Young children’s research behaviours: teachers and parents as help or hindrance?

Activity: Academic Talks or PresentationsOral presentationResearch

Description

Interest concerning children’s capacity as researchers has increased in recent years yet tends to focus on adults’ agenda and older children. Conducted in England, the Young Children as Researchers (YCaR) study frames young children as competent agents in research by conceptualising ways that they may be warranted as researchers in their everyday activities at home and at school. The YCAR study was guided by a value orientation concerned with troubling young children’s exclusion from the academy; in turn this drove a qualitative pluralist methodology and particular ethical considerations. 138 children aged 4-8 years participated in the YCAR study, joined by their teachers, families and professional researchers. This paper focuses on ways that teachers and parents affected children’s engagements in research behaviours which were revealed as congruent with those of professional adult researchers. The YCaR findings carry messages regarding children’s rights to be respected as researchers in matters affecting them.
Period13 Sept 201615 Sept 2016
Event titleBERA Annual Conference Leeds 2016
Event typeConference
LocationLeeds, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of RecognitionRegional