Seen but not heard: Constructs of children's agency in public policy

Investigator

Lisa Fenn, PhD candidate

Supervisors

Principal supervisor: Professor Tim Moore, Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University

Co-supervisor: Emeritus Professor Morag McArthur, Australian Catholic University

Full title

Seen but not heard: Constructs of children’s agency in public policy

Aims

This research aims to advance theories of children’s agency and improve the development of public policies for and about children.

Background

What it means to be a ‘child’ has varied greatly over time, place and context. Legacy concepts, such as children being innately ‘evil’ or ‘innocent’ still influence the way we relate to children today. How we think about children has consequences for how they are treated by others, by services and systems. Public policy sets many of the parameters that shape children’s lives, but the constructs of childhood that underpin policies are rarely articulated. This matters, because different constructs of childhood have been shown to influence children’s wellbeing, safety and the effectiveness of policies and decisions made about them.

By exploring the gap between theories of children’s agency and constructs of childhood in policy, this project seeks to move policy processes towards embracing children’s agency as the policy norm.

Project details

This project is a case study analysis investigating two recent policy reforms in the Australian Capital Territory that were unprecedented in Australia and rare in the global context. The first was raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years. The second was the introduction of a voluntary assisted dying scheme and consideration of including people aged under 18 in the scheme. This research is not about whether these reforms are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. It is about the constructs of children that are evident in policy actors’ contributions to the reforms.

Key Objectives

Explore and articulate how children are conceptualised in public policy processes.

Provide evidence that shifts public policy towards understanding children as active contributors in their own lives and society.

Research questions and foreseen challenges

1. How is children’s agency recognised and constructed in public policy?
2. How do different public policy actors portray children’s agency?
3. What assumptions about children’s relationships underpin constructs of children’s agency in public policy?
4. What are the implications of how children’s agency is constructed in public policy?

Method

A constructivist, qualitative, documentary analysis method is being used. Over 130 documents generated throughout public consultations for these reforms are being analysed. Together these represent the views of 166 unique policy actors. Thematic analysis is being used to discern the constructs of children’s agency evident among different policy actors across the two reforms.   

Projected community impact

The outcomes of this project will be relevant to policy practitioners and childhood theorists alike. For policy practitioners, principles will being developed that translate childhood studies theories of agency to practice relevant questions and guidance. These principles can both assist policy practitioners and improve policy outcomes for children, as policy is more successful when it takes account of the lived realities children experience.

For theoreticians, the research explores contested ideas about the nature of children’s agency in a new empirical domain: public policy. Existing theoretical debate about agency as an attribute of each individual and agency as an attribute of relational context is explored.

Ethics

As this project uses publicly available source material, ethics approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee was not required. Nevertheless, relevant ethical considerations were undertaken and can be discussed by contacting the investigator.

Project timeline

March 2023 to October 2026

Contact

For more information contact [email protected] or [email protected]