Abstract

This chapter explores the normative conceptions of children as vulnerable and lacking agency that underpin ethics review. Drawing on my ethnographic research with young school children, I discuss how peer feedback and the ethics review process positioned me as a potential threat to both the children and the person responsible for protecting them. It also left me ill-prepared to respond to moments in the field when the children wished to assert their agency. Although it is important to be cognisant of salient gender dynamics, I argue that we should not be distracted from other important ethics considerations such as identifying those moments when children wish to challenge some aspect of the research process and to know how to respond appropriately.