Chapter 5: Children as Co-Researchers: Developing a Democratic Research Practice with Children

In recent years, there has been a burgeoning of interest in how we conduct research with children. The traditional model of research that views children as, at best, subjects of research with no active role to play beyond the provision of data is being increasingly challenged by methodologies that see research as a collaboration between researcher and subjects. Involving children in the process as co-researchers is an evolving practice that is informed by respect for children as social agents and recognition of the value of children’s voices. It is supported by a wider questioning within the broader research community around the role of the researcher and the nature of the research relationship (Thorne, 2002). The traditional view of research as an inquiry conducted by a disinterested and professional researcher, producing data that is objective, replicable, and verifiable, has been questioned by the idea of knowledge as political, situated, and contextualized, and by the realization that researchers bring with them their own preconceptions, assumptions, and experiences. Where childhood research is concerned, it can be argued that research in the past told us more about adults’ concepts of childhood than how children experienced their childhoods, because it focused on child development and socialization, “the study of what children will become” (Morrow & Richards, 1996, p. 92), rather than how children live their lives as children. The growth in interest in looking at childhood qua childhood, rather than focusing on it as the journey toward adulthood, married with changing views of children and of children’s capacities, has led to new approaches in research, and these bring with them their own ethical and methodological issues and concerns.