Involving children in educational research: researcher reflections on challenges

Preliminary findings of Active Classrooms: An intervention to increase physical activity levels of primary school children during class time

“…Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the students' enjoyment of the programme to develop an effective intervention. The use of visual approaches such as photographs, paintings and drawings have been recommended to extend our understanding of children's perspectives (Clark & Moss, 2011;Crivello, Camfield, & Woodhead, 2009;Dalli & Te One, 2012;Knowles, Parnell, Ridgers, & Stratton, 2013;Loveridge, 2010). However, it has been acknowledged that drawings may not be useful as stand-alone images in themselves (Veale, 2005) since without children's explanations they cannot be interpreted adequately.…”

An intervention to improve the physical activity levels of children: Design and rationale of the ‘Active Classrooms’ cluster randomised controlled trial

“…Therefore, to develop an effective intervention it is essential to evaluate the students' enjoyment of the programme. The use of approaches that incorporate the visual has been recommended to extend our understanding of children's perspectives [61][62][63][64][65]. However, it has been identified that drawings may not be useful as visual images in themselves [66] since they cannot be interpreted adequately without children's explanations.…”

Research work as curriculum work in New Zealand early childhood settings: What should be taught and learned?

“…It began an early process of information sharing and that also extended an invitation to children to participate. Such practice is not particularly new (Dalli & Te One, 2012;Dockett, Perry & Kearney, 2013), but if teachers and parents have already consented to a child's participation in a study, sometimes children can feel compelled to say yes (Bourke & Loveridge, 2014), or may want to change their minds. It was important to me to address the children directly so they could begin to form an idea of what was being asked of them.…”

“…They are causing some expansion to my work (principally in terms of timeframes, consultation processes and processes of information sharing). Like others who are increasingly dissatisfied with and questioning of research on and involving children (Bourke & Loveridge, 2014;Dalli & Te One, 2012;Dockett, Perry, & Kearney, 2013;Harwood, 2010;Phelan & Kinsella, 2013) and puzzling over how best to be doing research about teaching in early childhood education, I am attending to ways in which I can conceptualise and practice research so that its impact in curriculum and within the early childhood education settings can be recognised as rich in learning opportunities, and above all conducted ethically and respectfully with those whose lives are supposed to benefit from it.…”

“…Typically researchers would contend with how best to recognise children's rights to be regarded with respect and treated therefore respectfully (Dalli & Te One, 2012;Smith, 2011), how best to explain to children the harms and benefits of the research (Alderson & Morrow, 2011); how to manage issues of privacy, confidentiality, and representation, particularly with increasing usage of video and photographic data (Phelan & Kinsella, 2013); and the question of whether or not, or how, child participants in research should be recompensed for their involvement. Of increasing interest to researchers who work with children are questions over the extent to which children may partner in the research process, for example by acting as peer interviewers, processing…”