Deborah Harcourt

Introducing children's perspectives and participation in research

Over recent years, there has been increasing attention to the importance of involving children and listening to their voices and perspectives in research. The purpose of this monograph is to draw upon exemplary research with young children that is being undertaken in partnership with academics across the globe. The articles also seek to examine some of the critical issues and ethical dilemmas in this unique research paradigm. We are pleased to present discussion from a diverse range of research settings which includes Sweden, Iceland, Italy, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia. The underlying philosophy of each article is that all young children have the competence to engage in research as sophisticated thinkers and communicators and that the inclusion of childrens views are pivotal if we are to understand their life worlds.

An encounter with children: seeking meaning and understanding about childhood

The purpose of this study is to continue research conversations with young children about their lived experiences. A central philosophy underpinning this work seeks an acknowledgment of the presence of children and their accounts of life, as an essential element to understanding their social worlds. The research methodology draws upon an adaptation of the mosaic approach for data collection tools, whereby conversations, drawings, text, and photographs are used to consider understandings of childhood and adulthood from the child standpoint. Approximately 15 children aged three to six years were invited to put forward their views and opinions through conversations, drawings and/or written texts on their understandings childhood and adulthood. The children were invited to theorize differences in perspectives and propose reasons why this may be so. In this way, the article supports the notion that a community can provide the structure and procedures that enable childrens participation, should it view the child as a competent and capable contributor. The wish to listen to, and involve children, originates within this context and leads to structures and procedures that can support the involvement of children around a range of issues that impact on children.

Ethical Guardrails When Children Participate in Research: Risk and Practice in Sweden and Australia

This article investigates interpretations of sound research ethics in social science research involving children as framed through regulation. Coinciding with an emergent significance being given to research that involves children, debate has developed regarding whether particular ethical considerations are warranted in this type of research. We overlay the examination of regulation documents in Sweden and Australia with an interpretative lens drawn from these regulations that has the potential to position children as competent social actors in the research process. We then argue that there is possibility for ethical procedures to be viewed not only as risk management but also as beneficial research practice to stimulate continuing debate about how to work ethically in social science research when children are participants.

‘Living’ ethical dilemmas for researchers when researching with children

Abstract This article will explore some of the ethical dilemmas that confront researchers when they seek to invite childrens participation in research. It firstly tracks the historical landscape of ethical research and will examine the influence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on participatory research with children. Drawing on this background, the article will explore three main themes relating to the ethical participation of children: ethics as protection, the ethics of justice and the ethics of care. We look to contemporary literature in order to ask whether ethical guidelines specifically narrate ethical dilemmas in participatory research. The following are also explored: What is examined and explained as being ethical dilemmas when engaging with children? How does the literature explicate ethics as an explicit consideration in conducting research with children? Where is the ethical sensitivity in participatory practice? The article will conclude by identifying some of the ‘hidden’ dilemmas that need to be openly debated in the literature in order for participatory efforts to move forward.

Turning the UNCRC upside down: a bottom-up perspective on children's rights

Childrens rights have been studied from several perspectives. The implementation of childrens rights has been argued in a corpus of seminal works seeking to problematise ways in which rights may be integrated and visible, with a particular focus on childrens participation. Research also exists in the areas of policy, democratic practice and methodological considerations, particularly in the field of early childhood education. Although the obligation to realise childrens rights has been repeatedly argued in the literature, there are few (if any) studies that have examined rights from the child perspective as seen through the lens of their everyday experiences of life. This paper will present some of the significant early findings around a potential disjunction between rhetorical rights and lived rights. The authors will argue that the implementation and action around childrens rights should be positioned from a bottom-up perspective, rather than constrained to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Articles.

The challenges of conducting ethical research with children

The conduct of timely, ethical and reliable research in matters directly affecting children and childhood is of increasing importance to contemporary research communities. However, the challenges of seeking ways in which to include children’s perspectives requires critical deliberations and is beneficial at all stages of the research endeavour, from conceptualisation through to dissemination. This paper seeks to identify some of the ethical and methodological considerations of this type of research and propose ways in which the research process can be enhanced through the careful examination of key markers in that process.

An international experience of research with children: moving forward on the idea of children’s participation

This article examines a research collaboration in which an Australian and an Italian researcher came together in order to develop a project with young children to document their standpoints on the quality of their experiences of the early childhood services they were attending. As such, this article provides a reflection on working from different international viewpoints and narrates a research story that identifies some of the questions met, both in the conceptual framework and in the research design. In order to realize this research project, the collaborators’ challenge was to construct a shared understanding of their work, which meant addressing philosophical, ethical and practical points of tension. These points are described in the article as they emerged within the research endeavour, rather than being theoretically illustrated. The aim here is to offer the reader a lived experience example of meaning-making: how the researchers worked together, exploring the commonalities and differences that characterized each individual’s research practice, with the aim to construct a synergistic approach to working with children in research.

A Phased Approach to Researching With Young Children: Lessons From Singapore and Beyond

Research Findings: Research with young children is a complex enterprise and often fraught with ethical and practical dilemmas. This paper seeks to discuss the experience of an Australian early childhood academic undertaking research with children 3 to 6 years of age. It draws upon a series of projects that examine young childrens standpoints on quality indicators for their prior-to-school setting experiences and the methodologies that provided a framework for a successful research design. Practice or Policy: Focusing on a phased approach first piloted in Singapore, the paper examines some of the ethical and practical considerations, using a continuum process for supporting the active participation of young children in research. This is proposed as a useful tool for experienced and novice researchers seeking a guide to the processes for undertaking this type of research.

Introducing children's participatory research in action: challenges and dilemmas

Inspiration for this specialist collection of papers on Children’s Participatory Research emerged during our discussions with members of the Young Children’s Perspectives special interest group (SIG) at the European Early Years Research Association Conference in Geneva, 2011. Arguably, one of the most prolific and hard working of the EECERA SIGS, led by Deborah Harcourt and Jóhanna Einarsdóttir, to date the 48 members who comprise the SIG have produced several books (e.g. Researching young children’s perspectives, by Harcourt, Perry, and Waller 2011) and special journal editions (e.g. Children’s perspectives and participation in research, by Harcourt and Einarsdóttir 2011) aimed at highlighting the ethical issues integral to research involving young children and the practical difficulties inherent in research which involves young children in the process. Members from a range of countries (Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Denmark and Israel, amongst others) responded to our call for papers. Indeed, such was the enthusiasm for a special edition that this anthology represents the first of a two-part collection. In this first edition (with the second to be published in 2013) authors challenge traditional notions of participatory research and offer a unique insight into the ethics, methodologies and theoretical frameworks involved in researching with children. In the first article, Dali and Te One present researchers’ reflections on six studies undertaken in a range of settings and communities in the Pacific Islands involving 0 13-year-old children. The challenges experienced by researchers who seek to give voice to minority groups of children are evident throughout this review. Dali and Te One report the reality, messinesss and conflicting demands that can test the integrity of the research process. Also discussed are the strategies employed by researchers determined to give voice to hard to reach groups of children on their educational needs. Mortari and Harcourt also address the ethical dilemmas that confront researchers when they seek to invite children’s participation in research. According to Mortari and Harcourt, successful participatory research is founded on transactional relationships which respect the rights of the child. Further, they argue that the ethical principles that inform participatory research should be the same as those that inform the ethics of justice: responsibility, respect, and beneficence. They conclude that to nourish an ethical relationship it is necessary to cultivate positive sentiments and tenderness. We suspect that these propositions will be roundly challenged by researchers operating within a positivist paradigm. Dockett, Einarsdóttir, and Perry return to the issue of ethics but depart from mainstream discussions of gaining consent/assent by reflecting on children’s dissent. Drawing on examples from Iceland and Australia, involving children aged 2 6 years, International Journal of Early Years Education Vol. 20, No. 3, September 2012, 221 223

Measuring Teacher Quality: Listening to Young Children in Singapore

Early childhood research and policy are focusing increasingly on issues of ‘quality’ in early childhood education. Much of the focus, however, has been on adult-generated notions of quality, with little attention being devoted to childrens own views of their experience in early childhood settings. Conducted in the context of early childhood education in Singapore, this research seeks to contribute childrens own insights into their experience in two early childhood classrooms in Singapore. Informed by the sociology of childhood conceptualisation of child competence, the research methodology draws upon contemporary approaches to researching with children. The findings of this study were generated by beginning with the understanding that young children have the competence to articulate their ideas using a range of symbolic literacies. They formed views and constructed theories about their preschool experiences, in particular about teachers, and give a clear indication of what constitutes good quality in this domain. This study calls for those engaged with children, particularly teachers, to act upon the contributions offered by this group of children to the understanding of quality.