Research with Children - Coursework Example

Research with Children Introduction The usage of children in research is a necessity which takes on massive significance in the sphere of researches dealing with, in relation to or concerned with studying children and the various impacts on their world. Clark uses an interesting phrase ‘sociology’ of children in reference to their sphere of study. This careful society needs to be inculcated into the regularized procedures of research. In order to make progress in these fields, the direct involvement of children is a must. So keeping in mind the importance of children related researches, in this paper I shall discuss and identify the various barriers in participatory children’s research methods which I find to be most hazardous. Further, I shall attempt to gauge the difficulty level in overcoming them for the researchers involved. To evaluate these obstructions; I need to first discuss my own understanding of both cultural and institutional barriers. Cultural barriers are a result of varying (not necessarily one) culture and its reflective beliefs about children. These beliefs form major ideological notions of what being a child constitutes, what behaviors are to be expected, what are to be punished, and consequently in what manner adults should handle children. These impediments arise in researches done amongst all nations, and materialize in different child-identity arrangements. Amongst the most common ones are that children are ‘innocent’ and ‘naive’. This translates to the assumption that children are not reliable sources of knowledge. Their responses are not to be taken seriously since they lack enough knowledge to make meaningful observances. Parents play a major role in these scenarios. A number of social factors shape parents notions and expectations, and these may be challenged if children are given equal opportunities as adults to participate. For this reason, ensuring child participation means ensuring parental satisfaction (Ray, et al., 2010) Institutional barriers are those barriers in which institutions such as schools and governments place limits on child participation and hence hinder the space left for researches to explore in. Unlike cultural barriers, these are harder to overcome. Since they involve a larger number of people and usually governmental policies and laws, they need to be kept in accordance with. One such example of this is the case of ‘informed consent’. Various countries deal with this separately and allot children of certain ages of legal/illegal statuses which allow them to be independent determiners or subject to their parents’ wishes as minors. One such barrier in participatory research with children is actually a double ended one. By assuming that children are “experts in their own lives” (Langsted 1994, pg. 42), and are complete individuals with regard to the age group they belong to, this eliminates the option of catering to them as needing extra help. They can no longer be afforded luxuries or discretions that would normally be given to children. For instance, whatever responses are received by them as research data cannot be overlooked circumstantially. They must be considered as fully aware beings, when in reality, they may not be that affiliated with the task at hand as supposed. In short, it becomes a case of treating a child as an adult. This in itself is questionable since it does away with the very obvious differences between child and adult. Another foundational error that occurs when attempting to use participatory methods with children in research is the questionable underlying assumption that only children can correctly identify and report information about other children. “Taken to its ultimate conclusion, this premise leads to the belief that each person is best placed to know him-or herself…An epistemology of this kind assumes that people are transparently knowable to themselves, and privileges their voices as the most authentic source of knowledge about themselves and their lives.” (Gallacher & Gallagher, 2010, pg. 502) Whatever adults may or may not have to say about children becomes less prioritized and emphasis is placed on children’ responses. This placement of children’s responses on top of the ladder gives way to various biases arising. With a constant bias being used to interpret the findings, that is, participatory findings being considered of foremost importance jeopardized integral evaluations that can be made by juxtaposing both child and adult input. This kind of impediment is much more complex than parent concerns and government assured children’s rights. It can be considered a mix of both cultural and institutional. The assumption this approach to research rests on is that children are complete beings in their own right. This notion is very much situated in culture. This culture has arisen from a range of studies which have been conducted on children for many decades now and has become a widespread belief (Twycross, 2009). It is also institutional since the methodology which has arisen as a result of it rests on institutions itself. Schools and learning centers of all kinds endorse this belief and hence support it. This results in this ideological impediment taking on institutional facets. Thus this specific impediment is very harmful to research and needs to be avoided on both levels. This is not easy to do since it requires an alternative to participatory research as well as a new collective acceptance on part of authorities as well as social groups (Matutina, 2009). Clark in her study of pre-school children also makes apparent a very crucial observation as to the impediment of child-adult perception discrepancy. As she outlines her use of observation to research on children, she points out how “observation is an important part of listening, but it still relies on an adult perspective in children’s lives.” (pg. 144) Again this can be considered a result of a cultural barrier. Majority of the society’s in the world segregate children from the lives of adults. Children have different social spheres and come to regard adults as ‘others’. The same case goes for adults who hardly consider children equal to themselves and view childhood as a strange phase, relying on their own subjective childhood memories most of the time. Overcoming this barrier is indeed very difficult. Engaging children and asking them direct questions requiring them to shed light on adult observations may help, but the problem is one of perception. Perception is built over long periods of time and consists of individuals having certain world views. Since, the world is a different place for children; it contends that their views are radically different as well. It can be overcome by having experienced field workers observe children, those who share the world of children as one of them. However, the question of imposing childhood views may still take away authenticity from the research and leave the data open to endless interpretations (Moore, McArthur & Noble-Carr, 2008). Samantha Punch (2001) talks of children’s autonomy and the specific power relationships which are a part and parcel of child-adult-researcher interaction. Here, the resistances a child may put up to any form of participation must also be taken into account. If children are to be researched on effectively, then these loose ends need to be taken care of by the ‘negotiation of researcher roles’. Punch gives an example of her own relating to how power differences in research acted as a barrier in her study. “I tried to understand them on their terms, withholding judgment from an adult perspective. However, the role of assistant teacher tended to reinforce power inequalities between myself and the children- precisely what I had been trying to minimize.” (pg 99) This is a central barrier which many researchers face when dealing with children. It is a cultural barrier and involves the readjustment of researcher expectations and power positions amongst the children. Since the child culture and adult culture is different, the researcher can overcome this by equating the status quo and overcoming the children’s views of the researcher being a foreigner. An institutional barrier may arise even more subtly. Institutions play a huge role in the lives of children. They are always in school, nursery, daycare, extra-curricular organizations, summer vacation camps, and hospitals. Their routines are set by these institutions and everything else works around them, including parents and guardians. Hence, questioning children, hoping to gain knowledge through them of their views on their institutions may be singular or even fruitless. This is because these institutions shape their knowledge. For instance, asking a child about their school means the child will display knowledge only of what the school has deemed appropriate for the child to know. The child can not give a comparative or evaluative answer and is programmed, in part, by the numerous institutions that are a part of its life (Van Blerk & Barker, 2008). For example, upon Clark’s conducting interviews with children as to their institution, she went about in a formal manner. Though her authority allowed for the conferencing to take place, “not all the children were interested in talking in this formal way”. Clearly, the children do as they are conditioned to do and their basic expectations arrive from their. They are unable to entertain post-institutional information, or likewise offer any. Of course, this is a huge barrier and can not be overcome by finding ways around institutional reserves nor is it a matter of having to re-adjust the expectations of parents and researchers. Instead this requires a completely different approach in involving children in researches regarding issues which directly, or even indirectly, relate to institutionalized behavior and information (Paediatric Nursing, 2008). Again, in using research methods which depend on ‘participation’ it become important criteria to have an operational definition of what participating in an activity for a child really means. For children to maintain entire roles as being researched with, it is important for them to be engaged in an active participation. This active participation requires that children do more then just passively take part in the activities mapped out for them. Instead, it means for them to be contributing factors in shaping the output of the research activity and thus in turn adding more to the research process (Gielen, 2008). Or at least ideally. Gallacher and Gallagher provide an interesting example of this. They claim that a child simply sitting in a corner silently during an activity may intentionally choose to do so and thus remain in a participatory stance according to the assumption that he or she have engaged in this manner through a conscious decision(2010, pg. 505). The barrier that this puts up to researching with children is again both cultural and institutional. The cultural aspect is that the procedures stem from cultural notions that children are little people, and having them take part in certain activities, such as role-playing, video-conferencing, etc, is what constitutes their participation. This may be incorrect and not suitable for researches where the children participating are from ethnic backgrounds that do not support this kind of behavior. Thus, this measure of participation presents a major problem for researchers working in various spectrums of social groups and cultures. To overcome this aspect of the behavior, the readjustment of participatory measures needs to be done keeping in mind context and culture specific research methods (Beauchaine, 2009). What participation means and guarantees in the research universe is again threatened by institutional resistances as well. This is becomes malignant when the boundary between pedagogy and research become vague and intermixed. “…many of the research techniques advocated as ‘empowering’ and ‘participatory’ mirror the pedagogic approaches used in schools and preschool in various ways.” Also, the direct result of this on researchers is that “researchers are expressly taking advantage of children’s schooled docility towards such activities.” (Gallacher & Gallagher pg. 505-506, 2010) Thus, preprogramming on the part of schools acts as a barrier in carrying out participatory based researches for researchers in the field. This particular barrier needs to be overcome and can only be done so by the researcher carefully deconstructing and reconstructing children’s evaluations, taking emphasis to undo expectations and behaviors endorsed by institutions that are harmful to research results. Conclusion I would like to conclude that of all the barriers that are present in conducting research with children, large extents of them are cultural. In one way or the other, these barriers that are put up stem from some ideological source or theory. Institutional barriers are also present to some extent and arise from structures put up by governments and schools; these may be direct (such as official policies) or indirect (such as subtle programming). I feel that the most difficult of these to overcome are cultural. Institutional can be worked around whereas cultural impediments (which play a role in most institutional barriers as well) need to be uprooted. This involves the creation of alternative and more suitable methodologies. In short, impediments faced are mostly cultural barriers, and these are the most difficult for researchers to overcome as well since they present twofold obstructions. References Beauchaine, T. (2009). SOME DIFFICULTIES IN INTERPRETING PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN.Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 74(1), 80-88. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.2009.00509.x. Twycross, A. (2009). An interprofessional approach to the ethics of undertaking research with children. Nurse Researcher,16(3), 7-20. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Ray, D., Barrio Minton, C., Schottelkorb, A., & Brown, A. (2010). Single-Case Design in Child Counseling Research: Implications for Counselor Education. Counselor Education & Supervision, 49(3), 193-208. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. (2008). Case study research with children and their families. Paediatric Nursing, 20(6), 39-44. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Matutina, R. (2009). Ethical issues in research with children and young people. Paediatric Nursing, 21(8), 38-44. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database Gielen, M. (2008). Exploring the childs mind - contextmapping research with children. Digital Creativity, 19(3), 174-184. doi:10.1080/14626260802312640. Van Blerk, L., & Barker, J. (2008). The wider relevance of undertaking research with children. Childrens Geographies, 6(2), 117-119. doi:10.1080/14733280802024052. Moore, T., McArthur, M., & Noble-Carr, D. (2008). Little Voices and Big Ideas: Lessons Learned from Children about Research.International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 7(2), 77-91. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Read More