Rethinking Ethics in Early Years Qualitative Research: Critical Posthuman Insights

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Troubling What Is Taken for Granted in Qualitative Inquiry (Table 7)

Abstract

In this paper, we explore ethics in early years research from a critical posthuman lens. Theories of critical posthumanism provide methodological tools to qualitative research projects to decenter human exceptionalism so we might become more ethical by considering all active agents within our research projects. We bring the theoretical concept of emergent listening together with four micro-ethical events from our research projects to ask: How does (re)centering our gaze to include the more-than-human shift how we consider matters of ethics and consent in our inquiry projects with children? We discuss four significant insights as a result: consent and assent, the use of recording devices in research studies with children, power and hierarchies, and the relational complexities of research and permission giving.

Authors

• Oona Fontanella-Nothom, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• Candace R. Kuby, University of Missouri