Child Studies

Empty Chairs: Media, Movement, and Liberation

We'am Hamdan — 2025-08-05

This article critically examines how Palestinian children navigate and resist the ongoing genocide in Gaza through digital media, challenging global spectatorship. Through a content analysis of over 300 social media videos, I explore how these children use digital platforms not only for survival but as powerful tools for education and resistance against the dehumanisation imposed by a Zionist settler-colonial regime. Methodologically, this study analyses social media content created by Palestinian children, supplemented by observations of trends and narrative strategies across popular platforms, primarily TikTok and Instagram. This approach provides a nuanced understanding of how these children, acting as both journalists and educators, assert their agency, document their experiences, and resist systemic oppression through digital media. The paper also critiques the global phenomenon of capitalist spectatorship, wherein audiences engage more with the spectacle of suffering than with meaningful action. It interrogates the ethical implications of this passive consumption of suffering and the challenges of fostering genuine solidarity in a digital landscape dominated by "clicktivism" and superficial engagement. By situating Palestinian children's narratives within this broader context, the paper calls for a shift from passive spectatorship to active engagement, urging the global community to move beyond observation and take concrete action in response to their voices and needs.

“After a while, it became a normal thing”: Swedish children’s experiences of everyday life in school during the Covid-19 pandemic

Helene Elvstrand — 2025-08-05

The article investigates how Swedish children (aged 8–12) with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder describe their school-situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. A socio-ecological perspective is used to understand how the pandemic trickled down and became part of children’s everyday life. The data consists of eight qualitative interviews with children. The interviews were analysed using a grounded theory approach. Most prominent in the children’s main concerns about pandemic school life is change. The results show that although the children’s lived pandemic environment is mainly described in challenging terms, the pandemic also provided some opportunities for them – school becoming calmer, for example, or the disease restrictions providing opportunities to take a time-out.

Interaction between teacher and deaf student: a case study in the Brazilian inclusive context

Maíra Souza Machado — 2025-08-05

The aim of this research is to understand how the interaction between a teacher and a deaf student takes place in a class in the early years of elementary school in a Brazilian school. To achieve this goal, a semi-structured interview and observation with a field diary were used. This is a qualitative, descriptive case study that analyses the subjects in their social context and the interactions that take place between them. The analyzed data showed that a good interaction between the teacher and the deaf student encourages and favours the deaf student's participation in classroom activities. It was found that the student participated in class, interacted with classmates and the teacher, and that Libras were used at certain times in class to expand the vocabulary of the listeners. Despite the challenges inherent in the Brazilian educational context, we have seen positive strategies being developed in a public school from an inclusive perspective.

The use of short stories to improve literacy in a bilingual context

Aldora Astreia Cadete — 2025-08-05

Este estudo decorre de um projeto de investigação de doutoramento em curso e apresenta resultados preliminares sobre o papel do conto na melhoria da literacia de alunos do 6.º ano em Angola, especialmente numa zona rural caracterizada pelo bilinguismo. O trabalho envolveu 39 alunos, sete pais e dois professores. O tema central foi a leitura de contos. Adotámos um paradigma de investigação qualitativa complementado por uma análise quantitativa limitada. A análise de conteúdo e a estatística descritiva foram utilizadas como métodos de estudo. O estudo constatou um baixo nível de literacia entre os alunos, a falta de livros didáticos sobre textos literários, o facto de a língua materna dos alunos não ser a mesma que a língua de ensino e a falta de especialização dos professores no ensino do português. Uma conclusão preliminar é a falta de utilização do conto como estratégia de ensino, o que tem dificultado o processo de ensino-aprendizagem.

"Look! I made it myself": what do children tell us about authorship and children's aesthetics

Dhemy de Brito — 2025-08-05

This study explores how children perceive their authorship and engage in discussions on childhood aesthetics. The research was conducted in a kindergarten in northern Braga with eighteen children aged between three and five years, participating in the educational project "A Place to Sound and Be Every School", led by the SOUND.BE group. The findings indicate that educational practices that encourage children's authorship and embrace childhood aesthetics create spaces for intergenerational dialogue, strengthening children's autonomy and creative expression. Moreover, the study highlights the need to reconfigure pedagogical practices to overcome adult-centric structures, making schools more democratic and inclusive spaces. This research contributes to a broader debate on valuing childhood in educational contexts, reaffirming the importance of recognizing children as legitimate subjects of knowledge and creation.

Examining the influence of law 4538/2018 on foster care and child mental health outcomes within the greek child protection framework

Ignatia Farmakopoulou — 2025-08-05

The implementation of the Greek Law 4538/2018 concerning the social institution of children's fostering is examined. It is based on a doctoral thesis aimed at identifying the best practices in promoting the de-institutionalization of minors to improve their mental health. A mixed-method approach was used, beginning with a quantitative survey to the 59 Directors in Children’s Homes across Greece. 4 Children's Homes were found to be the exemplary child protection agencies in terms of fostering. The second phase of the quantitative research was carried out on their ongoing foster care cases. Semi-structured interviews conducted with 9 social workers who had undertaken these 16 children’s fosters care cases. The research revealed that long-term foster care for children between the ages of 4-6 is widespread and often foster care leads to adoption and contact with biological family remains rare. Overall, the research argues for the urgent need for designing a unified foster care protocol across Greece to ensure consistency and effectiveness in child protection services.

Stories of stories: Thinking normalcy through the narratives of hospital clowns’ encounters with children

Maria Inês Peceguina — 2025-08-05

The "Stories of Stories" project by Operação Nariz Vermelho explores the impact of Clown Doctors in hospitals and their potential to enhance artistic interventions. Using an autoethnographic approach, it analyses narratives from artists’ reports on their interactions with children and adolescents in Portuguese hospitals. The study highlights two central themes: the concept of "normalcy" and mental health in hospital settings. It suggests that hospital clowns create a symbolic space that empowers children, respects their autonomy, and fosters emotional well-being, aligning with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The findings underscore the psychosocial benefits of these interventions, emphasising their role in humanising hospital care and supporting children’s identities beyond their diagnoses. This research calls for deeper investigation into the broader impact of artistic interventions in healthcare.

Editorial - The plurality of Child Studies

Carmen Franco Vasquez — 2025-08-04