Searching for Children’s Agency in Protracted Conflicts: Critical Ethical, Epistemological and Practical reflections

Over more than a decade of research on children’s agency in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip, more questions than certainties have emerged. This colloquium retraces a dilemmatic journey into the core of children’s functioning under war and violence. It explores how mixed methodologies, ethical challenges, and researcher positionalities shape inquiry, while highlighting findings on children’s agency and life satisfaction as key vehicles of psychological functioning. The discussion seeks to critically engage with the complexities of studying children’s lives in protracted conflict and the open questions that remain.