Ethical symmetry in participatory research with infants

Abstract

Participatory research methods aim to break down the distinction between researchers and the researched. Infants are increasingly being seen as participants in research, but the nature of their participation is being questioned following an increased interest in participatory research with children. This article offers a perspective on participatory research that positions infant participants in ethically symmetrical ways to adult participants. It poses this can be achieved, when researchers adopt a methodological attitude that recognises, respects, and incorporates the active involvement of infants in research processes. Framed by the notion of 'ethical symmetry', the article draws on data from the author's doctoral work to demonstrate how attempts to achieve ethical symmetry were enacted. The importance of reciprocal and authentic relationships with infant participants as a driving force in the research is discussed, and implications for incorporating ethical symmetry in research with infants are discussed.

Doing ethnographic method with babies – Participation and perspective approached from the floor

“…Elwick et. al, 2014; Elwick & Sumison, 2013; Salamon, 2015). For example, Elwick et al (2014:875) frames the encounters between researcher and babies as ‘deeply particular, embodied and relational’.…”

Rationale, Design and Methods Protocol for Participatory Design of an Online Tool to Support Industry Service Provision Regarding Digital Technology Use ‘with, by and for’ Young Children

“…Children aged three to five years provide assent using accepted conventions for researching with young children, including a child-centred explanatory statement using visual images to depict participation in interviews, video-recordings and/or the taking of photographs concerning their use of digital technologies [31]. For children aged birth to three years, the notion of 'ethical symmetry' in which researchers pay careful attention to children signaling disengagement or distraction (e.g., vocalizations, moving towards another activity) during periods of video-recording and/or photographic documentation will be used [32].…”

Pram mobilities: affordances and atmospheres that assemble childhood and motherhood on-the-move

“…As such, our own experiences of becoming mobile with young children shaped the interviews and analysis. At the same time, we remain wary of Salamon's (2015) concern about misinterpreting young children's experiences by imposing parents' or researchers' own interpretations of events and experiences. Our analysis is guided by Duffy et al's (2016) discussion of emotional and affective mapping, which brings together five interconnected registers of discourses (motherhood, childhood), materiality (including the body of the researcher and recording devices), the spatial, movement (pace, rhythm, speed), as well as affect and emotion.…”