PhD Student in UCD School of Education, Thesis topic: ‘Who am I when I am not with you?’ Identity construction of children and young people within and across their social worlds in foster care;

Description: This thesis is focused on understanding the processes by which children and young people in care – often in multiple settings moving between families – cope and actively engage in the process of identify framing. The research foregrounds children’s perspectives. Two core aims underpin the research: • To identify how children’s identities are constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed within their everyday lives in foster care, • To explore children’s experience of time and space in foster care and the impact of relationships and interactions within these spaces on identity construction and self-hood.