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Presentation by: Dr Carmel Smith

Presentation Title: Qualitative Research with Children:

The Perspectives of Elite Researchers

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INTRODUCTION

This study investigated the researcher-child relationship in qualitative research within child psychology and the broader Childhood Studies paradigm.

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Childhood Studies

Initially associated with sociologists of childhood (James & Prout, 1990) the rapidly evolving field of Childhood Studies now incorporates a diverse range of disciplinary, professional and practitioner perspectives (Qvortrup, et al, 2009; Percy-Smith & Thomas, 2010).

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Qualitative Research

The research trend in Childhood Studies over the course of the last 2 decades has been towards qualitative approaches to research that recognise children as sophisticated and credible commentators on their own lives (Christensen & James, 2008; Kellett, 2010).

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Qualitative Research

The Childhood Studies qualitative research literature to date has focused on the development of ‘participatory’ and ‘creative’ research methods rather than an examination of the relationships within which such methods are deployed (Gallacher & Gallagher, 2008).

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Research Relationship

This study draws on feminist methodological literature (Brown & Gilligan, 1996) that emphasises the importance of the research relationship within which qualitative research methods are deployed:

(i)To address the power imbalance.(ii)To attend to researcher subjectivity.

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Gap in the literature

This study examines the ways in which children’s qualitative researchers position themselves in their research relationships with children in the growing field of Childhood Studies.

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Sample

• 30 pioneers and opinion leaders from Ireland, UK and USA.

• Multi-disciplinary (psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, social work and nursing).

• At least 10 years experience and minimum of 5 international peer-reviewed publications.

• The response rate was 95%.

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Method

• Face-to-face interviews to enable informal and unpublished accounts of research practices.

• Participants asked to describe and reflect upon their research experiences.

• Shared approach to data ownership:(i)Editing of transcripts(ii)Review of direct quotations

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Analysis

• Deductive and inductive coding to prepare data for visual display, thematic analysis and refinement (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003).

• Internal validation using the constant comparison method of analysis.

• External validation:(i) Inclusion of multiple analysts(ii) Member checking exercise.

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Results

The Biography of the Researcher

• Researcher’s personal history• Disciplinary background• Professional training and practitioner

experiences.

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Quote

“I think the question of what we bring from our own experience of childhood into those encounters is an interesting one and one that people don’t really talk about very much.” (RP25)

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Fieldwork Experiences andChildren’s Contributions

• The contribution that children make to informing and educating childhood researchers.

• The international perspective and insights from children of other cultures and different contexts.

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Conceptualisations of children and childhood

• The adult-child dichotomy was at the heart of conceptualisations of children and childhood.

• Distinctions between child/adult?• Distinctions between childhood/adulthood?• Referred to by 80% of participants.

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Adult-child dichotomyProblems

1. Not helpful to children or children’s researchers:“...once you start marking out a group as essentially different you have made a reification of that group, a stereotypification of them, that is not helpful either to children or childhood researchers.” (RP22)

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Adult-child dichotomyProblems

2. Theoretically unsound:“...[Those who subscribe to such a distinction] are still seeing children as a group separate from humanity and they are working with this deep-seated, modernist separation of childhood from adulthood and they are just taking that for granted.” (RP22).

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The Artistry of the Researcher

• None of the participants accepted a clear divide between quantitative and qualitative research.

• Practice of qualitative research inextricably linked to personal skills of researcher to form relationships with children.

• Learning of qualitative skills assessed as akin to learning a craft.

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The Artistry of the Researcher Quote

“It is important that you get skills and you learn the craft in a research methods course but the artfulness of it, that makes it into a masterpiece, that is what you are putting into it. It is partly to do with being systematic and partly to do with just creativity: thoughts, ideas, imagining, empathy and so on.” (RP07)

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Rigour and Reflexivity

• Rigour unequivocally assessed as fundamental to high-quality qualitative research.

• Reflexivity most contentious topic in study:(i)Relevance of material covered(ii)How adeptly incorporated into thinking(iii)Variations in quality, style and content.(iv) Widespread confusion in research papers

between reflectivity and reflexivity.

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Rigour and ReflexivityQuote

“Reflexivity is very important in kind of problematizing scientism in psychology for instance. [However, there is] a whole body of reflective practitioner literature and actually, I don’t really know what concept of reflexivity that are working with?” (RP10)

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Power Dynamics

• Strongest and most consistent theme. • Extent to which research methods can

alleviate the inevitable power dynamics that infuse all research relationships.

• Strategies aimed at acknowledging, reducing and minimizing power differentials seen as paramount in research design and execution.

• Role of ‘unusual adult’ frequently adopted.

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Conclusion (1)

1. The personal biographies of researchers were fundamental to the ways in which they positioned themselves in their qualitative research relationships with children.However, the extent to which researchers acknowledged and worked with subjective influences, varied considerably.

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Conclusion (2)

2. The adult-child dichotomyUnderstandings and interpretations of the adult-child dichotomy were pivotal to how researchers conceptualised and theorised children and childhood.This topic provides an important pathway to examine key issues and debates in the field of Childhood Studies.

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Conclusion (3)3. Special methods of research with children

These findings presented a paradox:Several participants questioned whether ‘participatory’ and ‘creative’ methods were in danger of ‘othering’ children.At the same time, such methods were seen as more ethical and democratic in terms of addressing power differentials.

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Conclusion (4)

Power dynamics in the research relationship:• Power differentials heightened in children’s

research.• Researchers need to be more aware of

strategies children may use to exert and keep power in the research context.

• Adults continue to be the main beneficiaries of research in which children participate.

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ConclusionsUnifying Threads

• The use of the term ‘children as people’.• The need for researchers to both trust

children and to trust the research process.• Qualitative research must be a systematic,

transparent and accountable process.• A stronger body of methodological literature

to underpin the diverse range of qualitative approaches currently being employed.

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Recommendations:

1. Researchers learning to trust childrenResearchers trusting children to decide upon their own level of participation, allows the researcher to ‘let go’ and hand over the reins in the research relationship. A trusting researcher will empower children to lead, find their own comfort level and give direction to the research.

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Recommendations

2. Researchers forming a working alliance with children:Children should be actively included as knowers, advisers and helpers.Children’s researchers should form a working alliance with children whereby research agendas become a shared problem or puzzle.

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Recommendations

3. Researchers questioning their motives:Researchers should ensure that they are open, ready and able to receive children’s accounts as distinct and separate from their own.Encouraging researchers to examine the cultural beliefs and assumptions that they import into research encounters should be an integral part of research training and practice.

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Recommendations

4. Being explicit about quality assuranceRigour, transparency and accountability in qualitative projects must be recognised as integral to gaining credibility during the dissemination of findings to wider audiences.This is essential to ensure messages from children’s research are influential in policy and professional practice arenas.

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Recommendations

5. Measures to support the well-being of children’s researchers:To put in place protection and support for the well-being of researchers in what emerged in this study as a pressurised field of research.To recognise the benefits of emotional support in terms of researchers, children’s experiences of research encounters and the quality of the data yielded.

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Benefits of the study

Documenting the perspectives and qualitative research experiences of pioneers and opinion leaders in the field, at this stage in the evolution of ideas about research with children, provides an important resource for the continuing development of children’s research in the decades ahead.

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