Chapter 2 provides a historical overview of childhoods and children, illustrating how the concept of childhood has developed over time. The discussion focusses on how adults working with children, including applied linguists, need to reflect on the implications of their belief systems and their conceptions of children and childhood. The chapter then elaborates on the most notable conceptions of childhood, including the universal view. It then introduces Childhood Studies, a multidisciplinary approach to studying children from bottom up. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and its proposal that children are rights-bearing citizens and their voices must be heard are introduced, and the discussion addresses how the proposed rights can be realised in practice by schools, communities and individual adult researchers. The main contributions of Childhood Studies over the last three and half decades are summarised to draw attention to some current issues and concerns. Finally, the chapter outlines the main components of the extended framework, which includes possibilities for conducting studies not just ‘on’ and ‘about’ but also ‘with’ and ‘by’ children.

Chapter 5 discusses features of research involving children in applied linguistics. Based on a strategically selected ‘slice’ of the literature, namely, a survey of child L2 studies in five key applied linguistics journals between 2011 and 2021, a close analysis of children’s status and roles in research is undertaken. Observations are made about the type of studies (methodological solutions, tools, and approaches) dominating the field and about what is missing. Examples of studies in child second language education where children take up different types of passive roles are discussed and analysed. A handful of examples identified in the sample where the status and the roles of the children have been shifted away from entirely passive roles are also discussed. These examples are closely examined to identify the extent of active involvement that does not move beyond a ‘weak’ form of research ‘with’ children. The continuum of possibilities, research on-about-with-by children (Kellett, 2010a) is revisited here for further reflection.