Do we hear what children want to say?” Ethical Praxis when choosing research tools with children under five

Over the recent years there has been a shift in the field of early childhood research to
involving young children in the research process. A vast body of literature [Evans,
P., & Fuller, M. (1996). Hello. Who am I speaking to? Communicating with preschool children in educational research settings. Early Years, 17(1), 17–20;
Clark, A. (2004). Listening as a way of life. London: National Children’s
Bureau; Clark, A., & Moss, P. (2001). Listening to young children: The mosaic
approach. London: National Children’s Bureau; Clark, A., & Moss, P. (2005).
Spaces to play: More listening to young children using the Mosaic approach.
London: National Children’s Bureau; Thomson, P. (Ed.). (2008). Doing visual
research with children and young people. Abingdon: Routledge; Farrell,
A. (Ed.). (2005). Ethical research with children. Maidenhead: Open University
Press] discusses methods to be used with young children in research by means of
participatory methods and listening to children’s voices. A number of researchers
mentioned throughout the paper have offered creative and innovative research
tools that enable young children to participate in research. While recognising the
responsibility to keep the discourse around children’s participation alive, there is
a need to problematise it as well as the issue of participation of young children is
a complex one which requires continuous critical refection. Thus the enquiry I
conduct here employed grounded theory and aims to examine the paradigm of
children’s participation in research. It is suggested in this paper that although
participation is a vitally important element in researching young children, the
discourse of children’s participation should be focused additionally on ethical
praxis of the research which should revolve around six key layers:
intersubjectivity, indivisibility, phronesis, parsimony, equilibrium and finally the
power of relationships and interaction between children and adults. As a
consequence of this enquiry I conclude that all methods become relevant to
research with children when ethical praxis characterises the nature of the project