Giving children a ‘voice’: arts-based participatory research activities and representation

This paper looks at the use of participatory arts-based methods with pre-teen children, of Bangladeshi heritage, within a school context. The paper addresses the relationship between how childhood is conceptualised and the methodological issues arising. In particular, the paper focuses on the use of participatory and creative child-centred practices that seek to include children’s ‘voices’. Through an account of producing artwork for an exhibition, based on the research, the paper addresses issues concerning power in the representation of children’s ‘voices’.