This thesis has two distinct yet interrelated parts. In the first instance, it investigates child domestic work in Iringa ? a small town in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Second, it examines the participatory action research methodology that was adopted as part of that investigation. Data were collected by a team of researchers that included children and young people who had themselves been domestic workers. A questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with local leaders, employers of child domestic workers and (both current and former) child domestic workers themselves. An agenda for change - that aimed towards the redistribution of power within domestic working arrangements - was developed on the basis of those data and presented to local government authorities in Iringa. This research makes a number of contributions to understandings of both child domestic work and participatory action research methodologies. First, the thesis contends that child domestic work is a complex activity which (despite its frequently exploitative and abusive character) should not be identified as a purely harmful force in the lives of young employees. The multiplicity of ways in which that occupation is experienced can only be uncovered through the incorporation of a range of stakeholders? perspectives. Second, this research found that notions of ?family? were discursively linked to child domestic working arrangements in Iringa. This has inhibited recognition of child domestic work as ?real work?, and contributed to the exploitation of these young employees. This thesis contends that increased formalisation and regulation of child domestic work would offer an opportunity to reconstruct child domestic workers as ?employees? and thereby improve their circumstances. This research has also challenged prevalent notions of children?s incompetence and shown that young people with minimal formal education can (and should) participate as co-researchers in academic endeavours investigating their lives. However, it has also found that young people?s competencies and interests vary, and that notions of appropriate participatory processes have often failed to take such diversity into account. This thesis contends that more participatory forms of evaluation may allow greater flexibility (and relevance) to be fostered when assessing the ?success? of participatory processes. Academics need to be alert to the alienating effects that (unwittingly) ?judgemental? and (unrealistically) ?perfect? accounts of participatory and action-oriented research processes can have on young scholars.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/215727 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Klocker, Natascha, Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, UNSW |
| Publisher | Publisher:University of New South Wales. Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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