You've Got to Think Really Hard: children making sense of the aims and content of Theatre in Health Education

Abstract

The focus of this article is a discussion of children's understandings of a TIHE project on child protection. The authors will pose questions about ways in which childhood and child abuse have been socially constructed. They argue that children are frequently perceived as passive recipients of knowledge and as invalid and incompetent actors. Further, the growth of societal concern for child abuse can be seen as a result of adults increasing surveillance and control of children. The article then explores the implications these constructions have for researching children and TIHE projects. The findings from interviews with children substantiate these critiques in that children are able to articulate clearly, given their unequal status and the problems they saw in protecting themselves and their understandings of the project.