Ethics as Epistemology: Rethinking Research on Children and Families through Care, Reflexivity, and Relational Practice.

Abstract

Research with children and families is shaped by epistemic assumptions, methodological choices and ethical responsibilities. Each of these influence how human lives are rendered knowable. This paper examines the ethical and epistemological foundations of research practice by drawing on empirical work conducted across three distinct contexts from India: street dwelling Pamaria families, children in government school classrooms, and the seasonal life worlds of Agariya salt-pan workers. Across these settings, research emerges not as a neutral process of data collection but as a relational, interpretive and ethically charged encounter. The paper advances four interrelated commitments for research in the human sciences. Ethics is approached as epistemic ground rather than procedural compliance; Care is a foundational stance that structures attentiveness and humility; Methodology is understood as emergent and responsive to fluid and often precarious conditions, and Reflexivity is positioned as an ongoing ethical practice that shapes interpretation and representation. Together these commitments reframe research as a situated process of co-presence and meaning-making rather than extraction. While some of these may already be a part of global research, it is critical to acknowledge that such practices are not the norm across diverse geographical settings. By foregrounding relational ethics, care and epistemic responsibility, the paper contributes to debates in cultural psychology and research on how knowledge about children and families can be produced.