Children Talk: Children’s Interpretation of Childhood

Children’s experiences are unique to themselves; they can neither be perceived as separate from the social and cultural life nor can be thought of as biological beings evolving to adults. Their identity and agency should be appreciated and understood in their own terms. My aim in this paper is to embark on some of the themes that make childhood in our contemporary society what it is, not from the perspective of adults but from the perspective of children. To this end, I have conducted focus groups with children in order to learn about different aspects of their lives in relationship to their surroundings. This paper presents the analysis of the transcripts I obtained in my fieldwork using critical discourse analysis in order to be able to contextualise children’s experiences and practices within a cultural and social context. Children’s perception of adults, adult roles, other children of different ages and gender play a crucial part in why they perceive themselves in the way they do. Therefore, while attempting to present how children interpret childhood for themselves I also aim to highlight the reasons underlying this interpretation. Within the scope of this paper it is also crucial for me to understand children’s views on their awareness of how adults perceive them. I also attempt to examine how children position themselves within specific social surroundings by looking at how certain media, such as the television, is used in the household, meal time habits among different families and children’s interpretations of linguistic discourses for themselves and adults. Through an analysis of how certain social concepts and cultural discourses shape children’s lives I will examine where children place themselves within the family and society in an adult-centred world. I will highlight children’s interpretation of their lives around adults and represent their childhoods in their own words