Leanne Robins

Ph.D. Topic: My Place: An International Study Exploring Children’s Narratives of ‘Culture’.

The importance of allowing children to identify, describe and define what ‘culture’ is to them, appears to be something that has been ignored in the academic literature on this subject. Definitions and descriptions of ‘culture’ have emanated from a vast array of professions including anthropology, social work, psychology and sociology.

A number of common elements exist in these definitions, however, critical from the viewpoint of this study, is that they are written from an ‘outsider’ perspective, and through the lens of an adult. The voice of children within debate about culture is characterised by its absence.

This study aims to place the child at the centre, and allow its voice to be the dominant one in the discourse of ‘culture’. In addition, this research seeks to utilize the ‘strengths perspective’ (Saleebey, 2002) as a foundation for both the implementation of the research design, and in the analysis of results. An underpinning hypothesis of this research is that it is possible to find similarities in the discourse of children from around the world regarding the construct of culture, as well as to find the unique or differing elements. The researcher seeks to reframe and reorient the perspective of this study away from examining deficits or difficulties of cultural experience, toward one where convergence of narratives and meaning can be discovered.

The objectives of the study are: to allow children to discover, define and thematically organise the ‘building blocks’ that are central to the construct of ‘culture’, to facilitate children in the development of a meaningful language of culture and to explore the similarities and differences between the constructions of ‘culture’ by children across and within an international context.