XClose

Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)

Home
Menu

IAS Book Launch: Children's Life-Histories | Revisiting Childhood Resilience

01 April 2025, 5:00 pm–7:00 pm

Critical childhood studies book covers

Join the the IAS and the Critical Childhood Studies Centre in welcoming authors Eleanore Hargreaves, Denise Buchanan, Laura Quick and Wendy Sims-Schouten for this joint book launch.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Institute of Advanced Studies

Location

IAS Common Ground
G11, ground floor, South Wing
UCL, Gower St, London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

Please note this event has been rescheduled from 25th March. It will now take place on 1st April 2025, 5-7pm

About the books

Children's Life-Histories in Primary Schools: Imagining Schooling as a Positive Experience

Authors: Eleanore Hargreaves, Denise Buchanan, Laura Quick
This open access book explores schooling from the perspective of children via data from a longitudinal life-history study. It questions whether schooling creates an environment where all children to flourish; or whether a policy focus on attainment in mathematics and English hinders some children’s wellbeing and learning. By drawing on the children’s life-history narratives and their ideas, the chapters also portray children’s realistic suggestions for practices that meet the needs of diverse children and strengthen their comprehensive wellbeing and learning within schooling.

Children's Life-Histories in Primary Schools is published by Palgrave Macmillan Cham. Click here for more information.

Revisiting Childhood Resilience Through Marginalised and Displaced Voices: Perspectives from the past and present

Author: Wendy Sims-Schouten
Revisiting Childhood Resilience Through Marginalised and Displaced Voices uses an interdisciplinary approach to challenge current childhood resilience research and practice. The culmination of ten years of research and publications around childhood resilience, the book draws upon data collected from and co-produced with children, young people and adults from marginalised, disadvantaged and displaced communities. In so doing, it highlights the transformative potential of stories told by marginalised and displaced children, past and present. When these narratives are prioritised, they disrupt, counter and draw critical attention to coping strategies in light of adversity and oppression, to inform creative research and policymaking. Centralising the voices of care leavers, young people who are bullied, members from minority ethnic communities and former migrants/refugees, among others, Wendy Sims-Schouten shines a light on 150 years of marginalised voices and experiences in relation to resilience.

Revisiting Childhood Resilience Through Marginalised and Displaced Voices is published by UCL Press. Click here for more information.


About the event

Details of discussants to follow soon. 

All welcome. Register to attend: https://uclccsc-jointbooklaunch.eventbrite.co.uk


This book launch is part of the Institute of Advanced Studies Book Launch Series and organised by the Critical Childhood Studies Centre. The Centre is a home for world-leading scholarship about childhood as a socio-political, cultural, and historical phenomenon in diverse global contexts. The Centre provides a focal point for faculty and students at all levels in UCL to engage in innovative and multi-disciplinary research, teaching, and public engagement geared towards achieving social justice with and for children and young people.

For more information, email us at critical.childhood@ucl.ac.uk or join our mailing list

About the Speakers

Eleanore Hargreaves

Professor Learning and Pedagogy at IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment, UCL

Her published research focuses on children's own expressions of their schooling experiences. These are fed into theoretical conversations about teacher professional development, children's wellbeing and social justice. Eleanore draws on the work of Nancy Fraser in her social justice work. She has experience of learning and teaching in a range of countries including primarily Egypt, but also Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Qatar, Pakistan and Hong Kong.

More about Eleanore Hargreaves

Denise Buchanan

Lecturer in Education at IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment

I am particularly interested in how well-being and learning are linked and the ethical aspects of carrying out research among participants who are considered to be marginalised and vulnerable.

My research interests also include how 'lower-attaining' pupils function in school and I have now completed a five-year longitudinal project called ‘Children’s Life Histories In Primary/ Secondary Schools’ (CLIPS), to this end. This involved gathering qualitative data through termly face-to-face interviews with twenty-three children, using a Life Histories methodological approach. Our book based on this project is presently in press: 'Children's Life Histories in Primary Schools: imagining schooling as a positve experience'

More about Denise Buchanan

Laura Quick

Honorary Research Fellow at IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment

Having worked as an SEND and primary school teacher for many years, my interests include the role of schools in the reproduction of social and educational inequalities; the links between well-being and learning; and how marginalised learners experience schooling. I am also interested in methodological and ethical issues relating to carrying out research with young children. My doctorate was completed in Feb 2023 for which I received the Geoff Whitty Doctoral Thesis Prize and the SAGE Student Research Methods Prize.

More about Laura Quick

Wendy Sims-Schouten

Professor of Interdisciplinary Psychology at Arts and Sciences (BASc), UCL

Wendy has a specific interest in interdisciplinary research (historic and contemporary) with a focus on wellbeing, eclectic resilience (including resistance and defiance) and coproduction and has researched (and published) in the areas of mental health, safeguarding and inclusive practice with members from disadvantaged, displaced and marginalised communities (such as young care leavers, homeless people, as well as children/young people from ethnic minority communities), in national and international contexts.

More about Wendy Sims-Schouten