Child-Parent Research: Methods

• In Event: Child-Parent Research: Methods, Ethics, and Literacies

Abstract

Objectives
This paper focuses on the methods of child-parent research, calling particular attention to collaborative autoethnographic approaches punctuated by iterative participation and conceptualized via a continuum of involvement and partnership (Authors, 2020). The child-parent research team addresses the porous nature of scaffolded leadership and multimodal methods and their role in researchers’ constructions of meaning as they examine digital/nondigital play.
Perspectives
A critical dialectical pluralist (CDP) approach (Onwuegbuzie & Frels, 2013) conceptually grounds child-parent research because, in such a line of inquiry, youth participation exists at all phases, from a study’s design through its dissemination. With this in mind, child-parent research exists on a continuum that acknowledges shifts in ways children and their parents engage in co-research, especially when the child remains the more knowledgeable other (Vygotksy, 1978) regarding his/her/their understandings and the parent begins as the more knowledgeable other of empirical research and writing (Authors, 2020).
Methods
This paper focuses on specific methods that promote a partnership model of child-parent research wherein the child and the parent strive for equal participation and the child takes ownership of the research (Authors, 2020). To begin, scaffolded leadership is necessary to help the child (in this case three teens) develop skills to engage in a collaborative autoethnographic investigation of their literacy practices (Authors 2018, 2019, 2020). More specifically, this involves the use of digital platforms, such as Google Docs and Google Images, to support synchronous and asynchronous writing and interaction, as well as the inclusion of multimodal representations of meaning. Relatedly, and building upon Jewitt’s (2013) work, multimodal methods are important for child-parent research (and we would contend for all research) because the approach does not privilege one mode or relegate images to being “artifacts.” Rather, multimodal methods--including, but not limited to, the use of images, sound, movement, gesture, font size and color, voice--enable youth researchers to draw upon, fold in, and amend representations of meaning.
Findings
All five researcher team members--three teens (two who are sisters) and their mothers--have discovered three overarching points: (1) attempting to flatten hierarchies requires continued attention to deeply-rooted power constructs, (2) child-parent research is about the child having a voice--beyond the adult mouthpiece--and learning from that voice, and (3) when provided the appropriate scaffolding and multimodal methodological tools, children can effectively collect, analyze, and present research data.
Significance
Exploring the methods of child-parent research helps the field greater understand how and why child-parent research figures into explorations of meaning making. Similar to Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1993), whose work “redefine[d] the notion of a knowledge base for teaching and ... challenge[d] the university’s hegemony in the generation of expert knowledge for the field” (p. xiv), child-parent research extends not only who can conduct research, but also underscores how hearing the voices of youth in an “un-adult-erated” fashion is the first step to honoring youth as researchers and calling upon youth-as-experts of their own learning to address social and educational issues.

Authors

• Sandra Schamroth Abrams, University of South Africa

• Mary Beth Schaefer, Saint John's University

• Charlotte Abrams

• Molly Kurpis

• Madeline Abrams