icyrnet 2015 jo boyden plenary presentation

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‘‘Epistemological and ideological clashes in research and policy around children and childhood’ Jo Boyden ICYRN 2015 Conference Cyprus

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‘‘Epistemological and ideological clashes in research and policy around

children and childhood’

Jo BoydenICYRN 2015 Conference

Cyprus

• HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH• THE ROLE OF ECONOMICS IN THIS

RESEARCH• INFLUENCE ON GLOBAL CHILD POLICIES• WHERE DOES SOCIAL RESEARCH STAND?• LATEST TWIST IN POLICY DISCOURSE:

FOCUS ON CULTURE AND GENDER • YOUNG LIVES EVIDENCE ON GENDER• REFLECTIONS ON YOUNG LIVES EVIDENCE• REFLECTIONS ON RESEARCH

OUTLINE

• 100 years of child development research (medical & human sciences, neuroscience etc.) mainly global north – quantitative, cohort studies, evaluations

• Early childhood: the most critical period for physical, emotional, cognitive, social development…particularly the first 1,000 days!

• Risks accumulate & recovery from early life shocks impossible: lifelong & inter-generational consequences

• The Lancet 2007/ 2011 focus on risks to children in global south

• Investing in disadvantaged children:

social justice & to realise their developmental potential - Empirical basis for policy

SCIENCE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• Economics, instrumentalized this perspective through the human capital framework:

Underscores the consequences of early life deprivations for adult productivity & national economic prospects

Highlights economic gains/efficiency of investing in early childhood…

The gains are large…(James Heckman 2006) - raises adult productivity & ensures societal economic growth

• Compelling narrative perpetuating the global neoliberal capitalist agenda

THE ROLE OF ECONOMICS IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

• International policy shaped by child rights & human development/ human capital frameworks

• Evidence supports an idealised normative vision:

Children, inherently vulnerable, in need of adult protection Childhood, a period of development & dependence

• Children owed the best that humankind has to offer: CRC, Education for All, MDGs, SDGs etc.

• International development as ideology & practice transforms how children are constituted as subjects (Huijsmans, George, Gigengack, Evers 2014)

Practically; in terms of children’s roles, responsibilities & time use, & their relationships with adults

Symbolically; childhood is romanticized as a time free from responsibility or risk, instrumentalized as the source of future advancement in individuals & societies

INFLUENCE ON GLOBAL CHILD POLICIES

• Childhood, a socio-historical construct Varies across time, context & socio-economic group

• Children, social agents Resilient, not passive victims of circumstance

• Children must be respected as subjectivities, meaning-makers, & rights bearing citizens.

WHAT OF SOCIAL RESEARCH?

Anthropology, geography, history, sociology & the new social studies of childhood – strong critique of human development research:

• Empirical evidence derives mainly from:Micro qualitative studies across multiple geographic &

historical locations Emic perspectives, frequently collected through child-

centred participatory research methodology Often focuses on specific topics or groups – migration,

child work, street children etc.

• Critiques positivist model & biological determinism - especially conceptions of children as ‘becomings’, stage theory & linearity of life-course transitions:

But limited engagement with human development in context (Woodhead 1998)

Though empirically grounded, shares much ideologically & methodologically with child rights movement – child centred, individual subjectivities, agency

SOCIAL RESEARCH CONT’D

• Context: State in retreat – structural adjustment & private sector growth

• Refashioning childhood globally in line with modern ideal:

Parents, families = key duty bearers

Culture: The problem > engineered cultural change to eliminate outmoded, harmful values & practices:

Patriarchal values antithetical to modern childhood – (girlhood)

Girls often essentialized & victimized Advocacy, social mobilization….& fines, imprisonment for

infractions

THE LATEST TWIST IN POLICY

“If you want to change the world, invest in an adolescent girl. An adolescent girl stands at the doorway of adulthood. In that moment, much is decided. If she stays in school, remains healthy, and gains real skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn an income that she’ll invest back in to her family” (Coalition for Adolescent Girls. New Lessons. The power of educating adolescent girls)

THE SOLUTION? = EMPOWER (ADOLESCENT) GIRLS

HOW DOES YOUNG LIVES EVIDENCE SQUARE WITH INTERNATIONAL

GENDER POLICIES?

YOUNG LIVES RESEARCH DESIGN

• Cohort-sequential longitudinal study following 12,000 children in two cohorts, in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh & Telangana), Peru, Vietnam - over 15 years from 2002

• Mixed methods: questionnaire surveys, measures adapted from international tests, semi-structured interviews, focus groups etc

• Researching: the experiences, determinants & outcomes of childhood poverty – to influence policy

• Pro-poor sample: over 80 sites across the 4 countries reflecting country diversity, rural-urban, livelihoods, ethnic, religious differences; roughly equal numbers of boys & girls

• Data: children, selected siblings & peers, caregivers (households), communities & schools (selected)

• Partnership: research & policy institutions in study countries & UK + collaboration with researchers in USA.

• In Peru & Vietnam, many girls have higher education aspirations than boys

• Caregivers make huge sacrifices so their children (girls) can attend school

• Only in India do caregivers have far lower aspirations for daughters than sons; & by age15, girls have lower ambitions for themselves.

• As adolescence progresses, gaps between girls’ & boys’ school enrolment increase, but boys are not always advantaged:

Ethiopia, Peru & Vietnam, poor boys are more likely than poor girls to have left school by age 15 > higher wage-earning potential

Gender gaps in enrolment are smaller than gaps due to HH economic status

Vietnam, no gender gap in school enrolment at age 12, but there is a gap between Kihn majority and ethnic minority children.

YOUNG LIVES EVIDENCE ON GENDER(EDUCATION ASPIRATIONS &

ENROLMENT)

IN ETHIOPIA CHILDHOOD IS A TIME OF (GENDERED) RESPONSIBILITY

Impact of sibling composition & birth order: contrast with policy stereotype

Haftey (aged 13)

• Her parents are deceased & she lives with her grandmother:– “I am supporting my grandmother alone”

• She studies hard & sees this as her duty to her grandmother: – “Since my grandmother is working hard to send me to school, I also

have to work hard to get a better result”

• She is doing well at school & has high hopes for the future: – “...when I complete my education I will have a job to support myself &

my grandmother & my life will be better [than my parents’ lives]”.

Tufa (through 3 rounds )

• He is respectful, diligent. Does ‘male tasks’ (herding, farming) & ‘female tasks’ (cooking, making coffee, sibling care) as he has no older sisters

• Left school when his father was imprisoned – his younger sister stayed on

• At age 19, 37% of girls in India were married or cohabiting, as were 25% in Peru, 19% in Vietnam & 13% in Ethiopia

• In Ethiopia & India, many married well below age 18

• By age 19, 24% of girls in Peru were mothers, 21% in India, 16% in Vietnam & 10% in Ethiopia

• Structural causes, not just culture: In Ethiopia & India, a link with the girls’ own mother’s

level of education Everywhere except Peru, early marriage &

childbearing most common among girls from poorer households & rural areas

• Ethiopia, early marriage & female circumcision seen as protective: prohibition resisted by some - clandestine activities, social tension

YOUNG LIVES EVIDENCE ON GENDER;

(MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD)

• Among younger cohort children in India, 92% witnessed & 77% experienced corporal punishment in a week

• In India boys aged 14–15 more likely to report punishment than girls

• Those from the poorest quintile (compared to the least poor) also report higher levels of

punishment. • (Morrow & Singh 2014)

YOUNG LIVES EVIDENCE ON GENDER;(VIOLENCE)

• Parents & children accept the neoliberal agenda (e.g. education), though systems & structures are weak

• Political-economic forces (poverty, ethnicity) & not just culture = crucial to gender in childhood

• Gender is very complex – becomes more salient at adolescence, but not always as predicted (Punch)

• Girls empowerment assumes de-contextualized, agentive individuals but agency constituted through relationships with others

• Children interdependent, their concerns lie not with individual success but with the well-being of the family

• Children today are under inordinate pressure to excel at school & fulfil familial responsibilities – will empowerment help?

IMPLICATIONS OF YOUNG LIVES GENDER FINDINGS

• Human development research: compelling early childhood narrative that has captured policy imagination – very real benefits for children

• Social research:

Has enormous potential to influence child rights agenda – but, ambivalent relationship with policy discourse on child rights

Has failed to generate an effective alternative to the human capital framework

• Allows major policy shortcomings to go unchallenged:

Weak on political-economy of childhood (Hart 2008) so shift focus from class to identity group, culture (White 2002)

Emphases recognition rather than redistribution, thus change in culture to achieve justice for children (Pupavac 2001)

Endorses attention to private sphere, individuals & families, attitudes & behavior

• Thus the suffering of children is seen as a moral failing of their societies & cultures – does this make social research complicit in social justice failings?

REFLECTIONS ON RESEARCH

Ansell, N. 2005. “Children, Youth and Development”Boyden, J. 2013. ‘We’re not going to suffer like this in the mud’: educational aspirations, social mobility and independent child migration among populations living in poverty.’ CompareFeeny E. & Crivello, G. 2015. How Gender Shapes Adolescence: Diverging Paths and Opportunities Policy Brief 22Hart, J. 2008 ‘Business as Usual? The Global Political-Economy of Childhood Poverty’ Young Lives Technical Note no.13 www.younglives.org.uk Hujismans, R, S. George, R. Gigengack, and S. Evers. 2014. “Theorising Age and Generation in Development: a Relational Approach.” The European Journal of Development Research 26Koffman, O. Orgad, S. and Gill, R. 2015 “Girl Power and ‘Selfie Humanitarianism’” Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies

Morrow, V. & R. Singh. 2014 “Corporal Punishment in Schools in Andhra Pradesh, India” Young Lives working paper 123 www.younglives.org.uk Pupavac, V. 2001. “Misanthropy without Borders: the International Children’s Rights Regime.” Disasters 25White, S. 2002 ‘From the Politics of Poverty to the Politics of Identity? Child Rights and Working Children in Bangladesh’ Journal of International Development 14Woodhead, M. 1998. Childhood Studies: past, present and future

REFERENCES