Children’s perspective on their own everyday life

This study represents childhood research in which focus is on underscoring children’s ability to tell about their lives using their own resources. Children’s right to be heard in issues concerning themselves is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Finnish Constitution. These instruments provide that children’s welfare should be under consideration on every level of government. This research is located at the intersection of the educational and sociological sciences and its theoretical frame of reference is phenomenology.

In this study, the data consists of interviews and photos taken by 12 nine-year-old children. The data was gathered in February 2010 in the North Finland. The aim of the study is to analyze children’s experiences on their everyday life and to develope child interviews by using photo eliciting as a method. The childhood`s lifeworld –directly meant and immediately experienced – is largely relied on to adult’s understanding. In the current study, this is a methodological challenge. This study will use the phenomenological method in order to analyze children`s experiences as they appear to the children themselves.