Beyond Binaries

Abstract

The focus on children’s voices and experiences has been a substantial part of childhood studies. Research with children is closely linked to the idea of children as agents rather than seeing them as passive objects. In this article the authors examine how video ethnography, and the video camera in particular, in an Early Childhood Education and Care (ecec) facility is an actor that actively co-produces agency. The authors explore how agency is distributed in assemblages consisting of children, the researcher and the video camera. The authors argue that approaching agency as manifold and as distributed is helpful in a critical discussion of children and agency and point to the need to study agency as entangled with human and non-human actors in relational activities. Far from being a tool to represent the real world as it is, or merely a tool for “collecting” data, the video camera and the children are mutually constructed.

Exploring material things in family life : Morality and intimacy in sibling- and child-parent interaction

“…This is what researchers Heath, Hindmarsh and Luff (2010) have called using a "fixed" camera. Sørenssen, Aarsand and Hoveid (2019) (in their study in educational settings that draws on similar themes from STS as does this thesis) argue that the camera needs to be understood as being "far from a tool to represent the real world as it is, or merely a tool for 'collecting' data", but rather, "the video camera, researcher and children, all mutually produce data together" (pp. 5-6).…”

“…Material recorded by the participants can also be used to achieve a sense of their ideas about what the research process, and family life, entails to them (Ericsson & Boyd, 2017). The camera, as Sørenssen et al (2019) have argued, "always does something" (p. 6), which in this case pertains to the types of activities that the family members recorded for research (see also C. Goodwin, 1994). A "roving" camera held by a researcher, on the other hand, offered other ways of recording the everyday life of family 12.…”

“…According to Heath et al (2010), in such situations, the camera "serves as a roving eye recording events as they unfold" (p. 39). The roving camera not only records what is going on, but, as Sørenssen et al (2019) showed, "the presence of a video camera, and a researcher always does something in an investigated practice" (p. 6). While it is difficult to know how the camera affects the participants and the material, Heath et al (2010) argue that "rather than assuming an a priori, all-pervasive influence of the recording process on the participants, it is worthwhile addressing the problem empirically" (p. 48).…”

Domesticated Smartphones in Early Childhood Education and Care settings. Blurring the lines between pedagogical and administrative use

“…One suggestion has been to turn to sociomaterial perspectives in order to open up possibilities to look beyond the presumed competency of the child and rather explore how actors, humans and non-humans, are co-produced in the meeting between them (Burnett et al 2019;Prout 2011;Ryan 2012). Similarly, Sørenssen, Aarsand, and Hoveid (2019) argue that the binary of either a competent or incompetent child is reductionist, and points to the usefulness of taking a sociomaterial perspective to move beyond this binary as it highlights how competency is not something an actor has or does not have, but rather that competency is the result of interactions with social and material actors. A sociomaterial approach deliberately encompasses materialities like technology and what they become in the context of their relationships with their social surroundings and the practices they become part of (Jarzabkowski and Pinch 2013; Orlikowski and Scott 2008;Sørensen 2006).…”

“And then it’s my turn”: Negotiating participation in tablet activities in early childhood education and care

“…An array of applications, selected by the ECEC teacher, was available on the tablet, and there was room for the children and parents to suggest other games. Tablet use was not guided by the adults, however, adults were there to help if the children were struggling with an application (Sørenssen et al., 2019). This practice was treated by the adults as a solo endeavour; however, usually there were other children sitting around the child who was playing, waiting their turn or simply cheering, commenting or suggesting which apps to use, as well as co-playing.…”