Seeding Rangeland.

11 p

Ethical and methodological issues in engaging young people living in poverty with participatory research methods

This paper discusses the methodological and ethical issues arising from a project that focused on conducting a qualitative study using participatory techniques with children and young people living in disadvantage. The main aim of the study was to explore the impact of poverty on children and young people's access to public and private services. The paper is based on the author's perspective of the first stage of the fieldwork from the project. It discusses the ethical implications of involving children and young people in the research process, in particular issues relating to access and recruitment, the role of young people's advisory groups, use of visual data and collection of data in young people's homes. The paper also identifies some strategies for addressing the difficulties encountered in relation to each of these aspects and it considers the benefits of adopting participatory methods when conducting research with children and young people

The challenges of ethical research with children

As especificidades da pesquisa com crianças têm ganhado visibilidade nas produções acadêmicas em diversas áreas de conhecimento, com destaque para a Sociologia da Infância, principalmente a partir dos “novos estudos sobre a infância” os quais emergiram ao final da década de 1980. Essa visibilidade acontece devida a questões como: a discussão sobre as imagens da infância, construídas socio-historicamente; o reconhecimento da condição das crianças enquanto atores sociais, portanto, seres competentes, que atribuem significações a suas experiências e contextos; e o reconhecimento das crianças enquanto sujeitos de direitos, reconhecimento este pautado pela Doutrina da Proteção Integral. Permeadas por essas questões, as pesquisas com crianças agregam a questão da Ética nas atividades desenvolvidas na relação pesquisador-criança. No contexto dessa discussão, este trabalho propõe refletir sobre essas questões e os cuidados éticos nesse tipo de pesquisa, considerando a condição da criança enquanto sujeito de direitos. Foi realizado um recorte da produção acadêmica representativa na área da Sociologia da Infância nas duas últimas décadas, identificando quais aspectos aparecem nas preocupações dos autores, quais abordagens norteiam a discussão desses aspectos e, principalmente, que concepção de infância está presente nessa produção.The specificities of research with children have gained visibility in scientific publications in various areas of knowledge, especially in Sociology of Childhood and the “new studies of childhood”, which emerged at the end of the 1980s. This fact is due to discussions about childhood from a socio-historical perspective; the recognition of children as social actors and therefore able to give meaning to their experiences and contexts; and the recognition of children as individuals entitled to rights, according to the Doutrina da Proteção Integral (Full Protection Doctrine). Therefore, research ethics is an essential element of good research governance, especially in terms of activities related to the relationship between the researcher and child. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to examine and explore these issues, considering the child as an individual entitled to rights. A literature review of articles published in the last two decades in the area of Sociology of Childhood was conducted to identify the main issues and topics addressed, the approaches that guided the discussions and, especially, to identify the conception of childhood present in these studies.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), Portuga

Ética na pesquisa com crianças: ausências e desafios

Valendo-se da sociologia da infância, o texto discute as questões da infância, da pesquisa e da ética que devem enformar todos os procedimentos desencadeados no processo de pesquisa com crianças. Será inicialmente apresentado o estado da arte acerca das discussões que têm caraterizado esse debate, que, sendo recente, conta com uma significativa reflexão. Apresentamos, ainda, alguns desafios que são fundamentais serem enfrentados para que se consiga uma ética viável na investigação com crianças, que passam pela indispensabilidade de se pensar as questões de poder que se estabelecem entre adultos e crianças; que passam também pelo enfrentamento do desafio que decorre das hierarquias protocolares e a maneira como estas podem contribuir para a invisibilidade epistemológica das crianças na pesquisa; que passam, finalmente, por um questionamento crítico relativamente à forma como é salvaguardada a autoria, quer de crianças, quer de adultos, na análise, interpretação e produção dos dados.This paper discusses, from the sociology of childhood, the issues of childhood, research and ethics which must shape the methodological procedures undertaken in the research processes with children. We, firstly, will present the state-of-the-art theoretical discussions that have been characterizing this debate, which, although recent, are already very significant. We also present some challenges, which are essential to face, in order to achieve a feasible ethic in research with children, which are related to the need to think about the power issues between adults and children. We also have to consider that the challenge stems from the protocol hierarchies and how sometimes these can contribute to the epistemological invisibility of children in research. Finally, a third challenge that mobilizes a critical analysis related to the way issues of authorship of children and adult, in the analysis, interpretation and production of scientific texts, are respected.Valiéndose de la sociología en la infancia, el texto discute las cuestiones de la infancia, de la investigación y la ética que deben conformar todos los procedimientos desencadenados en el proceso de investigación con niños y niñas. En primer lugar se presenta el estado de la arte acerca de las discusiones que vienen caracterizando a tal debate, que aun siendo reciente, ya cuenta con una significativa reflexión. Presentamos también algunos de los desafíos que resulta fundamental afrontar para alcanzar una ética viable en la investigación con niños y niñas, que pasan por la obligada necesidad de pensar las cuestiones de poder que se establecen entre adultos y niños; que pasan también por el afrontamiento al desafío que resulta de las jerarquías protocolarias y la forma cómo estas pueden contribuir para la invisibilidad epistemológica de los niños y niñas en la investigación. Que pasan, por fin, por un cuestionamiento crítico en cuanto a la forma como se salvaguarda la autoría, ya sea de niños o de adultos, en el análisis, interpretación y producción de datos.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), PortugalFundos Nacionais através da FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) e cofinanciado pelo Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) através do COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) no âmbito do CIEC (Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, da Universidade do Minho) com a referência POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00756

Young children's research: children aged 4-8 years finding solutions at home and at school

Children's research capacities have become increasingly recognised by adults, yet children remain excluded from the academy, with reports of their research participation generally located in adults' agenda. Such practice restricts children's freedom to make choices in matters affecting them, underestimates children’s capabilities and denies children particular rights. The present paper reports on one aspect of a small-scale critical ethnographic study adopting a constructivist grounded approach to conceptualise ways in which children's naturalistic behaviours may be perceived as research. The study builds on multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives, embracing 'new' sociology, psychology, economics, philosophy and early childhood education and care (ECEC). Research questions include: 'What is the nature of ECEC research?' and 'Do children’s enquiries count as research?' Initially, data were collected from the academy: professional researchers (n=14) confirmed 'finding solutions' as a research behaviour and indicated children aged 4-8 years, their practitioners and primary carers as 'theoretical sampling'. Consequently, multi-modal case studies were constructed with children (n=138) and their practitioners (n=17) in three ‘good’ schools, with selected children and their primary carers also participating at home. This paper reports on data emerging from children aged 4-8 years at school (n=17) and at home (n=5). Outcomes indicate that participating children found diverse solutions to diverse problems, some of which they set themselves. Some solutions engaged children in high order thinking, whilst others did not; selecting resources and trialing activities engaged children in 'finding solutions'. Conversely, when children's time, provocations and activities were directed by adults, the quality of their solutions was limited, they focused on pleasing adults and their motivation to propose solutions decreased. In this study, professional researchers recognised 'finding solutions' as research behaviour and children aged 4-8 years naturalistically presented with capacities for finding solutions; however, the children's encounters with adults affected the solutions they found

Auditory Hallucinations and the Brain’s Resting-State Networks: Findings and Methodological Observations

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the potential for alterations to the brain’s resting-state networks (RSNs) to explain various kinds of psychopathology. RSNs provide an intriguing new explanatory framework for hallucinations, which can occur in different modalities and population groups, but which remain poorly understood. This collaboration from the International Consortium on Hallucination Research (ICHR) reports on the evidence linking resting-state alterations to auditory hallucinations (AH) and provides a critical appraisal of the methodological approaches used in this area. In the report, we describe findings from resting connectivity fMRI in AH (in schizophrenia and nonclinical individuals) and compare them with findings from neurophysiological research, structural MRI, and research on visual hallucinations (VH). In AH, various studies show resting connectivity differences in left-hemisphere auditory and language regions, as well as atypical interaction of the default mode network and RSNs linked to cognitive control and salience. As the latter are also evident in studies of VH, this points to a domain-general mechanism for hallucinations alongside modality-specific changes to RSNs in different sensory regions. However, we also observed high methodological heterogeneity in the current literature, affecting the ability to make clear comparisons between studies. To address this, we provide some methodological recommendations and options for future research on the resting state and hallucinations

The pirate in the pump: children's views of objects as imaginary friends at the start of school

The main aim of this paper is to use a phenomenological approach (Merleau-Ponty, 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. Evanston: Northwestern University Press; Merleau-Ponty. 1968. The Visible and the Invisible: Followed by Working Notes. Evanston: Northern University Press) to contribute a new theoretical understanding of what imaginary friends mean for children in the context of starting school. The paper addresses the specific area of ‘object-friends’ and draws on examples from an empirical and consultative study of a small sample of five and six-year-old children’s everyday experiences of friendship in school. The paper argues that if practitioners consider embodiment approaches and listen attentively to the knowledge and information that children share about their imaginary friends, this could be used to nurture children’s early learnin

Methods for the thematic synthesis of qualitative research in systematic reviews

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is a growing recognition of the value of synthesising qualitative research in the evidence base in order to facilitate effective and appropriate health care. In response to this, methods for undertaking these syntheses are currently being developed. Thematic analysis is a method that is often used to analyse data in primary qualitative research. This paper reports on the use of this type of analysis in systematic reviews to bring together and integrate the findings of multiple qualitative studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We describe thematic synthesis, outline several steps for its conduct and illustrate the process and outcome of this approach using a completed review of health promotion research. Thematic synthesis has three stages: the coding of text 'line-by-line'; the development of 'descriptive themes'; and the generation of 'analytical themes'. While the development of descriptive themes remains 'close' to the primary studies, the analytical themes represent a stage of interpretation whereby the reviewers 'go beyond' the primary studies and generate new interpretive constructs, explanations or hypotheses. The use of computer software can facilitate this method of synthesis; detailed guidance is given on how this can be achieved.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used thematic synthesis to combine the studies of children's views and identified key themes to explore in the intervention studies. Most interventions were based in school and often combined learning about health benefits with 'hands-on' experience. The studies of children's views suggested that fruit and vegetables should be treated in different ways, and that messages should not focus on health warnings. Interventions that were in line with these suggestions tended to be more effective. Thematic synthesis enabled us to stay 'close' to the results of the primary studies, synthesising them in a transparent way, and facilitating the explicit production of new concepts and hypotheses.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We compare thematic synthesis to other methods for the synthesis of qualitative research, discussing issues of context and rigour. Thematic synthesis is presented as a tried and tested method that preserves an explicit and transparent link between conclusions and the text of primary studies; as such it preserves principles that have traditionally been important to systematic reviewing.</p

Lessons from using iPads to understand young children's creativity

This paper explores how iPads can be used as part of a child-centred data collection approach to understanding young children’s creativity. Evidence is presented from a pilot study about 3- to 5-year-old children’s creative play. Researchers’ reflective accounts of children’s engagement with iPad video diaries and free to use apps were logged across two early educational settings over a three-month period. Findings suggest that iPads offer a mechanism to allow children to express their creative play and to encourage involvement in the research process. However, bespoke research software to use with early years children is required to improve this process