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Conducting research with young children: Some ethical considerations

Flewitt, R; (2005) Conducting research with young children: Some ethical considerations. Early Child Development and Care , 175 (6) pp. 553-565. 10.1080/03004430500131338. Green open access

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Abstract

The recent foundation of a 'Young Children's Perspectives' special interest group in the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) reflects a general move in social research towards the respectful and inclusive involvement of children in the research process. However, established education research guidelines often provide no more than a loose ethical framework, appearing to focus on avoiding poor ethical conduct rather than proposing ways forward for making children's participation in research a positive experience. This short paper draws on my own experiences of conducting ESRC-funded ethnographic video case studies on the ways four three-year-old children express their understandings at home and in a preschool playgroup during their first year of early years education. The paper reflects on the processes of negotiating initial and ongoing consent, problematises the notion of 'informed' consent in exploratory research with young children, and considers questions of anonymity when collecting and reporting on visual data. The paper proposes that by adopting a flexible, reflective stance, early years researchers can learn much from children, not only about their perspectives, but also about how to include young children in the research process. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd.

Type: Article
Title: Conducting research with young children: Some ethical considerations
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/03004430500131338
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430500131338
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1485334
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