Towards ethical symmetry in educational research with children

Abstract

This article examines the ethical tensions that emerge in educational research involving child participants, drawing on a research trajectory developed in urban and rural contexts in Colombia. Its main objective is to identify the dilemmas, challenges, and onto-epistemological principles of research in order to consolidate a symmetrical ethics that calls for recognizing child subjects as co-constructors of their reality. The studies adopted a qualitative approach, using child social cartography as the research strategy. Three of these studies were conducted in a multigrade rural school in La Calera, and the fourth in community libraries in Medellín. The reflections presented yield several key findings. First, they validate childhood as an expert group capable of transforming educational settings, thereby developing agency when research moves beyond tokenistic participation toward genuine participation. Second, the main ethical dilemmas and challenges are identified as arising from adultism, which, for example, imposes protection protocols that conceal the identities of child authors. In response to these challenges, the article proposes a pathway toward ethical symmetry in educational research based on horizontality, respect, and recognition. This approach requires repositioning the adult researcher as a facilitator of processes and recognizing child researchers as subjects with decision-making power. Finally, the article concludes that research grounded in ethical practice and reflection has a positive impact on participants’ lives by promoting epistemic justice, destabilizing hegemonic discourses, and strengthening democracy through the critical autonomy that education seeks to foster.