Balancing voice and protection in literacy studies with young children

Abstract

One of the tensions in conducting participatory literacy research with young children is finding the balance between protection and voice. In this paper, we describe how we sought to create participant-centred research techniques within the evolving design of a yearlong action research study with kindergarten students. Through weekly classroom read-alouds of social class-themed children's literature, the larger project explored how children connected and critically responded to issues of poverty, privilege and inequality. How did our research techniques simultaneously balance 'protecting' children as ethical guidelines ask us to do, allow us to report our findings in ways that describe the rich data we collected, and create space for children to express and develop their voices and perspectives? We identified three issues that were salient to us in our research project with kindergarten students: using participant-centred research techniques, treating assent as an ongoing process and capturing the complexity of context while protecting children's identities. We look beyond the minimal requirements of research review boards as we explore some of the ethical issues that arise for us as teachers and researchers when we conduct literacy research with young children. We conclude with a discussion about how literacy researchers are uniquely poised to contribute to the scholarship on ethics with young children.

Imagining research together and working across divides: Arts-informed research about young people’s (post) digital lives

“…There are two participatory threads that are particularly relevant; one is children's voice research and children's rights initiatives that began in the United Kingdom and have come to permeate much qualitative research with young children, where some name young people as co-researchers and also express a desire to include or elevate young people's voices (Bucknall, 2012;R. Rogers, Labadie, & Pole, 2016-03-01;Soto, 2005).…”

Ethical perplexities of researching with children in uncertain times: a dialogic approach

“…We also need to recognise that a researcher is not an innocent, transparent representative of a child's concerns. We can never share children's frames of reference or see through the eyes of a child; our own assumptions, memories, concerns and understandings are integral to the meaning-making process (Rogers et al, 2016) and we always -and inevitably -select, discard and distort as we try to make sense of what children tell us.…”

Re-Imagining Research Partnerships: Thinking through "Co-research" and Ethical Practice with Children and Youth

“…Again, I have made the decision to include it in its original form, while ensuring that everyone pictured agreed to have their image shared. In a recent publication about children's participation and voice in research that featured Kindergarten (five year-old) children, Rogers, Labadie, and Pole (2016) argue that pixelating an image of participants changes the tone and feeling of the data and analysis represented, and does a disservice to the participants involved. It is important to note that in this representation and in the paper, it is the researcher who is making these difficult decisions about representation; these are the kinds of decisions that could be made in a more fulsome way with participants.…”