"That I May Hope to Honor You": Centering Children's Wholeness, Agency, and Brilliance in Qualitative Research

• In Event: Toward Justice-Driven Qualitative Research Methods With Young Children

Abstract

Purpose: “And I want to say to children, tell me what you think…and what you dream so that I may hope to honor you”
- June Jordan
Historically, research in early childhood education has often been focused on populations rather than particular children, and has centered on perceived deficits rather than strengths (Parks & Wager, 2021). Such approaches can reinscribe intersecting oppressions (e.g., racism, ableism, linguicism), which position multiply-marginalized children as less-than. Through theoretical analysis of examples from qualitative research, and inspired by poet June Jordan, we consider how researchers can honor multiply-marginalized children’s wholeness, agency, and brilliance through research methods.

Theoretical Framework: We draw on critical childhood studies and New Literacy Studies. Critical childhood studies offer alternatives to dominant developmental perspectives that characterize multiply-marginalized young children as “incomplete” (Dumas & Nelson, 2016), and instead position them as agentic social actors (Corsaro, 1997). New Literacy Studies highlight the cultural, social, and ideological nature of children’s literate meaning-making practices (Dyson, 1993; Street, 2005). Together, these perspectives center expansive understandings of children’s meaning-making, and urge qualitative researchers to take multiply-marginalized young children seriously as knowledgeable participants in the world.

Modes of Inquiry & Sources: This conceptual paper considers methods of data generation and analysis from existing qualitative research with multiply-marginalized young children in classrooms, including: (a) Author1’s research in a linguistically diverse public second-grade; (b) Author2’s research in racially diverse, inclusive Head Starts; and (c) Author3’s research in racially diverse, inclusive public preschools. In analyzing examples from these studies and broader literature, we consider how critical childhood studies and New Literacy Studies can support qualitative researchers toward better honoring multiply-marginalized young children.

Findings via Theoretical Analysis: We highlight methods of (a) data generation and (b) data analysis that center children’s wholeness, agency, and brilliance. For instance, we offer ways of observing children’s brilliance that move beyond English-only oral speech, and instead honor multiple means of expression, including multilingual talk (Panelist, 2021), art (Collins, 2011), and silence (Miller, 2020). In extended examples from Author2 and Author3’s research, we explore data generation through body language and silence as children enacted refusal to dehumanizing classroom activities. Additionally, we describe how we might center children’s agency by conducting analysis in community with young children, highlighting how researchers have discussed emerging analytic ideas with children (Panelist, 2020) and their families (Panelist., 2016). Through examples from Author1’s research, we explore how researchers might revisit data with children over time, and member-check through multiple languages and modalities. Through each of these examples, we surface tensions and possibilities for further research.

Significance: Research methods–like classroom practices–are often oriented around myths of a “normal” child (Baglieri et al., 2011), one who is white, nondisabled, and English-speaking (Authors, 2022). Indeed, multiply-marginalized young children’s insights are frequently dismissed by dominant research methods rooted in intersecting systems of oppression (Author2, 2021). We contribute to existing conversations about qualitative research by centering multiply-marginalized young children in methodological decision-making, and striving to enact research that centers their brilliance, agency, and wholeness.

Authors

• Emily Machado, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Maggie Beneke, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Hailey Love, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author