On 27 June 2026, the 2nd Rhizo-Eduscapes Workshop on Ethical & Bureaucratic Issues was held as part of the research project RHIZO-EDUSCAPES: A Rhizomatic Mapping of Refugee Non-Formal Education: Exploring & Transforming Educational Linguistic Landscapes in Accommodation Facilities for Unaccompanied Minors. The workshop focused on the ethical, institutional, and bureaucratic challenges arising in research involving unaccompanied minors, providing a forum for interdisciplinary dialogue among researchers, members of the academic community, and representatives of institutional bodies.
The workshop opened with a presentation by Roula Kitsiou, Principal Investigator of Rhizo-Eduscapes and Assistant Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Thessaly, entitled “Research Ethics and Bureaucracy in the Context of the Rhizo-Eduscapes Project”. The presentation outlined the project’s main theoretical and methodological foundations and addressed issues emerging from fieldwork, with particular emphasis on the reflexive and participatory dimensions of the research process.
Elena Ioannidou, Associate Professor of Language Education and Sociolinguistics at the University of Cyprus, delivered a presentation entitled “Towards a Democratically Oriented Research Ethics: Issues of Care and Engagement (Ethics of Care) in Ethnographic and Qualitative Research with ‘Vulnerable’ Groups”. Her contribution emphasised the importance of understanding research ethics not merely as a set of formal principles, but as an ongoing process shaped by relationships and the specific conditions of the research setting.
Theoni Stathopoulou, Research Director at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE), presented “Vulnerability and Psychological Resilience among Adolescents with Refugee Backgrounds: Findings from Empirical Research in Greece”. Drawing on empirical studies involving adolescents with refugee backgrounds, she explored the complex relationship between vulnerability and resilience.
Giannis Pechtelidis, Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Thessaly, delivered a presentation entitled “Research with Unaccompanied Children: Ethics, Participation, and Power through the Lens of the New Sociology of Childhood”. His contribution focused on children’s participation and agency, as well as the power relations that emerge and are negotiated throughout the research process.
Dimitris Georgiadis, Research Associate at the Department of Sociology of Panteion University and the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, presented “Unaccompanied Minors and ‘Barriers’ to Social Integration”. His presentation examined factors shaping the pathways of social and educational integration for unaccompanied minors, including legal uncertainty, access to education and employment, support networks, and relationships of trust.
Geli Aroni, Head of the Directorate for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors at the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Citizens and Institutional Protection of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, delivered a presentation entitled “Between Care, Institutional Responsibility, and Educational Inclusion: Ethical and Bureaucratic Dilemmas in Supporting Unaccompanied Minors”. Her contribution addressed issues relating to data production and management, protection against overexposure, procedures for ensuring that children’s views are heard, and the best interests of the child. She also examined the relationship between bureaucracy, institutional protection, and the ethics of care.
Kyveli Lignou-Tsamantani, Lecturer in Art History and Theory at York St John University (UK), concluded the series of presentations with “Questions of Visual Ethics in Representations of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors”. Her contribution shifted the discussion towards the ethics of images and spectatorship, highlighting the responsibilities involved in the visual representation of unaccompanied refugee children.
Through the presentations and subsequent discussion, the workshop highlighted ethics as a continuous and reflexive dimension of the research process, extending beyond compliance with institutional procedures. Questions of care, vulnerability and resilience, participation and agency, institutional responsibility, data protection, and visual representation were considered in relation to the broader question of how knowledge can be produced with, rather than merely about, children. Within this framework, particular emphasis was placed on critically reassessing research practices and developing procedures that protect participants while recognising their voices and their capacity to contribute meaningfully to the co-construction of research.