Institute of Education London

Professor Priscilla Alderson

• Qualifications and position:
  • BA (hons), PhD
  • Professor Emerita of Childhood Studies
• Faculty:
  • Faculty of Children and Learning
• Department:
  • Childhood, Families and Health
• Centre:
  • Social Science Research Unit
• Summary:
  • I began working in services and advocacy for children during the 1960s. My first degree was in English; my PhD in sociology: 'Parents' consent to paediatric cardiac surgery'. I have worked in research since 1984, and at SSRU since 1991.
• Teaching:
  • I teach on the Institute of Education's MA Sociology of Childhood Studies and Children's Rights; MA Early Years Education; MSc in Policy Analysis and Evaluation, and on Doctoral School courses.
    I teach regularly on advanced study courses at King's College London Centre of Medical Law and Ethics.
• Research Projects:
  • I am writing a book for Routledge entitled Childhoods Real and Imagined: An Introduction to Childhood Studies and to Dialectical Critical Realism. This includes examining how younger generations are part of the 'adult' world, and are deeply affected by current decisions and activities in economics, the ecology and ethics. Adviser on the Nuffield Foundation Project on Adolescents and Informed Consent, School of Law, University of Leeds.
• Postgraduate Research:
  • Current students:
    
    Kate Martin: Every Child Matters: social investment and childhood inequality, 2008-;
    Pat Gordon-Smith: Listening to young children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in early years settings, 2011-.
    
    Past students:
    
    Tamaki Yoshida: Corporal punishment of children: a critical realist account of experiences from two primary schools in urban Tanzania, 2011. Professor Roy Bhaskar, founder of critical realism, considers that this is a first class thesis;
    Deborah Chinn: Professionals talk about parents with learning disabilities.' Graduated as excellent and outstanding with no amendments. Co-winner of Institute of Education Director's prize for the best thesis in 2006;
    Karen Winter: the participation of young children in the 'looked-after' children decision-making process - graduated as excellent with no amendments January 2009.
• Professional Activities:
  • Member of: IOE Meeting of Professors; the Board of the IOE MA in Sociology of Childhood and Children's Rights
    Visiting Professor to School of Nursing and Midwifery, King's College University of London Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
    Member of the following external organisations: Executive Committee of Green Economics Institute; British Sociological Association; Children's Rights Alliance for England.
    Editorial advisory board member of: Royal Society of Medicine Journal of Clinical Ethics; International Journal of Children's Rights; Youth and Policy; International Journal of Green Economics.
• Conferences/presentations:
  • I receive regular invitations to speak at conferences on children's and young people's rights, consent, research ethics and research methods. Most recent presentations include:
    Young People, Rights and Consent, to the Nuffield Foundation Project on Adolescents and Informed Consent, School of Law, University of Leeds, May 2011.
    Young Children's Human Rights: Do They Exist? British Sociological Association Annual Conference. London School of Economics, University of London, April 2011.
    Critical Realism: Can Medical Sociology Do Without it? London Medical Sociology Group, King's College, University of London, February 2011.
• Personal Country Knowledge:
  • Apart from the UK, my knowledge has been mainly gained through working with MA and doctoral students from all continents.