchers interested in the study
of childhood, education, and social policy. Those involved in
social, child, and family services may also find it of interest.
Public policymakers would benefit tremendously from many of the
chapters.
Both qualitative and quantitative methods of research can be
seen throughout the book and I was pleased to find numerous
instances of interviews involving children. Voices of the
younger generation can be heard and are valued as relevant,
credible sources of information for interviews, questionnaires,
surveys, etc. A theme of how to include children and increase
their participation in a number of social policy arenas weaves
its way through the research included. A variety of lenses were
also used to analyze the historical frameworks as well as current
issues surrounding policy and policy making with regard to
children including feminist ethos, the new sociology of
childhood, and critical theory.
As is true of much of current research in the
field of policy issues, the contributing authors represent
European and Western countries thus providing a very Euro centric
perspective. Although this raises issues with regard to narrow
representation, I was able to somehow not be quite so offended by
this lack of cultural diversity because children had been given a
voice which has not been true of the majority of social policy
research that I have encountered. I long for the day when I can
get my hands on a text that offers scholarly contributions from a
broad cultural contingency and includes the voices of children
and families.
Historically, social policy research has neglected
a critical component, that of the voices of those whom the policy
directly impacts, children. Children have not been considered as
having a voice and typically have been thought of as objects
which policymakers have felt a need to protect on the one hand
and to protect society from on the other. The age old discourse
of children as being in danger and at the same time being
dangerous. While including children in the creation and
implementation of social policy is admittedly costly as well as
time consuming, the benefits far outweigh the costs.
The first section of the text is dedicated to
research that focused on hearing children’s voices. The
active participation of children in policy making is advocated in
Moira Rayner’s chapter, “The Citizen Child”.
She examines the implementation of a Children’s Rights
Commissioner in London whose office is committed to eliminating
children’s rights and interests being seen as
“residual or ‘welfare’ government
business.” The board of the OCRCL committed to
establishing and running an office that was and is dedicated to
the inclusion of children and their perspectives in all aspects
of local governance. Children who had traditionally been
marginalized and excluded were brought to the forefront to be
given voice and a chance to be involved. This project is
commendable and could easily be used as a model for other cities
and regions in the UK and elsewhere.
Part two addresses the various discourses of
childhood. Foley, et al., focus on the ambivalence seen in law
and policy issues when decisions are made about what should be
done for children. They critically articulate what occurs on the
legal front when children are “visible” in policy
issues. Despite the children’s rights discourse of late,
childhood is still viewed in a political dimension and children
have not been taken seriously except in criminal cases and those
of anti-social behavior. There still remains a very distinct
divide between the public and the private. The authors cite
“familialisation” as central to the lack of division
between the needs of children and those of parents. Often
services and policies with regard to children are bound by
assumptions such as this. Rights and voices of children continue
to be masked by government’s political priorities.
Children and services are highlighted in section
three. Mullender, et al., present an eye opening study from a
feminist ethos about domestic violence and the silencing of
children’s voices within this arena. They successfully put
children’s experiences with and understanding of domestic
violence at the forefront of a multi-method, multi-stage, two
phase, and quantitative and qualitative study. The chapter
resonates with the voices of children and a key finding of their
study is that open communication during early interventional
services as well as in the aftermath of domestic abuse must be
developed further than it has in the past between mothers and
their children. The silence that is often created between the
two due to attempts on both sides to shelter one another must be
erased. If intervention strategies cut across informal support
networks they will not be helpful, as children tend to access
informal support far more often than formal. This study
reinforced what many educators already know to be true,
children’s voices are ignored more often than they are
acknowledged even in situations involving domestic violence where
they are both direct and indirect victims.
The final section of the text presents research
with regard to resources for children. Bradshaw has determined
that there is a need to create new measures of child health in
industrial nations, methods that “pick up the impact of
poverty”. His chapter provides a lot of quantitative data,
however, it lacks the qualitative aspect of actual
children’s voices. Yes, they were included in surveys and
responses but this piece would be much more convincing had it
included actual voices, detailed responses elaborating feelings
and emotions tied to the indices he measured.
Those who have read Polakow’s The Assault
on America’s Children: Poverty, violence and juvenile
injustice and found it to be of interest will also glean
many insights from this text. Current discourse related to the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child complement
much of the research contained in this book although much of it
neglects to follow through on said discussion. I am reminded of
the work done by Ralph Petersen and MaryAnn Eeds with regard to
classroom communities. While their work focuses on the
classroom, it highlights the significant impact the voices of
children can have on a community, whether it be a community of
learners or the community at large. I also thought of Vivian
Paley who has so expertly documented her students’ voices,
again in a classroom context but she has given educators and
researchers alike insight that could not be gained had she not
been so attentive to the discourse within her classroom.
I appreciate the research that has been included
in this text. While much of it is limited in cultural context,
it is rich in representation of the children’s voices that
it does include. Children are citizens now not just when they
are grown. They should be valued rather than marginalized, and
respected rather than pacified. There is no better time than the
present to admit that we must put the younger generation at the
top of our priority list and include them in our policy making
decisions. How can we expect them to be the leaders of today or
tomorrow when we continually put them in a place where the only
role is to follow?
About the Reviewer
Lisa Miller is a doctoral student in Curriculum and
Instruction with and Early Childhood focus at Arizona State
University. Her current research emphasis is on migrant Mexican
children from the Sonora region and the negative impact that both
social and political discourses have had and continue to have on
their lives as well as their education. She is also a
kindergarten teacher and director of Calvary Academy in Tempe,
Arizona.
Copyright is retained by the first or sole author,
who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.
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