Researching Children and Childhoods

Junior researchers in the field of childhood studies are often faced with many challenges that accompany research with young participants. Methodological concepts, such as research relationships, positionality, self-disclosure and reflexivity can sometimes become subordinate to more practical and procedural concerns. Researching Children and Childhoods frames these themes not as problems but as opportunities to deepen and strengthen research discussions and analysis.

Providing students with a guide to support their ventures into research with children and young people, this book offers practical advice on writing a thesis/dissertation and will enable readers to:

- confidently reflect on the ethical issues embedded in their own projects and recognise them as opportunities for discussion within their dissertations or thesis
- demystify the role of methodologies and position them as essential tools for their research
- consider the efficacy of concepts such as agency, autonomy, participation, subjectivity, and voice as ways of understanding childhood and children’s lived experiences
- use ideas such as positionality, self-disclosure and category entitlement to recognise the integral role of researcher identity and relationships in the construction of knowledge
- use ‘I’ authoritatively when writing about their own research without reducing content to descriptive, opinion based discussions
- situate their research by exploring the context in which the research takes place and the power relations embedded within participants and researcher relationships

Each chapter includes a variety of researcher experiences, vignette examples, and specific activities, aimed at applying the key themes represented in this volume into research dissertations.

Sarah Richards is a Professor of Childhood Studies and Head of Suffolk Doctoral College at the University of Suffolk, UK.

Sarah Coombs is a Visiting Senior Fellow in Childhood Studies at the University of Suffolk, UK.