Children and school-based research: 'informed consent' or 'educated consent'?

This article discusses 'informed consent' in relation to research with chil dren and young people in educational settings. In particular, it reflects u pon issues that arose in the process of gaining their active consent to par ticipate in the authors' research on children's understandings of parental involvement in education. In line with contemporary approaches to research with children, the children were provided with 'information' through leafle ts and classroom activities in order for them to make 'choices' about parti cipation. On reflection, these methods can be seen as distinctly educationa l, in that they drew on liberal education discourses and on practices adopt ed in 'progressive' British schooling. The children and young people's resp onses to the consent processes must be seen in the context of the authors' implicit use of broadly pedagogic approaches, and of the research taking pl ace in a school setting inscribed with differential power relations. The au thors therefore interrogate the concept of 'informed consent' that is emplo yed in research, and its prior construction of 'information'. This raises q uestions about distinctions between providing information and teaching, and implications for conducting ethical social research with children.