"He just wants to be a normal child, growing up in his nanna’s house.” The educational experiences of children in formal kinship care: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the views of children in formal kinship care and their kinship carers.

Stafford, Charlotte 2022. "He just wants to be a normal child, growing up in his nanna’s house.” The educational experiences of children in formal kinship care: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the views of children in formal kinship care and their kinship carers. DEdPsy Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis includes three sections: a major literature review, an empirical paper, and a critical appraisal. Section A provides a review of relevant literature. It begins with a description of the literature search, including search terms used. Next, there is an overview of what kinship care is and what the situation currently looks like within the United Kingdom (UK), including demographics and policies. Following this, a critical overview of theories such as: attachment theory; trauma and adverse childhood experiences; self-concept and social identity theory; and Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs is provided, with reference to their relevance to kinship care. The review then progresses onto a critical exploration of the educational outcomes and experiences of children in kinship care. Through this section, relevant psychological theory will be drawn upon. The final section of the review provides a summary of the literature review, leading onto a presentation of the academic and professional rational for the study presented in Section B. In Section B, there is a summary of relevant literature, followed by a detailed account of an empirical study which explored the views of children in formal kinship care and their kinship carers in relation to the children’s experiences of education. A comprehensive overview of the methodology and procedure are provided, which were based on a framework of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Four semi-structured interviews were carried out with formal kinship carers and three semi-structured interviews were carried out with children in formal kinship care in Wales. The evolving themes were synthesised across the accounts, resulting in three superordinate themes for formal kinship carers and four superordinate themes for children in formal kinship care. These are all presented in the Findings section. The final section of Section B discusses the findings in relation to previous research and psychological theory. Strengths and weakness of the research are considered, followed by implications for educational psychologists and suggestions for future research. A reflective and reflexive account of the development of the researcher and the research process is presented in Section C. This is divided into two parts. The first part begins with an exploration of the development of research questions and research rationale, as well as a critical reflection of the methodological considerations. The second part includes a discussion of contributions to knowledge and iii ideas for dissemination. The relevance of this thesis to the work of educational psychologists is also provided.

Item Type:	Thesis (DEdPsy)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	6 September 2022
Last Modified:	05 Jan 2024 08:16
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/152366

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