‘The importance of a conceptual framework in research with children and young people in foster care’.

The aim of this presentation is to highlight the importance of developing a rigorous conceptual framework when undertaking research with child and young people in foster care. Miles and Huberman (1984) describe a conceptual framework as a ‘researcher’s map of the territory being investigated’. This paper argues that in order to document the perspectives of children and young people a conceptual framework is essential in order to focus on exactly what it is you are asking their views on. Knowing what aspects of the young people’s experience you are researching is also an important ethical consideration particularly when undertaking research in to areas that are of a potentially sensitive nature. The existing research evidence focusing on the perspectives of looked after children has been criticised for not being adequately informed by theoretical perspectives (Berridge 2007; Stein 2006). This has resulted in calls to utilise sociological concepts in order to gain nuanced understandings of their experiences (Berridge 2007; Winter 2006). In order to highlight
how this can be achieved an overview of the conceptual framework from the PhD project that I am currently working on will be presented. The study draws on the sociological concept of social capital, as understood by Bourdieu, and examines through a qualitative approach the practices within the young people’s social networks. The research aims to explore the day to day lives of young people living in foster care in the United Kingdom with a clear focus on their interactions within their social networks.