Abstract
This Dream Team stems from the presenters’ research 'with' (rather than 'about')
children in different ways. Both Emma Maynard and Catherine Carrol-Meehan have
wrestled with complexities of ethical caretaking in children’s research participation, and considered how researchers can engage with the richness of children’s lived experience through child-centred methods. While children in the contemporary and western world are generally regarded as agentic beings in their own right, their lives are still managed by adults in educational, familial and social settings, and centralising the voices of children remains elusive. While child participation is advocated through school councils and such like, we suggest that this plays into a sampling of children’s views for policy and practice agendas, and is less orientated to the lived experiences and perspectives of children to generate child-led ideas and philosophies. This generation of children faces unprecedented social challenges, inheriting the cost of a post-pandemic world in environmental crisis, amid a further mental health crisis and political unrest, and so we suggest that the need to drive forward a best practice agenda for listening to children
has never been more urgent. We approached this Dream team focused on the pivotal values and process which we
think determines successful research with children – and by that we mean, engaging children in ways which are meaningful to them, to listen to their authentic voice through creative approaches, and value their agency (Maynard et al, 2020; Meehan, 2016). Thus, we draw on the philosophy of Malaguzzi who advocated a pedagogy of listening to children through their Hundred Languages, that is, the multitude of ways in which children communicate their experience. We ask, how might we use a range of technologies, both online and offline to illicit children’s authentic voice, and state a provocation for this session;
In what ways can we resolve the ethical complexities of researching with children, and how can we use creative and tech based methodologies to listen to children’s hundred languages, in order to centralise their lived experience?
children in different ways. Both Emma Maynard and Catherine Carrol-Meehan have
wrestled with complexities of ethical caretaking in children’s research participation, and considered how researchers can engage with the richness of children’s lived experience through child-centred methods. While children in the contemporary and western world are generally regarded as agentic beings in their own right, their lives are still managed by adults in educational, familial and social settings, and centralising the voices of children remains elusive. While child participation is advocated through school councils and such like, we suggest that this plays into a sampling of children’s views for policy and practice agendas, and is less orientated to the lived experiences and perspectives of children to generate child-led ideas and philosophies. This generation of children faces unprecedented social challenges, inheriting the cost of a post-pandemic world in environmental crisis, amid a further mental health crisis and political unrest, and so we suggest that the need to drive forward a best practice agenda for listening to children
has never been more urgent. We approached this Dream team focused on the pivotal values and process which we
think determines successful research with children – and by that we mean, engaging children in ways which are meaningful to them, to listen to their authentic voice through creative approaches, and value their agency (Maynard et al, 2020; Meehan, 2016). Thus, we draw on the philosophy of Malaguzzi who advocated a pedagogy of listening to children through their Hundred Languages, that is, the multitude of ways in which children communicate their experience. We ask, how might we use a range of technologies, both online and offline to illicit children’s authentic voice, and state a provocation for this session;
In what ways can we resolve the ethical complexities of researching with children, and how can we use creative and tech based methodologies to listen to children’s hundred languages, in order to centralise their lived experience?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | European Network of Qualitative Inquiry QUALITATIVE INQUIRY IN THE ONLINE TECHNOLOGICAL REALM |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
