research with children: methodological issues and innovative techniques

Abstract

In the past few decades, a growing body of literature examining children’s perspectives on their own lives has developed within a variety of disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, anthropology and geography. This article provides a brief up-to-date examination of methodological and ethical issues that researchers may need to consider when designing research studies involving children; and a review of some of the methods and techniques used to elicit their views. The article aims to encourage researchers to critically reflect on these methodological issues and the techniques they choose to use, since they will have implications for the data produced.

Children’s embodied experience of living with domestic violence: “I’d go into my panic, and shake, really bad”

“…Several steps were taken to protect children involved in the research, including ensuring that they understood the focus of the research, and had access to questions before the interview so they could make informed choices about involvement; structuring interviews to take into account the developmental level of the young person, and ensuring that researchers were responsive to children's cues and interactional styles in the interviews (Pascal & Bertram, 2009), and using a range of creative techniques to support the interview, when children wanted to use them (Fargas-Malet, McSherry, Larkin, & Robinson, 2010).…”

School Management Teams’ Conceptualisation of School Assets in Addressing the Needs of Children Orphaned and Made Vulnerable by HIV and AIDS: Evidence from South Africa

“…Studies by visual sociologists (Becker 1974;Goffman 1979;Wagner 1979;Collier and Collier 1986) initiated a paradigm shift from the conventional way of undertaking research to a more 'seeing' and ultimately 'perceiving' form of visual sociology (Prosser 1998). More recently, Fargas-Malet et al (2010) also highlighted the emergence of new participatory research methodologies. They argue that this shift has come about as result of the need to allow indigenous and minority populations to take care over their lives (FargasMalet et al 2010).…”

“…This engagement could contribute to subtle change in their lives. The energy and creativity of people, especially those living in less resourced environments such as rural school contexts, (Fargas-Malet et al 2010) to explore issues related to HIV and AIDS cannot be underestimated. Visual participatory methodologies have been reported as capable of offering a nested approach to research as a forum for sharing and voicing experiences (Olivier et al 2007;Park et al 2007;Balfour et al 2008).…”

How to Ensure Ethicality of Action Research in the Classroom?

“…The child can also be considered different from an adult, a competent person (Alderson, 1995), although Morrow (1999) states that, in that situation, the power relationship between the adult and child is not equal. The third way of perceiving the child is, according to Fargas-Malet et al (2010), to regard the child as an adult but with different competences. On the other hand, it is obvious that children differ from adults.…”

“…Dockett et al (2009) employ the concepts of verbal and non-verbal interaction that represent children's consent. The request for participating in the research was not directly addressed to children although, according to studies, children are fully capable of giving their own assent (Fargas-Malet et al, 2010). In the research described in this article, the teacher-researcher thought-as Fargas-Malet et al (2010) have pointed out-that pupils in primary education are still so small that they could not have been able to develop their emotional coping through reflection, assessment, and observation.…”