ABSTRACT
Introduction In 1875, Andrew Doyle reported to the local government board at Whitehall on the emigration of pauper children to Canada. He spoke to many children, some of whom had happy experiences, some not. 'We all sicked over each other,' was one description of the sea voyage, while a child patiently explained: "Doption sir, is when folks gets a girl to work without wages' (Doyle 1875) Thus, listening to children has a longer history than those of us currently interviewing children are inclined to acknowledge. Moreover, we are still not good enough at hearing them, in the sense of taking full account of what they tell us. As researchers, we are still learning ways of involving children fully in every stage of the research process from identifying meaningful research questions, to collaborating with researchers, and disseminating good practice. And we are still learning that there may be occasions when such involvement may itself be exploitative or inappropriate, just as in other cases, not to involve children and young people represents poor practice.
