Participatory Action Research with young children
by Nina Taylor
My poster presentation is based on a small study carried out in response to an undergraduate assignment for my Early Childhood Studies degree.
My view is that, regardless of where we are on the academic journey, whether undergraduate, postgraduate or beyond, we are all researchers and thus should be willing to share our findings with others as long as they are valid.
This study reflected on the use of a listening tool to ascertain whether engaging children as co-participants in listening activities offers insights into what is meaningful in their lives. I chose the Magic Carpet approach, one of the listening tools situated within The Mosaic Approach (Clark and Moss, 2001). According to Clark (2017), it is a method that allows children the opportunity to think about spaces in their community as well as reflecting on what is meaningful for them.
Furthermore, it was embedded within a socio-cultural perspective, viewing children as competent agents in their learning and acknowledging their right to be listened to and viewed as capable citizens (UNCRC, 1989, Kjorholt, 2005). Moreover, participatory methods and photo elicitation have been used extensively to explore various aspects of children’s and young people’s lives (Burke, 2008; Einarsdottir, 2005; Rasmussen and Smidt, 2001; Clark and Moss, 2001).
As the researcher, I took photographs in the local community which were then shared with the two young children who participated and their discussions were recorded using a digital voice recorder.
Although the children had the freedom to comment on the photos, they were not images that perhaps they would have chosen. I had taken the photos based on my ideas of the places that I thought were of interest to them. Thus, there appears to be an ethical issue concerning who was actually in control of the activity and whether there was an unequal balance between researcher and participants.
Picture 1. Mobile phone tower seen in the distance
Picture 2. Memorial plaque for Isla Tansey in local park
Picture 3. Little fairy house in a community garden near pre-school
The listening activity provided an opportunity to ascertain some fascinating and previously unknown perspectives from the children. It was a useful methodology for exploring the question of ‘what makes me curious’ that Clark posed (2017) as a reminder for adults to experiment with open-ended research that focuses on the child as the main protagonist. What this means is that we can then put children’s views at the centre of our practice, such that our approach will be exploratory and relational to each child’s context rather than attempting to seek absolute truths. However, if participatory methods are to avoid becoming tokenistic, then we need to consider how we can address the power imbalance (Palaiologou, 2014).
My BECERA poster presentation will focus on how I carried out the study and a few examples of the discussions we had together that highlighted some of the differences between my thinking and theirs, in terms of what is meaningful for them.
Nina Taylor is a student at the Open University. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.
References:
Burke, C. (2008) ‘Play in Focus’: children’s visual voice in participative research. In P. Thomson (Ed.) Doing visual research with children and young people (pp.23-36). London: Routledge
Clark, A. (2017) Listening To Young Children: A Guide to Understanding and Using the Mosaic Approach, London, Jessica Kingsley.
Clark, A. and Moss, P. (2001) Listening to young children: The Mosaic Approach, London: National Children’s Bureau
Einarsdottir, J. (2005) Playschool in Pictures: children’s photographs as a research method, Early Childhood Development and Care, 175:6, 523-541
Kjørholt, Anne Trine. (2005) The competent child and the "rights to be oneself": reflections on children as fellow citizens in an early childhood centre. Policy PressAcademic chapter/article/Conference paper
Palaiologou, I. (2014) ‘Do we hear what children want to say?’ Ethical praxis when choosing research tools with children under five, Early Child Development and Care, 184:5, 698-705
Rasmussen, K. & Smidt, S. (2001) Children’s neighbourhood as everyday life arena, paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Nordic Educational Research Association, Stockholm, March.
United Nations (1989) The Convention on the Rights of the Child. Available on https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text.