Tensions and challenges concerning ethics on video research with young children - experiences from an international collaboration among seven countries

Abstract

This article and the four videos linked to this article are a result of the earliest experiences in establishing an international research collaboration among seven countries in the Project Social and emotional experiences in transition through the early years. We draw attention to the complex issues surrounding the many processes, beliefs and attitudes about infants in research that permeated our processes of gaining ethical approval for the international study and which posed many challenges for our project. Through a process of reflective analysis, we have identified a range of ethical tensions and issues which the different countries involved in this international study faced in gaining ethical approval from their institutional ethical committees for their collaborative participation. More specifically, we identify one persistent tension concerning the use of video data in research on young children. This tension is a result of diverse interpretations of international ethical codes, alongside local restrictions and ethics review processes. It illuminates various positions concerning the protection of infants' privacy versus the benefits of using non-anonymous video data both in joint analysis, and even further, in open publishing. Such positions have been widely debated in research with adults, whereupon many of the ethically challenging questions have been dealt with through processes of acquiring informed consents from the participants. In case of infants, however, the role and nature of informed consents is different from research with adults, as is the role of the adult in using infant 'data' in research. For most cases, informed consents are acquired from the parents or the legal guardians that are not necessarily present on a day-to-day basis in the actual data collection process in early years educational settings. The question of children's own assents for study is widely debated and this is no less so in the project we present in this paper. On the basis of the experiences in this international collaboration, and the challenges and tensions identified in between diverse cultural context and ethical review boards and practices, we propose that more dialogue in relation to research ethics on video research is needed within the diverse research communities and (Continued on next page)

Behavioral mapping of children’s physical activities and social behaviors in an indoor preschool facility: methodological challenges in revealing the influence of space in play

“…For any research involving children, parental consent and children’s assent need to be collected to ensure that children’s rights are not violated during data collection [52]. Ethical issues may arise from parents not granting consent for their children to participate in studies, or when children do not themselves want to participate.…”

Evening early childhood education and care: Reformulating the institutional culture

“…Thus, the use of video contributed to listening to and interpreting young children's experiences. Video research with young children, however, raises ethical challenges related to consent and privacy (Rutanen et al, 2018). To minimize these challenges, video was used only in situations where both the educator/ educators and the young child/children present consented to this method of observation.…”

“…Along with the written notes, video recordings were made during six of the evening visits. The use of video, although fraught with ethical tensions, provided possibilities to capture fleeting moments of interaction in more detail (Rutanen et al, 2018). After each visit to the ECEC center, the written field notes were expanded into fuller narratives and transferred to a computer.…”

Using Video in Research with Young Children, Teachers and Parents: Entanglements of Possibility, Risk and Ethical Responsibility

“…Alongside such possibilities come questions about the amount of power video puts in the hands of the researcher, and concerns over how close an inspecting gaze video allows. These issues continue to feature prominently in ethical discussions in the education research literature-particularly, but not only, where involving young children (De Freitas, 2013;Sparrman & Lindgren, 2010;Stephenson, 2010;Rutanen, Amorim, Marwick & White, 2018). Such issues resonate strongly with the sorts of concerns Foucault (1977Foucault ( /1995 raises over apparatuses of observation serving as mechanisms of surveillance and control.…”