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Listening to young children in order to elicit their views, consider their perceptions, and act upon their ideas has become increasingly prominent in policy and research with children. Momentum has gathered in this area since the 1989 United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child and the Children’s Act (2004) in the United Kingdom. These documents committed British policy to the inclusion of children’s voices in matters and services which impact on their lives. Educational research which promotes children’s voices tends to be dominated with projects which include older children, either in the upper stages of their primary education and above, or based in preschool and the transitional phase into schooling. This research gathers perceptions from three cohorts of children in Year 1 (aged 5-6) in England to find out what is important to them and considers the challenges and opportunities which these perceptions present. Using hand-held video cameras as a method of data collection the children filmed what was important to them. A range of activities were developed to support the children in their filming. These included puppetry, drawing, guided tours, interviewing, play and opportunities for filming at home. The children and their class teachers were invited to review and discuss the video clips with the researcher. A thematic content analysis was used to code and categorise the data. A reflexive approach is woven into the methodological discussion and is followed throughout the analysis and findings of the research. Findings indicate that the video methods used to capture children’s perceptions present ethical and methodological challenges. Despite this, the methods are advantageous in enabling a range of multi-faceted and complex relationships to come to the fore. Issues of personal ‘things’, space, rules and boundaries, both at home and at school draw attention to the environmental, physical and non-physical ‘containment’ which impacts on children’s lives. Teachers’ responses to the children’s video footage were influenced by their professional epistemology and experiences.

This thesis reports a programme of research which explored the gender-typing of prosocial behaviour by children and adolescents aged six- to eighteen-years old. In Study 1, children rated whether they believed girls or boys were more likely to perform prosocial behaviour. Results showed that across all ages, girls were thought of as more likely to perform prosocial actions, and this effect strengthened in adolescence. These results suggest that we can view prosocial behaviour as female-typed. Study 2 explored how varying the gender of the performer of prosocial behaviour might affect moral judgements of these actions. Results showed that at 12-13 years, participants judged prosocial behaviour by boys as ‘less good' than at other ages. At this age, boys may be judged less positively due to the social knowledge about prosocial behaviour being female-typed. Studies 3 and 4 explored how the gender-typing of prosocial behaviour may change across adolescence, using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods. Both results from a masculinity-femininity questionnaire and focus group discussions revealed that, from 12-13 years onwards, prosocial behaviours could be female- or male-typed. Furthermore, results revealed that behaviours were classified as such based on how they corresponded to broader gender role characteristics. Finally, Study 5 investigated how adolescents' gender beliefs about prosocial behaviour predicted their reports of performing those actions, with results showing that beliefs were indeed strong and accurate predictors of reports. It is concluded that prosocial behaviour is subject to categorisation by gender, and is related to gender throughout development. A summary of findings in Chapter 8 outlines this changing relationship, and implications for this area of research are discussed.

This thesis reports an investigation into the development of ethnic identity during middle childhood. It commences with a literature review on ethnic identification, attitudes and interactions and their dominant theories. It is argued that ethnic identity development is simultaneously cognitive and social and relates to cognitive changes, schemas and social relationships. This research combines different methodologies to explore the multifaceted nature of its development. The report of empirical work begins with an ethnography into ethnic interactions. Two critical themes are that children tended to play more with same-ethnic (ingroup) peers and expected these others to play together. This theme is examined in two experiments. 84 white, Asian and black children, aged 5,6-7, and 8-9 years, rated their own and white, Asian and black others' (,targets') liking for toys and foods. Ethnocentric inference (that ethnic ingroup members would like things similar to oneself) was found at 6-7 years. Verbal justifications from 8-9-year-olds indicate more sophisticated expectations about group members. A conceptual and methodological amalgamation of the last two phases was undertaken in three final studies. 220 7-year-old white and Asian children in same- or different-ethnic dyads discussed their preference for white and Asian targets. They also discussed targets' preferences for them and each other as pairs. Different-ethnic dyads had more difficulty resolving differences since each partner preferred an ingroup target. Same-ethnic dyads were more likely to select an ingroup target, pair ingroup targets together, and share their choices from the outset. Asian-dyads were more likely to reason by ethnicityIt is concluded that this investigation demonstrates that in middle childhood children prefer, identify and interact more with same-ethnic members. These processes are augmented by an emerging recognition that others sharing one's ethnicity also share deeper attributes. However, the relationship between identity components remains unclear and could be illuminated by further research

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In recent years there has been much interest in children's participation on an international and national level, based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and children's rights expressed ethically, morally, and legally. This culture of listening and viewing how children and young people participate in our changing world has been the focus of research, theoretical and political discourses, and debates. After reviewing the underpinning literature, this thesis examines and compares the reality of participation from data collected and analysed in three "stories of practice" (Eide and Winger, 2005:79). The main focus of my research was to explore how children and young people's voices were represented through multimodal methods as a means of participation. Researching three different "stories from practice" (Eide and Winger, 2005:79) I reflect on the issues of participation and the use of creative arts and media over a range of different settings, and the ways in which children and young people are consulted. This includes a consultation project of a local authority safeguarding children's board, a Creative Partnership project in a pupil referral unit, and a discussion with a group of young people who have experienced participation. The first two projects observed young people 'participating' in adult initiated activities and the third asked young people directly how they felt about their experiences and issues around participation. I examined the three different stages of my research drawing on the Mosaic approach (Clark and Moss, 2001), using a mixed methodology incorporating a range of qualitative data. The main findings of this research critically engage with recent debates and concepts surrounding participatory practices and methods, which ask whose agenda is being served, whose voice is being heard, and what is the purpose of participation. often leading to tokenism rather than participation being more inclusive for young people. The recommendations for practice that emerge are based on what the young people in the last stage of my research raised as being issues, where they had found that the process of participation had not been meaningful. Their main concerns were that practitioners should give more consideration to the way they communicate with children and young people; that they should actively listen; and most importantly to respond and be honest about how the young people's views will be used, and what changes they will affect.