Conceptual, methodological and ethical issues in children's research in Portugal (original) (raw)
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This small-scale qualitative study explores the potential of young natural children's research behaviours to gain warrant to inform matters affecting their lives. The study is located in: 1) Young children's agency; 2) Psychological insights into young children’s cognition; 3) Emancipatory research methodologies. The project investigates four young English children's constructions of understanding within the cultural contexts they inhabit and ways in which policies and practices may affect their ontological development. Interview conversations, focus group discussions and observations are employed as part of a small-scale, ethnographic case study series located within constructivist grounded theory . Ethical issues are a prime consideration. Findings suggest that young children younger than 8 years seem able to engage in warranted research behaviours and these may have the potential to indicate directions of travel for policy in matters affecting them. However, some children may be so directed in their ECEC settings and homes that they have few opportunities to engage in natural research behaviours. Positioning young children as researchers may present significant challenges for professional researchers; this would benefit from further exploration.
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Along with the participatory research and rights-based approach, the changing position of the child in the research process leads to developing and analyzing new methods and data collection techniques. As the researchers recognize the child as an active agent of his/her own life, the possibilities of participation in the research become part of researches. Instead of the traditional research methods (such as questionnaires and observation), the creative methods have come into force in many academic fields when children are in research. This article examines the changes in the research methods with children and underlines further needs to scrutinize the entire research process with children, including the role of the researchers.
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The perspective of childhood studies has existed in science since the 1990s. Currently, it is considered as a paradigm. The article concerns one of the assumptions of this theoretical orientation – the participation of children in research. The analysis of the concept includes both positive and critical stances expressed in the subject literature. The text contains an analysis of the main assumptions of childhood studies and their relationship to the participatory approach to research. Moreover, it presents types of participatory research with children, considering the degree of their participation. The article refers to numerous examples of both research and specific techniques applied.