Balancing Voice and Protection in Studies With Young Children

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Participatory Research With Children in Studies of Language and Literacy

Abstract

Purpose
In this paper our focus is on exploring some of the ethical issues that arise for us as teachers and researchers when we conduct research with children. We will particularly explore ways to balance protecting young participants’ rights while capturing their authentic voices.

Theoretical Framework
It is routine practice in educational research to include children as participants in the research process, but often, discussions about the complexities of working with children – especially balancing protection and voice – is missing (Aldridge, 2012; Hill, Davis, Prout, & Tisdall, 2004; Spyrou, 2011). If educational research is going to influence teaching practice, situating it in classrooms, where research is immersed in school culture, means the presence of children. However, working with children presents particular kinds of ethical decisions. These decisions occur throughout the research process, from the selection of a topic, methodological design, conducting observations, interviews, and other data-gathering activities, analysis, and making the findings public. While IRBs offer basic requirements for protecting the rights of participants, we know that beyond these guidelines, there is bumpy ethical terrain that researchers must navigate.

Methods and Data
As a classroom teacher and two university-based researchers, we collaboratively designed and carried out a research project in a kindergarten classroom where we read and discussed a themed set of picture books (Labadie, Pole, & Rogers, 2013). The teacher used an action research model (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1982) in dual roles of teacher and researcher. The other two researchers were participant-observers, and used ethnographic techniques. There were 20 read-aloud sessions, as well as writing and drawing. This paper is grounded in the memos, reflective notes, and conversations that emerged as data from this study. We examine the issue of balancing voice and protection by drawing on our analysis of fieldnotes from observations, video recordings with transcripts, photographs, teacher and research notes, memos, and reflections.
Results
We identified three salient issues: using child-centered techniques; assent as an ongoing process; and capturing the complexity of context while protecting children’s identities. We will make explicit the process by which our child-centered design unfolded, and the specific ways we created a space for a variety of children’s voices and perspectives. We also show the ways we addressed parental consent and student assent, and our reflection regarding the difficulty young children have in understanding their rights. Finally, we discuss how we grappled with balancing the thickness of description while protecting the identities of the young participants.

Scholarly Significance
We explore some of the ethical issues that arise for us as teachers and researchers when we conduct research with young children. We will discuss the challenges we encountered and the modifications we might make to future research designs and ethical research protocols. It is important for researchers to reflexively examine the assumptions about childhood and how children construct and represent knowledge and reality. By digging beyond the minimal requirements of Institutional Review Boards, educational researchers can explore a full range of ethical issues that are important to understanding children’s lives and perspectives.

Authors

• Rebecca L. Rogers, University of Missouri

• Meredith Labadie, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Kathryn Pole, The University of Texas - Arlington