Two research centres on children opening
Catherine Gaunt
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
A new source of research on children launches next month with the opening of the Research Centre for Children, Families and Communities, at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent.
Centre director Professor Trisha Maynard, who is also chair of TACTYC, said that the centre would build on areas such as research on outdoor learning and play, children's wellbeing, teenage pregnancy, healthy eating and migrant families.
Professor Maynard said 'you cannot unpick' children from families and communities, and that looking at the three together was vital.
She said the centre will also work with groups who in the past had not had their voices heard, such as young children, the homeless and young parents.
The centre will be producing a DVD for the launch 'about what a good life means to you', which will have a 'multiplicity of voices', she said.
Meanwhile, Anglia Ruskin University is launching a new cross-faculty research body on 3 March.
The Childhood and Youth Research Institute, in Chelmsford, will draw on the expertise of academics from different backgrounds and will be led by sociologist and researcher Dr Chrissie Rogers.
Academics from health, social care and education will contribute to the centre's work.
Dr Rogers said, 'The Institute will be of huge significance to vulnerable, marginalised and excluded children and young people and their families, both regionally and nationally, who will ultimately benefit from the discoveries made through targeted research.
'Research will be based on the participation of children and young people. It is these individuals who can improve the way things are done in the future by changing society's preconceptions, largely outdated, about critical issues surrounding them.
'We will focus on how social policies meet social needs, the development of impact measurements, and the consequences of welfare reforms upon children and young people's lives as well as health and social care agencies.
Christine Such, senior lecturer in early childhood studies, told Nursery World, 'The institute offers new ways of inter-disciplinary working.' She said it will build on current research activities undertaken by the department, which include early childhood pedagogy, forest schools, young children's identities and educational experiences, inclusion and therapeutic intervention, fostering and PSED.
'I anticipate we will focus more on children's experiences,' she said. The centre would 'draw on aspects of early childhood in an inter-disciplinary way', which would be the strength of its approach.
