DDS – Die Deutsche Schule: Issue 2/2026, 118. Volume In the Best Interests of Children?

Schools are among the few social contexts in which children’s presence is considered self-evident. As such, they represent a key setting for conducting research about young people as well as with them. However, as hierarchically organized institutions, schools are structured by pedagogical and education policy programs, spatial arrangements, generational power relations, and normative role expectations. These institutional conditions shape not only everyday school life but also the very processes of research: they influence whether participation can truly be voluntary, how children’s perspectives are acknowledged and incorporated, and the extent to which research can be meaningfully participatory. Against this background, our discussion paper examines the extent to which ethically responsible research with young people is possible within school settings at all.

Keywords
research, children, ethics, participation, responsibility