Let the children speak: Case study of lived experience in a reform school in Wuhan and its implication to policy on street children.

详细信息   

• 作者：Li ; Xiao Feng.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2007
• 导师：Chan, Charles C.
• 毕业院校：Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• 专业：Social Work.;Sociology, Public and Social Welfare.
• ISBN：9780549441892
• CBH：3299870
• Country：China
• 语种：English
• FileSize：31214762
• Pages：479

文摘

This thesis began by establishing a theoretical explanation of "problem street children" in China through a review on theoretical perspectives such as social construction theory of social problems, social exclusion and the strengths perspective. Based on qualitative research methods and taking street children as reliable informants, the "lived experiences" of street children in their original rural homes, street corner societies and reform school were documented and analyzed. The aim of the research was threefold: firstly, the hitherto "doubly-silenced" street children could voice out their suppressed views making understanding of street children in reform school from a fresh angle possible; secondly, to draw implications on the current policies and services for street children; and thirdly, to formulate an intervention model on "social work counseling" applicable in the reform school.;In order to achieve the above aims, an ethnographic approach involving ten teenagers between 12 to 16, and five teachers in a reformed school in Wuhan was deployed as the main research method. Materials captured through systematic interviews and observations were analyzed using deep-description. Three major findings were: firstly, when the dynamic processes of identity re-construction, (from children at home to children on the street to being reform school students), were detailed against two sets of tensions, i.e., between being marginalized or structuralized and oscillating between resistive and obedient, we were able to bring out new understanding about street children in reform school in terms of being abandoned, able to work and be responsible, resilient in difficult situations. This is in direct contradiction with mainstream description of street children as a serious social problem which inevitably leads to extremely different strategies of management. Secondly, implications were drawn on existing policies including repeated failure with repatriation to place of origin policy, rescue and protection centre policy, as well as discipline transformation policy. Thirdly, based on the process of gaining legality in the provision of "social work counseling" in the reform school, the researcher proposed a working model on social work counseling.;The research has inherent limitations in that the findings were based only on teenage boys from a single setting. Unfortunately, there is an extreme paucity of literature on street children in China, in particular, scattered and thin when it comes to female street children. Applicability of the social work counseling model on teenage girls remains to be examined.