University of Western Sydney: Childhood Studies Critical Review

This report presents a critical review of several articles and book chapters related to childhood studies, focusing on contemporary issues and research. The review examines the impact of media technologies on children's development and their ability to voice their rights, drawing on Lee (2001) and Bruce (2014). It also analyzes the significance of children's participation in decision-making processes, as discussed in Bessant and Broadley (2014), highlighting challenges in child protection services. Furthermore, the report explores the sociological perspectives on children's experiences in school, contrasting adult-dominated environments with peer-influenced spaces, as outlined by Boocock and Scott (2005). The review incorporates additional literature to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topics, emphasizing children's rights, the influence of media, and the complexities of school environments. The report references key scholars and provides insights into the current landscape of childhood studies.

Running head: CHILDHOOD STUDIES
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The previous chapter of “Childhood and society: Growing up in an age of uncertainty”,
Lee (2001) has focused on newly developed media technologies that has served critical role in
hazing distinctions between human being and human becoming. The chapter is high edifying as
it focuses on the way computer based ICT has been reducing importance of teachers’ role in
children’s access to information. Such a dominant role of information has been serving as a
central characteristic of development of humans. Lee (2001) has been highly explicit in shedding
light on the issues of voice and silence of children. The chapter has explicitly shed light on
ability of speaking for their own rights due to the overriding framework of information based
learning. However, at this juncture, the chapter can be regarded as a highly informative one as
Lee (2001) has recognized lack of children’s ability for becoming their own voices as a critical
area of issue in contradiction to insights gathered from (Inglehart, 2015). Moreover, chapter has
offered relevant insights of importance of providing voices to children. Children’s need for
voices will help them to defend themselves in opposition to adult's influence may also be
apparent. However, Lee (2001) has shed light on the rational legacy of the prevailing framework
which persists to put forward that 'voices' primarily belong to human beings, whilst the
controlling institutional heritage of the developmental state tends to continues to demonstrate
children as human becoming.
Considering these factors, the interconnected articles of the UN Convention sheds light
on children’s importance of globally accepted set of rights that they can embrace in self-
determination of the welfare and activities of the adults which tend to directly surround them.
These interlocked articles primarily provide a 'place', even though a virtual one has entailed
dedication and promises, outside of the physical and cultural space they occupy. It is a 'place’ in
which children as 'international citizens' may seek resources of providing utmost protection to

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children. The chapter has explicitly shed light on issues related to childhood uncertainty
internationally and during decision making processes in the UK courts of law. Lee has explicitly
thrown light on media technologies as such technologies have the tendency to alter the
characteristics of 'place' (Lee, 2001). At this juncture, children are perceived to have been
positioned in 'proper' places which are apparently physical and concrete.
Bruce (2014) explicitly mentions about Article 12 of the United Nations convention on
the rights of children in this article. This paper is considered evidences gathered as part of a
wider service evaluation in a specific Scottish locality. The article can be regarded as a well
informed one as it highlights evidences which reveal that regardless of legislative and policy
frameworks to support child rights persistent information from enquiry reports have shed light on
certain gaps. the people has provided informative insights regarding the Scottish context where
the principles of the United convention have been entrenched all through national policy and
legislative framework. As per the view of Bruce (2014) the practice primary includes the
children’s charter which establishes factors anticipated by children and youth from individuals
who playa vital role in their lives and also throws light on the dedication that children will be
paid attention to and considered as an important part of the society.
Bruce (2014) has explicitly revealed that regardless of the essentiality to include children
Oriya curing theme has been creating impediments in pertaining stability between the rights of
children to have a influence for themselves and a duty to look after children as well as youths
from any danger or threats. The article has been highly informative for offering insights
regarding the system of children’s hearings which is accountable for deciding whether a child is
requiring compulsory measures of supervision. Bruce (2014) has considered the way in which
children’s perceptions are represented in documentation and further highlight the ways in which

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professionals tend to filter and understand children's perspective instead of documenting them
with utmost efficiency and authenticity. On the contrary to Tayloe et al. (2017), Bruce (2014) has
witnessed through this article the evidence to propose a diverse approach towards the
participation of children. Moreover Bruce has thrown light on the importance of individuals
representing the perspectives of children must have the competence to reflect on their own
position in regards to the rights of children specifically the right of being heard and considered as
a vital part in any decision making procedure while forming policies and framework.
Furthermore, Bruce has provided important suggestion regarding the development of support
service in an explicit investigation of children rights which relies on the fact that children should
be considered as first person in any decision making process.
The article “Saying and doing: Child protective service and participation in decision-
making” begins with an optimistic tone stating that contemporary policy making societies have
been persistently proclaiming the thought and value of youth participation and responding to
children as well as young people. Bessant and Broadley (2014) in the article have noted that the
increasing identification of rites of children and young people to contribute in the formation of
policies. It is important to highlight the explicit investigation which Bessant and Broadley (2014)
have done for evaluating the differences and level of apprehension between the “espoused
theory” and the “theory in use” within child safety. Furthermore, Bessant and Broadley (2014),
drawing relevance to Ruck (2016) have provided a well informed paper which explains that in
Europe nations safeguarded by the European principle on human rights while on the other hand
in Australia the foreword of Human rights legislation in some jurisdictions have witnessed a
development of the request of participation in introduction and formation of children in child and
youth initiatives and services. However it is important to note that even though the paper has

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significantly relied on Australian and English material with a significant focus on the state of
Victoria, Bessant and Broadley (2014) have suggested that the issue of major lack between
information documented of children’s views and what has been stated by the policy makers have
pose challenges to the formation of child protection systems at global level. the article can be
identified as a well analysed one as it focuses on issues regarding parental aggression which
should not be overlooked by policy makers.
Moreover, Bessant and Broadley (2014) have highlighted one of the major reasons to
which children in child protection services failed to raise their opinions critically due to the
organisational cultural patterns which categorise their opinions to be ineffective. The article acts
as highly revealing piece of information which has thrown light on the practice of children's
participation in decision-making process to be of no significance. As a result, Bessant and
Broadley (2014) at the end of the article has shed light on the range of institutional and
administrative programs essential for integrating child-friendly grievances mechanism which are
formed in order to provide protection and advocate the rights of children specifically by forming
a participatory approach into regular routine procedures.
The chapter “The Two Worlds of School” of the book “Kids in context: The sociological
study of children and childhoods”, has started with a children’s version of the poem "Battle
Hymn of the Republic". Boocock and Scott (2005) have been highly analytical about activities
children in school and the way it draws variance from "real" effort. Drawing relevance to these
activities authors have explicitly discussed about school by unraveling it into two different
worlds, one where the adults dominant and the other where children attain the scope to raise their
voice. Such a claim has been challenged by sociologists who posed arguments that school work
entails valid efforts. Moreover, Boocock and Scott (2005) to strengthen the claim have drawn

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insights of scholars like Ambert who have been of the view that while children are no longer an
economic supply to their parents, they have been positioned in the same situation to other adults
of the society. The article can be regarded as a well-analyzed one as it also reflects the
perspectives of children of school and activities associated with it. Five distinguishing features of
life in the classroom have also been provided by Boocock and Scott (2005) to enhance the
understanding of readers regarding involuntary presence, living in a crowd, recurring ritualized
routines, and invariable judgment of students' success in addition to actions and knowledge to
compact with power and regulation of teachers. Through the second perspective of school it has
been noted that "real world" of school must be identified as the one shaped as well as controlled
by their peers.
However, Boocock and Scott (2005) have been well-organized in throwing light to an
unequal balance of authority between kids and adults which tend to be universal to home as well
as school environments. It has been noted that while to a great extent, schools claim to be
anxious with overall progress of children; they are by inevitability less holistic in comparison to
home in relating to them (Boocock & Scott, 2005). The chapter has offered inclusive insights by
shedding light on two perspectives of school which many scholars failed to look at. Those
scholars like Webster and Blatchford (2015) have focused on integrating diverse counterfactual
assumptions in equality. As a result, Boocock and Scott (2005) on the contrary purposed in
highlighting recognized educational system which has been designed and controlled by adults,
whereby children tend to learn ways of dealing with the daily grind and meanwhile focusing on
highly extensive vital sphere shaped as well as controlled by children in association with their
peers.

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References
Bessant, J., & Broadley, K. (2014). Saying and doing: Child protective service and participation
in decision-making. The International Journal of Children's Rights, 22(4), 710-729.
Boocock, S. S., & Scott, K. A. (2005). Kids in context: The sociological study of children and
childhoods. Rowman & Littlefield.
Bruce, M. (2014). The voice of the child in child protection: whose voice?. Social Sciences, 3(3),
514-526.
Côté, J., & Hancock, D. J. (2016). Evidence-based policies for youth sport
programmes. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 8(1), 51-65.
Inglehart, R., 2015. The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles among Western
publics. Princeton University Press.
Lee, N. (2001). Childhood and society: Growing up in an age of uncertainty. McGraw-Hill
Education (UK).
Ruck, M. D., Keating, D. P., Saewyc, E. M., Earls, F., & Ben‐Arieh, A. (2016). The U nited N
ations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Its Relevance for Adolescents. Journal of
Research on Adolescence, 26(1), 16-29.
Russell, C., Kusner, M. J., Loftus, J., & Silva, R. (2017). When worlds collide: integrating
different counterfactual assumptions in fairness. In Advances in Neural Information
Processing Systems (pp. 6414-6423).

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Taylor, R. D., Oberle, E., Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017). Promoting positive youth
development through school‐based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta‐
analysis of follow‐up effects. Child development, 88(4), 1156-1171.
Webster, R., & Blatchford, P. (2015). Worlds apart? The nature and quality of the educational
experiences of pupils with a statement for special educational needs in mainstream
primary schools. British Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 324-342.
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