Children’s encounters with professionals – recognition and respect during collaboration

ABSTRACT

In the context of Child Welfare, collaboration is used to ensure that families receive the best public services. In these working processes children have the legal right to participate. Research has demonstrated that children are sensitive to whether they feel they are treated with respect. The issue of partnership relations can be demanding. This article examines children’s experiences with recognition in the context of service collaboration. Based on a Norwegian qualitative research project about professional-child interactions in the context of public services and a narrative analysis of two accounts, we have identified key professional actions associated with recognition in collaborative processes with children. A dialogical form of communication, as well as the exploration of children’s troubles, abilities and skills, highlighted the children’s experiences of recognition and respect. Further research should concentrate on how to ensure that recognition occurs during communication with children in Child Welfare Services.

SAMMENDRAG

I barnevernvernsarbeid skal samarbeid ivareta familiens behov for riktig tjenestetilbud. Barn har rett til å medvirke i disse arbeidsprosessene. Forskning har vist at barn er vare for om de blir møtt med respekt eller ikke. Samarbeidsrelasjoner kan være krevende for barn. Denne artikkelen undersøker barns erfaringer med anerkjennelse i samarbeidsprosesser med ulike fagfolk. Med utgangspunkt i et kvalitativt forskningsprosjekt har vi identifisert nøkkel elementer som fremmer anerkjennelse i samarbeidsprosesser med barn. Funnene er basert på en narrativ analyse av barns fortellinger om erfaringer med det norske velferdsapparatet. Studien viste at dialogiske kommunikasjonsformer og balanse med hensyn til problem- og ressursorientering, styrket barnets opplevelse av anerkjennelse og respekt. Vi oppfordrer til mer barnevernforskning om hvordan fagfolk kan møte barn med anerkjennelse i barnesamtaler og samarbeid.

KEYWORDS:

• Child welfare work
• collaboration/partnership
• recognition
• disrespect
• participation

NØKKELORD:

• barnevernsarbeid
• samarbeid/partnerskap
• anerkjennelse
• respektløshet
• deltakelse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Inger Sofie Dahlø Husby is an assistant professor at the Department of Social Work at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She has a Masters degree in Social Work from NTNU. She has been a co-researcher on projects where children and adolescents in the child welfare system have been informants. She has interviewed children, and written contributions to reports. She gives lectures on communication with children.

Riina Kiik is a professor at the Department of Social Work at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She has a PhD in Public Administration and Social Policy from the University of Tartu in Estonia and a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Stockholm, Sweden. Her publications cover welfare services, professionalism and user involvement.

Randi Juul is an associate professor at the Department of Social Work at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She has a PhD in Social Work from NTNU and wrote about child welfare assessment and child perspectives. She gives lectures in child communication, qualitative methods and childhood. Her publications have been in the fields of discourse analysis and perspectives of children.

ORCID

Inger Sofie Dahlø Husby http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0815-9847

Riina Kiik http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6652-4438

Randi Juul http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8753-2581

Notes

1. The age of the children are given as a range because we want to make sure the narrator remain anonymous to our national readers of the article.

2. Once again, the age of the children are given as a range because we want to make sure the narrator remain anonymous to our national readers of the article.