Capturing Children's Meanings in Early Childhood Research and Practice

A Practical Guide

Ann Marie Halpenny

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781351163941
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Capturing Children's Meanings in Early Childhood Research and Practice draws together contemporary research and established theories to produce a unique take on the meanings children express through a range of creative tools. Drawing on Reggio Emilia and the Mosaic approach, this book provides readers with a range of strategies for accessing, recording and interpreting young children's perceptions of and responses to their experiences.

Providing a synthesis of the multiple imaginative ways we can capture young children's meanings through observations, art, photo elicitation, mindfulness, music and other creative methods, Halpenny covers topics such as:

• Negotiating challenges presented by researching with children
• Frameworks for seeing and hearing children's intentions
• Accurately documenting and interpreting research findings
• Promoting children's meanings and their performance of them
• Moving forward with new understandings

This book is an indispensable resource for students of early childhood education, especially for courses focusing on the lived experiences of children from early to middle childhood. It is also a useful reference for those working with young children in educational and caregiving settings, and for those advocating for young children.

1
Researching young children’s experiences and meanings

Capturing children’s perceptions of their lived experiences is an active process of communication involving listening to children, interpreting their expression and co-constructing meanings through these dialogues (James, 2007). A key principle underpinning this process is acknowledgement of young children’s personal accounts of their experiences as a fundamental element to understanding their worlds. The motivation to do research involving young children is reinforced by a desire to generate knowledge and greater understanding of childhoods and children’s meanings in the context of their everyday lived experiences. This chapter outlines and discusses some of the key ideas and principles underpinning the rationale for doing research with young children. The value of child-centred research has been well documented, and the chapter further emphasises the importance of giving young children the opportunity to express their meanings and perspectives in research and practice. Such an approach foregrounds the particular expertise of young children in terms of their knowledge about childhood, their role as skilful and competent communicators and their right to participate in and contribute to decision-making in matters that affect their lives. The importance of refining research methods and drawing attention to innovative and creative ways to work with children in research, in order to capture in a meaningful way the worlds and perspectives of children, has been highlighted in recent decades (Clark, 2017).

Key aspects of children’s development in the early years will be summarised later in the chapter, with a view to guiding and informing the research methods and strategies adopted in order to capture young children’s meanings. Drawing on some of the established approaches to doing research with young children, creative strategies appropriate for engaging young children in the research process are outlined.

Researching young children’s meanings

The uniqueness of children’s perspectives on experiences of their everyday lives has been evidenced in prior research, such as where, how much and with whom they play (Colliver, 2017; Einarsdóttir, 2003; Rogers & Evans, 2008). Young children’s perspectives contribute substantially to our knowledge of what they process and prioritise in terms of aspects of their experiences (Miles, 2018). Significantly, children’s unique perspectives can also contribute to challenging adult assumptions around these experiences (Ruscoe, Barblett & Barratt-Pugh, 2018). Young children’s perspectives are, thus, an essential consideration for democratic representation of all citizens in a society (Broström, 2012; Sommer, Samuelsson & Hundeide, 2010). Including children’s perspectives in meaningful ways in research has the potential to transform what is currently known about early childhood education by providing perspectives that have not been captured in more traditional research approaches (Mayne, Howitt & Rennie, 2018). Notwithstanding these views and arguments, Colliver (2017) draws attention to the fact that many researchers around the world ascribe little weight to young children’s perspectives.

In their valuable resource Steps for Engaging Young Children in Research (Volume 1 & 2), Johnson, Hart and Colwell (2014a), draw attention to six key steps that should be included in any research process that seeks to engage young children’s participation. The first step to consider is whether there is a commitment to including young children in research, and moreover, whether the data gathered and the knowledge generated from the research will be acted on and have influence. The second step prioritises the importance of developing appropriate ethical protocols and processes. The necessity of being able to build trusting, supportive and professional relationships with young children in the research process is highlighted in the third step. Selecting appropriate methods to engage with children in research and identifying sensitive and child-friendly strategies for communication are emphasised in the fourth and fifth steps set out by Johnson et al. (2014a). Finally, consideration of the context and relevance of the research to young children’s lives is prioritised in the sixth step in engaging children in research.How adults conceptualise children and childhood influences the extent to which they can engage with children effectively in the research process. In the section below, current understandings of childhood and how these concepts have evolved over time are briefly outlined and discussed.

Steps for Engaging Young Children in Research Johnson, Hart & Colwell (2014a)

Step 1: Consideration of capacity and capability: commitment to including young children in research and acting on the knowledge generated

Step 2: Developing ethical protocols and processes

Step 3: Developing trust and relationships

Step 4: Selecting appropriate methods

Step 5: Identifying appropriate forms of communication

Step 6: Consideration of context and relevance of research

Constructions of children and childhood

Current understandings and constructions of children and childhood are informed, among other influences, by postmodern views of children and childhood, the sociology of childhood, and the children’s rights movement (Alanen, 2001; Corsaro, 1997; Einarsdóttir, 2007; Harcourt & Gray, 2013). Perspectives that emphasise childhood, viewed as a social construction from a sociological perspective, place an emphasis on children as social actors and citizens, rather than as deficient adults. Childhood and children are, therefore, considered as worthy of investigation in their own right, separate from their parents or caregivers (Corsaro, 1997; Christensen & James, 2008a; James & Prout, 1990). In the past, traditional understandings of childhood emphasised developmentally appropriate practices, informed exclusively through a reliance on developmental theories, which tended to view children’s development as moving towards adulthood, at times with greater emphasis on what a child was not yet able to do, rather than highlighting the child’s ability and competence. As summarised by Mayall (1994, p. 1):

Children’s lives are lived through childhoods constructed for them by adults’ understandings of childhood and what children are and should be.

Such a perspective contributed to a view of childhood that overlooked childhood agency and prioritised regulating children’s learning to what is considered to be normal development (Atwater, Carta, Schwartz & McConnell, 1994). More recent perspectives conceptualise children as strong, capable and knowledgeable experts on their own lives, possessing knowledge, perspective and interest that is best gained from the children themselves (Malaguzzi, 1994; Mashford-Scott & Church, 2011). Underpinning this perspective is recognition that children have agency, defined as ‘the power to make decisions that impact on self and others and act on them’ (Sancar & Severcan 2010, p. 277). Children’s exercise of agency can best be understood in relation to the social, cultural and political contexts in which it occurs, and in connection with adult agency. Recognising children’s agency in research posits a view that children are individuals who experience their worlds in unique ways and that these unique experiences are a valued focus of study (Greene & Hill, 2005). Research using creative, diverse methodological approaches has provided evidence that young children are reliable informants, capable of contributing unique and valuable information (Clark, 2017; Clark & Moss, 2001; Mayne et al., 2018).

Competing paradigms and values have informed our understanding of childhood in recent decades. Childhood is now understood primarily through the lens of social constructionism and children are viewed as active participants constructing their own learning (Mayall, 2000; Smith, 2007). Notwithstanding the variety of contexts and frameworks in which children’s perspectives and views are sought, a common aim that draws together all such research is that it strives to generate greater knowledge and understanding about the richness of children’s lives (Kellet, 2011). Research with young children has been influenced by discourses of children’s rights and citizenship. Children’s competence to participate in research and their ability to express their opinions has also been clearly articulated in the UNCRC (United Nations, 1989).

General Comment 7 (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 1989), emphasises the rights of all children, including young children, to be consulted in matters that affect them. Specifically, Article 12 of the convention emphasises the right that a child who is capable of forming his or her own view should have the right to express these views freely on all matters affecting the child and that those views should be given weight in accordance with age and maturity (United Nations, 1989). Four key dimensions, which are relevant to designing and carrying out research with young children, are highlighted in Article 12 as follows: space to generate opportunities for children’s expression of their views; voice, to ensure that these views are expressed effectively; audience, to ensure that children’s views are listened to; and influence, to ensure that young children’s views are listened to and acted on.

Four key dimensions to conceptualize the provision of Article 12 (UNCHR, 1989); Lundy (2007, p. 933 cited in Tay-Lim & Lim, 2013)

Space: Creating opportunities for children to express their views

Voice: Facilitating the expression of these views

Audience: Actively listening to these views

Influence: Responding appropriately to these views

Young children’s participation in research

Acknowledging children’s right to participate in research requires developing meaningful ways and strategies through which children can be involved in research projects. Mayne et al. (2018) draw attention to a hierarchical model of children’s (3- to 8-year-olds) research participation rights that builds on work by Roger Hart and integrates key dimensions of participation rights drawn from Article 12 of the UNCRC. More specifically, the authors emphasise that attention must be focused on the ways in which information is communicated to children, the level of understanding that is achieved, generating opportunities for children’s opinions to be voiced, and what, if any, influence can be exerted, resulting from participation. The importance of recognising that researchers and children have differing agendas and, in practice, all research with children requires some level of adult direction, is foregr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Researching young children’s experiences and meanings
• Chapter 2: Negotiating challenges in doing research with young children
• Chapter 3: Documenting children’s meanings
• Chapter 4: Ways of seeing: Observation skills in research with young children
• Chapter 5: Ways of listening: Supporting children’s conversations
• Chapter 6: Making children’s meanings visible
• Chapter 7: Mindful moments and performance of meanings
• Chapter 8: Capturing meanings and moving forward with new understandings
• References
• Index