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Session Submission Summary

Participatory Research With Children in Studies of Language and Literacy

Sat, April 5, 10:35am to 12:05pm, Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Terrace IV

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This symposium focuses on the ethical challenges that arise when conducting participatory research with children due to Objectives of the session
We, researchers from four different projects all related to language and literacy education, will discuss our processes and challenges in including children as participants in research, and invite those attending the session to consider with us how to meaningfully and respectfully include children in educational research.

Overview of the presentation
This interactive symposium brings together four studies that focused on research with children as participants. A great deal of research involves children as participants. Researchers often assume that participatory research with children will meaningfully include children’s ideas, meaning-making, and desires in the research process, and often turn to principles outlined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that guide the ethical conduct of research involving human participants. Even with these guidelines, researchers often encounter unique ethical challenges when conducting participatory research with children because of the evolving nature of data collection, analysis, and representation.

Scholarly or scientific significance
We will consider, with those attending, how research must be mindful of delicate issues, such as protection and voice; the consent/assent process; negotiating power imbalances between adults and children; and constructing and representing meanings through a range of multimodal techniques. These issues are challenges in educational research, yet research in authentic settings with children are critical in understanding the practical implications of our work.

Structure of the session
The session will begin with an introduction and brief overview of each of the 4 papers (15 minutes total), so participants can choose a working group roundtable. Each presenter (or team) will host one of the roundtables, where attendees can explore one of the papers in depth, followed by time for questions and discussion (45 minutes). The core topics covered at the roundtables will be: (1) balancing voice and protection, and the assent/consent process; (2) children’s participation as data collectors, in particular through video-recording; (3) representations of children in publications/creating an “ethics post practice;” and (4) the implications of positioning children as co-researchers. The session will end with a group discussion that connects all four papers (30 minutes), allowing attendees the opportunity to discuss ethical issues in working with children as research participants. Dr. Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, an expert researcher of literacy and immigrant childhoods (Orellana, 2009), will serve as discussant and guide this portion as she comments on the papers/symposium as a whole.

Connection to AERA Theme
This symposium ties in with this year’s theme “The Power of Education Research for Innovation in Practice and Policy” by considering ways that researchers might innovate and improve research methods with young children. While Institutional Review Boards provide researchers with guidelines to protect human subjects, it is clear that problems can still arise as researchers navigate the ethics of research with minors, and attempt to give voice to their participants while at the same time offering them necessary protection in the research setting. This symposium invites participants to consider participatory research with young children in new ways and to collaborate with the presenters in the discussions of how to involve youth in the research process.
the evolving nature of data collection, analysis and representation. We will explore how researchers from four projects related to language and literacy education have included children in the research process and how they have been mindful of delicate issues such as: protection and voice, the consent/assent process, negotiating power imbalances between the adult and the child, and constructing and representing meanings through a range of multimodal techniques. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss challenges and issues in working with children as research participants.

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Papers