Listening to children in vulnerable situations

This book’s purpose is to concretise pedagogical concepts that help us think about the voices and positions of children in vulnerable situations in contemporary contexts of educating and researching. What matters when thinking about children’s voices, roles and positions in pedagogical and research spaces entangled with our own roles, positions and ethics? This doctoral study is built around four intra-active encounters within pedagogical spaces in Flanders where we bring in a posthuman reconceptualisation of voice to understand and value the entangled, collective and supported ways in which children become present in research. Each intra-active encounter sheds light on methodological and ethico-epistemo-ontological aspects of assembling children’s (posthuman) voices in research and possible creative and participatory ways of doing so. We describe five helpful movements when engaging with and listening to children in intra-active pedagogical and research encounters. Five movements that concretise listening to children’s voices in vulnerable situations and have the potential to transform an encounter into intra-active encounters of genuinely listening. This dissertation will be thought-provoking for practitioners in education and welfare contexts as well as for students and researchers that have the intention of doing research with (vulnerable) children in pedagogical contexts. Silke Daelman has a background in educational studies. She is a Disability Studies researcher that is interested in difference and vulnerability in pedagogical relations. She is attracted by post qualitative frameworks to explore ethics and methodology in research with children. This PhD was promoted by Prof. dr. Geert Van Hove and Prof. dr. Elisabeth De Schauwer of the Department of Special Needs Education at Ghent University.