- Email: [email protected]
Ethical tourism research involving children
Annals of Tourism Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Annals of Tourism Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
Research Note
Ethical tourism research involving children Antonia Canosa ⇑, Anne Graham Southern Cross University, Australia
There has been considerable recent interest concerning children in tourism research, with studies arguing that children’s voices have often been neglected (Carpenter, 2015; Poria & Timothy, 2014), particularly in the areas of family tourism (Schänzel, 2010), holiday experiences (Small, 2008) and children as members of host communities (Buzinde & Manuel-Navarrete, 2013; Canosa, Wilson, & Graham, 2016). Such debates mirror the discourse around children’s participation in research in other applied fields, although Tourism Studies has been slow to engage. While the absence of children in Tourism Studies may be attributable to the methodological challenges faced by researchers (Khoo-Lattimore, 2015), we suggest that assumptions about children’s competency, along with perceptions about the ethical complexity of involving them, likely pose greater barriers and deterrents. In this research note, we draw attention to the established interdisciplinary field of Childhood Studies (Prout & James, 1990), and a recent major international ethics initiative (Graham, Powell, Taylor, Anderson, & Fitzgerald, 2013), to highlight some of the evidence upon which tourism researchers might build in progressing high quality and ethically sound research involving children. Prevalent assumptions frame children as immature, vulnerable, incompetent, and hence in need of being gate-kept out of research (Graham et al., 2013). However, this reflects a narrow, developmentally-determined approach to understanding children’s capability and agency that is rarely justified within or across any social or cultural context, since children of the same age can demonstrate remarkably divergent skills, responsibilities, and social and emotional abilities. Over the past 25 years, Childhood Studies has challenged entrenched assumptions about the ways in which children and childhood are constructed, advocating quite explicitly for a competent-child paradigm (Prout & James, 1990). Alongside such developments, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC – United Nations, 1989) has drawn international attention to children’s rights not only in relation to their protection from harm, provision of care and resources, but also to their participation in matters that affect them, such as research about their lives. Consequently, a wealth of child-centred scholarship has emerged across a wide range of disciplinary fields including education, social sciences and family law. Such studies offer unique insights into children’s lives, experiences and their personal interpretations of events – an opportunity to hear from ‘natives’ within the culture of childhood. As
⇑ Corresponding author at: Centre for Children and Young People, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia. Fax: +61 2 6620 3243. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Canosa). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006 0160-7383/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Canosa, A., & Graham, A. Ethical tourism research involving children. Annals of Tourism Research (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006
2
Research Note / Annals of Tourism Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
a result, discourse has moved well beyond whether and how to involve children in research, establishing well-documented methods for research undertaken with and even by children (Kellett, 2010). Tourism Studies has been slow to engage with these theoretical developments which frame children as ‘competent’ and ‘capable’ of actively participating in research about them. Interest in the study of children and childhood has mainly focused on children within the family unit (Schänzel, 2010), and more so in the leisure literature (Rhoden, Hunter-Jones, & Miller, 2016). Very little attention has been afforded children per se (Carpenter, 2015), and even more scarce is research about children growing up in host communities (Canosa, Moyle, & Wray, 2016). Nevertheless, child-centred scholarship is gradually emerging in tourism research with recent studies recognising the agentive role of children and their right to participate in research about them (Canosa, Wilson et al., 2016). What appears to be lacking in tourism studies, though, is a coherent theoretical framework and paradigmatic stance to guide research. We suggest there is a need to position tourism research involving children and young people within the already well-established sociology of childhood or Childhood Studies paradigm (Prout & James, 1990). A key underlying principle of this paradigm is the need to acknowledge children’s agency and competence, and their right to ‘have a say’ in matters affecting them, including in research about their lives. Hence, the need to actively engage children in the research process by employing creative methods (e.g. visual and participatory techniques) which are sensitive to children’s competence (see also Canosa, Wilson et al., 2016). Such creative approaches also go some way in addressing the methodological challenge of eliciting children’s voices while reconciling ethical tensions around harm and benefits, which may include identifying positive wellbeing and/or educational outcomes for children involved (Graham, Powell, & Truscott, 2016). As the range of creative methods and approaches to involving children in research in the wider social science fields have burgeoned, there has been increased recognition of the on-going nature of ethics (Phelan & Kinsella, 2013). Within child-centred scholarship, ethics has come to encompass much more than clearance by ethics review boards. It is now increasingly recognised that ethical dilemmas arise and persist long after an ethics approval number has been granted, with at least some of these dilemmas linked to unacknowledged power dynamics between adult researchers and child participants. There is now increasing evidence suggesting that this ‘messy’ reality of ethics has created considerable anguish for researchers who involve children. By ‘messiness’ we refer to the difficulties of putting ethical principles in place during our fieldwork and staying true to the important ethical commitments which should guide all research involving children, including: maximising benefits for children during, and as a consequence of, the research process; preventing potential risks of harm; and obtaining children’s informed and ongoing consent alongside parental consent where appropriate (Graham et al., 2013). Clearly children are influenced by and involved in tourism, often being the most significant influence in family tourism choices and major consumers of volunteer and adventure experiences during later teenage years. It makes sense then that interest in undertaking research with those under the age of 18 is increasing within Tourism Studies. However, as flagged earlier, whilst children’s participation in research is developing as a new area for tourism, it is now quite routine in other fields and disciplines. Not only does this offer tourism researchers the opportunity to build on existing knowledge about why and how to involve children in research, it also potentially positions tourism researchers at the cutting edge of advancing ethically sound research in this space. We urgently need to access the views of children and young people living in host communities and involved in the tourism industry through, for example, child labour, sexual exploitation and orphanage tourism. These are all neglected areas in tourism research which may, in turn, challenge and expand current theorising within the sociology of childhood. As Small (2008: 773) argues, involving children in tourism research should go ‘beyond the commercial incentive’. This is to say that, along with the perceived methodological and ethical complexities, another possible reason why children’s voices have been neglected is the view that they are not contributing stakeholders in the business/managerial milieu of tourism. Nevertheless, with the propagation of a critical scholarship there is now an opportunity to end the silence of marginalised members of the community and place child-centred research on the agenda in Tourism Studies (Canosa, Moyle et al., 2016).
Please cite this article in press as: Canosa, A., & Graham, A. Ethical tourism research involving children. Annals of Tourism Research (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006
Research Note / Annals of Tourism Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
3
In order to engage more deeply with the ethical dimensions of such research we draw attention to an internationally recognised resource that could assist tourism researchers. The Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC) initiative (Graham et al., 2013), now available in four languages and accessed in over 170 countries (www.childethics.com), was produced in collaboration with over 400 highly respected members of the international child research community, with UNICEF and ChildWatch International playing a key role (Graham et al., 2013). ERIC focuses on guiding researchers and other key stakeholders in planning and conducting ethical research that respects the human dignity, rights and wellbeing of children and young people. It provides extensive ethical guidance in potentially vexed areas such as harms and benefits, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, and payment and compensation. The reflexive approach embedded within ERIC provokes problemsolving, change and improvement through critical reflection, use of case studies and an invitation for dialogue across the international research community (Graham et al., 2013). Perhaps the time has come for tourism research to embrace the kind of shared vision, moral standard, common language, and evidence-based guidance that ERIC offers as we work collaboratively to expand opportunities to involve children and young people in research that is safe, respectful, and a ‘lighthouse’ within and beyond the discipline. If conducted in an authentically ethical way, such research offers scope to generate robust and valuable knowledge about children’s lives and experiences that can assist substantially in tourism planning, policy and practice. References Buzinde, C. N., & Manuel-Navarrete, D. (2013). The social production of space in tourism enclaves: Mayan children’s perceptions of tourism boundaries. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, 482–505. Canosa, A., Moyle, B., & Wray, M. (2016). Can anybody hear me? A critical analysis of young residents’ voices in tourism studies. Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 21(2), 325–337. Canosa, A., Wilson, E., & Graham, A. (2016). Empowering young people through participatory film: A postmethodological approach. Current Issues in Tourism, 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2016.1179270. Carpenter, K. (2015). Childhood studies and orphanage tourism in Cambodia. Annals of Tourism Research, 55, 15–27. Graham, A., Powell, M. A., Taylor, N., Anderson, D. L., & Fitzgerald, R. M. (2013). Ethical Research Involving Children. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. Website http://childethics.com/. Graham, A., Powell, M. A., & Truscott, J. (2016). Exploring the nexus between participatory methods and ethics in early childhood research. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 41(1), 82–89. Kellett, M. (2010). Small shoes, big steps! Empowering children as active researchers. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46(1–2), 195–203. Khoo-Lattimore, C. (2015). Kids on board: Methodological challenges, concerns and clarifications when including young children’s voices in tourism research. Current Issues in Tourism, 18(9), 845–858. Phelan, S. K., & Kinsella, E. A. (2013). Picture this... safety, dignity, and voice—ethical research with children: Practical considerations for the reflexive researcher. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(2), 81–90. Poria, Y., & Timothy, D. J. (2014). Where are the children in tourism research? Annals of Tourism Research, 47, 93–95. Prout, A., & James, A. (1990). A new paradigm for the sociology of childhood? Provenance, promise and problems. In A. James & A. Prout (Eds.), Constructing and reconstructing childhood: New directions in the sociological study of childhood. London: Routledge. Rhoden, S., Hunter-Jones, P., & Miller, A. (2016). Tourism experiences through the eyes of a child. Annals of Leisure Research, 1–20. Schänzel, H. A. (2010). Whole-family research: Towards a methodology in tourism for encompassing generation, gender, and group dynamic perspectives. Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 15(5), 555–569. Small, J. (2008). The absence of childhood in tourism studies. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(3), 772–789. United Nations (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. Geneva: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Received 17 September 2015; Revised 09 July 2016; Accepted 11 July 2016
Please cite this article in press as: Canosa, A., & Graham, A. Ethical tourism research involving children. Annals of Tourism Research (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Annals of Tourism Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
Research Note
Ethical tourism research involving children Antonia Canosa ⇑, Anne Graham Southern Cross University, Australia
There has been considerable recent interest concerning children in tourism research, with studies arguing that children’s voices have often been neglected (Carpenter, 2015; Poria & Timothy, 2014), particularly in the areas of family tourism (Schänzel, 2010), holiday experiences (Small, 2008) and children as members of host communities (Buzinde & Manuel-Navarrete, 2013; Canosa, Wilson, & Graham, 2016). Such debates mirror the discourse around children’s participation in research in other applied fields, although Tourism Studies has been slow to engage. While the absence of children in Tourism Studies may be attributable to the methodological challenges faced by researchers (Khoo-Lattimore, 2015), we suggest that assumptions about children’s competency, along with perceptions about the ethical complexity of involving them, likely pose greater barriers and deterrents. In this research note, we draw attention to the established interdisciplinary field of Childhood Studies (Prout & James, 1990), and a recent major international ethics initiative (Graham, Powell, Taylor, Anderson, & Fitzgerald, 2013), to highlight some of the evidence upon which tourism researchers might build in progressing high quality and ethically sound research involving children. Prevalent assumptions frame children as immature, vulnerable, incompetent, and hence in need of being gate-kept out of research (Graham et al., 2013). However, this reflects a narrow, developmentally-determined approach to understanding children’s capability and agency that is rarely justified within or across any social or cultural context, since children of the same age can demonstrate remarkably divergent skills, responsibilities, and social and emotional abilities. Over the past 25 years, Childhood Studies has challenged entrenched assumptions about the ways in which children and childhood are constructed, advocating quite explicitly for a competent-child paradigm (Prout & James, 1990). Alongside such developments, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC – United Nations, 1989) has drawn international attention to children’s rights not only in relation to their protection from harm, provision of care and resources, but also to their participation in matters that affect them, such as research about their lives. Consequently, a wealth of child-centred scholarship has emerged across a wide range of disciplinary fields including education, social sciences and family law. Such studies offer unique insights into children’s lives, experiences and their personal interpretations of events – an opportunity to hear from ‘natives’ within the culture of childhood. As
⇑ Corresponding author at: Centre for Children and Young People, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia. Fax: +61 2 6620 3243. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Canosa). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006 0160-7383/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Canosa, A., & Graham, A. Ethical tourism research involving children. Annals of Tourism Research (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006
2
Research Note / Annals of Tourism Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
a result, discourse has moved well beyond whether and how to involve children in research, establishing well-documented methods for research undertaken with and even by children (Kellett, 2010). Tourism Studies has been slow to engage with these theoretical developments which frame children as ‘competent’ and ‘capable’ of actively participating in research about them. Interest in the study of children and childhood has mainly focused on children within the family unit (Schänzel, 2010), and more so in the leisure literature (Rhoden, Hunter-Jones, & Miller, 2016). Very little attention has been afforded children per se (Carpenter, 2015), and even more scarce is research about children growing up in host communities (Canosa, Moyle, & Wray, 2016). Nevertheless, child-centred scholarship is gradually emerging in tourism research with recent studies recognising the agentive role of children and their right to participate in research about them (Canosa, Wilson et al., 2016). What appears to be lacking in tourism studies, though, is a coherent theoretical framework and paradigmatic stance to guide research. We suggest there is a need to position tourism research involving children and young people within the already well-established sociology of childhood or Childhood Studies paradigm (Prout & James, 1990). A key underlying principle of this paradigm is the need to acknowledge children’s agency and competence, and their right to ‘have a say’ in matters affecting them, including in research about their lives. Hence, the need to actively engage children in the research process by employing creative methods (e.g. visual and participatory techniques) which are sensitive to children’s competence (see also Canosa, Wilson et al., 2016). Such creative approaches also go some way in addressing the methodological challenge of eliciting children’s voices while reconciling ethical tensions around harm and benefits, which may include identifying positive wellbeing and/or educational outcomes for children involved (Graham, Powell, & Truscott, 2016). As the range of creative methods and approaches to involving children in research in the wider social science fields have burgeoned, there has been increased recognition of the on-going nature of ethics (Phelan & Kinsella, 2013). Within child-centred scholarship, ethics has come to encompass much more than clearance by ethics review boards. It is now increasingly recognised that ethical dilemmas arise and persist long after an ethics approval number has been granted, with at least some of these dilemmas linked to unacknowledged power dynamics between adult researchers and child participants. There is now increasing evidence suggesting that this ‘messy’ reality of ethics has created considerable anguish for researchers who involve children. By ‘messiness’ we refer to the difficulties of putting ethical principles in place during our fieldwork and staying true to the important ethical commitments which should guide all research involving children, including: maximising benefits for children during, and as a consequence of, the research process; preventing potential risks of harm; and obtaining children’s informed and ongoing consent alongside parental consent where appropriate (Graham et al., 2013). Clearly children are influenced by and involved in tourism, often being the most significant influence in family tourism choices and major consumers of volunteer and adventure experiences during later teenage years. It makes sense then that interest in undertaking research with those under the age of 18 is increasing within Tourism Studies. However, as flagged earlier, whilst children’s participation in research is developing as a new area for tourism, it is now quite routine in other fields and disciplines. Not only does this offer tourism researchers the opportunity to build on existing knowledge about why and how to involve children in research, it also potentially positions tourism researchers at the cutting edge of advancing ethically sound research in this space. We urgently need to access the views of children and young people living in host communities and involved in the tourism industry through, for example, child labour, sexual exploitation and orphanage tourism. These are all neglected areas in tourism research which may, in turn, challenge and expand current theorising within the sociology of childhood. As Small (2008: 773) argues, involving children in tourism research should go ‘beyond the commercial incentive’. This is to say that, along with the perceived methodological and ethical complexities, another possible reason why children’s voices have been neglected is the view that they are not contributing stakeholders in the business/managerial milieu of tourism. Nevertheless, with the propagation of a critical scholarship there is now an opportunity to end the silence of marginalised members of the community and place child-centred research on the agenda in Tourism Studies (Canosa, Moyle et al., 2016).
Please cite this article in press as: Canosa, A., & Graham, A. Ethical tourism research involving children. Annals of Tourism Research (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006
Research Note / Annals of Tourism Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
3
In order to engage more deeply with the ethical dimensions of such research we draw attention to an internationally recognised resource that could assist tourism researchers. The Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC) initiative (Graham et al., 2013), now available in four languages and accessed in over 170 countries (www.childethics.com), was produced in collaboration with over 400 highly respected members of the international child research community, with UNICEF and ChildWatch International playing a key role (Graham et al., 2013). ERIC focuses on guiding researchers and other key stakeholders in planning and conducting ethical research that respects the human dignity, rights and wellbeing of children and young people. It provides extensive ethical guidance in potentially vexed areas such as harms and benefits, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, and payment and compensation. The reflexive approach embedded within ERIC provokes problemsolving, change and improvement through critical reflection, use of case studies and an invitation for dialogue across the international research community (Graham et al., 2013). Perhaps the time has come for tourism research to embrace the kind of shared vision, moral standard, common language, and evidence-based guidance that ERIC offers as we work collaboratively to expand opportunities to involve children and young people in research that is safe, respectful, and a ‘lighthouse’ within and beyond the discipline. If conducted in an authentically ethical way, such research offers scope to generate robust and valuable knowledge about children’s lives and experiences that can assist substantially in tourism planning, policy and practice. References Buzinde, C. N., & Manuel-Navarrete, D. (2013). The social production of space in tourism enclaves: Mayan children’s perceptions of tourism boundaries. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, 482–505. Canosa, A., Moyle, B., & Wray, M. (2016). Can anybody hear me? A critical analysis of young residents’ voices in tourism studies. Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 21(2), 325–337. Canosa, A., Wilson, E., & Graham, A. (2016). Empowering young people through participatory film: A postmethodological approach. Current Issues in Tourism, 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2016.1179270. Carpenter, K. (2015). Childhood studies and orphanage tourism in Cambodia. Annals of Tourism Research, 55, 15–27. Graham, A., Powell, M. A., Taylor, N., Anderson, D. L., & Fitzgerald, R. M. (2013). Ethical Research Involving Children. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. Website http://childethics.com/. Graham, A., Powell, M. A., & Truscott, J. (2016). Exploring the nexus between participatory methods and ethics in early childhood research. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 41(1), 82–89. Kellett, M. (2010). Small shoes, big steps! Empowering children as active researchers. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46(1–2), 195–203. Khoo-Lattimore, C. (2015). Kids on board: Methodological challenges, concerns and clarifications when including young children’s voices in tourism research. Current Issues in Tourism, 18(9), 845–858. Phelan, S. K., & Kinsella, E. A. (2013). Picture this... safety, dignity, and voice—ethical research with children: Practical considerations for the reflexive researcher. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(2), 81–90. Poria, Y., & Timothy, D. J. (2014). Where are the children in tourism research? Annals of Tourism Research, 47, 93–95. Prout, A., & James, A. (1990). A new paradigm for the sociology of childhood? Provenance, promise and problems. In A. James & A. Prout (Eds.), Constructing and reconstructing childhood: New directions in the sociological study of childhood. London: Routledge. Rhoden, S., Hunter-Jones, P., & Miller, A. (2016). Tourism experiences through the eyes of a child. Annals of Leisure Research, 1–20. Schänzel, H. A. (2010). Whole-family research: Towards a methodology in tourism for encompassing generation, gender, and group dynamic perspectives. Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 15(5), 555–569. Small, J. (2008). The absence of childhood in tourism studies. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(3), 772–789. United Nations (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. Geneva: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Received 17 September 2015; Revised 09 July 2016; Accepted 11 July 2016
Please cite this article in press as: Canosa, A., & Graham, A. Ethical tourism research involving children. Annals of Tourism Research (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.07.006