Children's Voices in the Polish Canon Wars: Participatory Research in Action

Abstract

Despite its rightful concern with childhood as an essentialist cultural construct, the field of children's literature studies has tended to accept the endemicity of asymmetrical power relations between children and adults. It is only recently, under the influence of children's rights discourses, that children's literature scholars have developed concepts reflecting their recognition of more egalitarian relationships between children and adults. This essay is a result of the collaboration between child and adult researchers and represents a scholarly practice based on an intergenerational democratic dialogue in which children's voices are respected for their intrinsic salience. The presence of child researchers in children's literature studies confirms an important shift currently taking place in our field, providing evidence for the impossibility of regarding children's literature only as a manifestation of adult power over young generations.