Agency operating within structures: A qualitative exploration of agency amongst children living in Palestine

This qualitative study examined how 70 Palestinian children actively exercise agency and cope with their exposure to political violence, rather than viewing them as helpless victims. Using drawings and walk-along interviews, researchers explored children's agentic practices across their multiple social and physical environments. The findings show how children mobilize internal and external resources to navigate their circumstances, and how their social, physical, and political ecologies either support or limit their ability to do so.

Key points

• Children exposed to political violence are active agents, not passive victims
• Children mobilize resources within themselves and their social, physical, and political worlds
• Agency is shaped by multiple interconnected ecologies in children's lives
• Settings and environments either promote or suppress children's opportunities to cope
• Qualitative methods (drawings and walk-along interviews) revealed children's agentic practices

Limitations

This is a qualitative study with 70 children in Palestine, so findings cannot be generalized to other contexts or populations. The document does not specify how the sample was selected, the ages of participants, or provide detailed outcome data.