In this article, we examine methodological issues qualitative researchers encounter when they engage in research with children. Within this view, qualitative research is employed with children but not on children and focus is placed upon children’s voices, agency, and the ways they participate with researchers in the research process (Einarsdóttir, 2007). Our discussion draws upon a study we conducted with four- and five-year-old children on the preschool playground. We reflect upon methodological issues pertaining to researching with children; issues of context, power, and representation.
Keywords
Research with Children, Power, Representation, Photo Elicitation, Mosaic Approach
Author Bio(s)
Danielle Lane is a doctoral candidate in Special Education at the University of South Florida. She is currently serving as a pre-doctoral fellow and instructor of education at Elon University in North Carolina. Her research focuses on global understandings of autism spectrum disorder in various cultural contexts. Specifically, she is interested in centralizing the importance of inclusive practices in educational provisions that are provided to students with autism spectrum disorder. Danielle teaches courses in Special Education at the undergraduate level and serves as a university supervisor for pre-service teacher candidates. She also serves as the editorial assistant for International Journal of Whole Schooling. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: dvanwie@mail.usf.edu.
Dr. Jolyn Blank is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Teaching & Learning at the University of South Florida. Dr. Blank’s research focuses on the relationship between teacher learning and school contexts and the educational potential of artistic and aesthetic experiences for young children. She investigates the ways arts and inquiry, integrated processes of investigating and representing meaning using multiple modes of communication, are enacted within the diverse social and ideological complexities of contemporary early schooling. Dr. Blank teaches courses in Early Childhood Education in the undergraduate teacher preparation program and at the master’s and doctoral levels. Her courses focus on play and learning, the arts in early learning, and qualitative research. She also serves as the pedagogical advisor to the USF Preschool for Creative Learning, bringing together faculty, pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and graduate students to engage in co-inquiry within the context of authentic classroom experiences. Dr. Blank served as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Education and the Arts and served on the editorial boards of Young Children, Early Childhood Research & Practice, and The Qualitative Report.
Dr. Phyllis Jones is a professor in the department of Teaching & Learning at the University of South Florida. Phyllis taught and was a deputy head in schools in the UK for fifteen years before she entered teacher education. She came to USF in 2003. She is author of Curricula for Students with Severe Disabilities: Narratives of Standards-Referenced Good Practice, Inclusion in the Early Years: Stories of good practice, co-author of Collaborate Smart and lead editor of “A Pig Don't Get Fatter the More You Weigh It": Balancing Assessment for the Classroom, Leading for Inclusion, Creating Meaningful Inquiry in the Inclusive Classroom, Pushing the Boundaries: Developing Inclusive Practices through Integration of Insider Perspectives, co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties and The Foundations of Inclusive Education Research.She is co-editor of International Journal of Whole Schooling, sits of the editorial board of Disability & Society and is a regular reviewer for British Journal of Special Education, Journal of Child and Family Studies, International Journal of Inclusive Education, Journal of Teacher Education and International Review of Education. Internationally, she has worked in England, Ireland, New Zealand, Thailand and Mexico. Phyllis has a current Fulbright application and has been successful at the USA country level, her application has been forwarded to New Zealand for this review.
Lane, D.,
Blank, J.,
&
Jones, P.
(2019).
Research with Children: Context, Power, and Representation.
The Qualitative Report,
24(4), 693-704.
https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3556
