Centring children in research: A collaborative exploration into child-centredness as method and theory

Authors

  • Alex Orrmalm Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Johanna Sjöberg Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Anna Sparrman Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Rebecka Tiefenbacher Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Joel Löw Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Johanna Annerbäck Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Johanna Sköld Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Emilia Holmbom Strid Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Sanna Hedrén Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning (IBL) Linköping University, Sweden
  • Lina Lago Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Olga Anatoli Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Yelyzaveta Hrechaniuk Department of Thematic Studies – Child Studies Linköping University, Sweden
  • Alan Prout University of Leeds, UK
  • Marek Tesar Faculty of Education and Social Work The University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21814/childstudies.5745

Keywords:

child-centredness, decentring, child research, child and childhood studies, collaborative writing

Abstract

This collaborative article explores child-centredness as a theoretical and methodological concept by asking what it means to centre children in research. The collaborative format offers a heterogeneity of voices on the concept as the contributing authors write, critically and creatively, from a range of different interdisciplinary research perspectives. Writing from the departure point of the key role of child-centred approaches within the field, including recent discussions concerning the need to decentre children/childhood, the goal is to spur and contribute to discussions on the possibilities and challenges of the concept, as well as new ways of approaching it.

References

Aitken, S.C. 2018. Young people, rights and place: Erasure, neoliberal politics and postchild ethics. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315519258

Ariès, P. (1960). L’enfant et la vie familiale sous l’ancien régime. Paris.

Aronsson, K., Cederblad, M., Dahl, G., Olsson, L., & Sandin, B. (Eds.) (1984). Barn i tid och rum. Malmö: Liber Förlag.

Avineri, N. (2020). Child language. In J. Stanlaw (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of linguistic anthropology (pp. 1–5). London: Wiley. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786093.iela0048

Bateman, A. (2022). Participation. In A. Church & A. Bateman (Eds.), Talking with children: A handbook of interaction in early childhood education (pp. 55–77). Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108979764.004

Canosa, A., & Graham, A. (2020). Tracing the contribution of Childhood Studies: Maintaining momentum while navigating tensions. Childhood, 27(1): 25–47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568219886619

Corsaro, W. A. (1979). ‘We’re friends, right?’: Children’s use of access rituals in a nursery school. Language in Society, 8(2–3): 315–336. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500007570

Doganova, L., Giraudeau, M., Helgesson. C.F., Kjellberg, H., Lee, F., Mallard, A., Mennicken, A., Muniesa, F., Sjögren, E., & Zuiderent-Jerak, T. (2014). Valuation studies and the critique of valuation. Valuation Studies, 2(2): 87–96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/vs.2001-5992.142287

Gustafsson Nyckel, J. (2020). Vägen mot det undervisande fritidshemmet. In B. Haglund, J. Gustafsson Nyckel, & K. Lager (Eds.), Fritidshemmets pedagogik i en ny tid (pp. 59–80). Gleerups.

Halldén, G. (2003). Barnperspektiv som ideologiskt eller metodologiskt begrepp. Pedagogisk Forskning i Sverige, 8 (1-2): 12-23.

Hedrén, S., & Lago, L. (2023). Is there an ‘I’ in ‘we’? Staff’s discursive formations of the child in Swedish school-age educare. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk, 9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23865/ntpk.v9.5079

Hetherington, K. (2004). Secondhandedness: Consumption, disposal, and absent presence. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 22(1): 157–173. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/d315t

Ingold, T. (2020). Correspondences. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

James, A., & Prout, A. (eds.) (1990). Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood. London: Routledge.

James, A.L., & James, A., (2012). Key concepts in childhood studies. 2nd ed. London: SAGE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526435613

Kraftl, P. (2020). After childhood: Re-thinking environment, materiality and media in children’s lives. Routledge Spaces of Childhood and Youth Series. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315110011

Löw, J. (2020). Världen, Sverige och barnen: internationell påverkan på svensk barnpolitik under välfärdsstatens framväxt i mellankrigstidens tidevarv. (Diss.) Linköping University Electronic Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/diss.diva-165444

Maza, S. (2020). The kids aren’t all right: Historians and the problem of childhood. American Historical Review, 125(4): 1261–1285. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa380

Mol, A. (2016). Clafoutis as a composite: A hanging together felicitously. In J. Law and E. Ruppert Eds., Modes of knowing: Resources from the Baroque, pp. 242-265. Manchester: Mattering Press.

Mol, A. (2021). Eating in theory. Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478012924

Opie, I., & Opie, P. (1959). The lore and language of schoolchildren. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Orrmalm, A., Annerbäck, J., & Sparrman, A. (2022). Listening by ‘staying with’ the absent child. Barn–forskning om barn og barndom i Norden, 40(3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.23865/barn.v40.5069

Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3): 281–307. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2015-0014

Peters, M.A., Tesar, M., Jackson, L., Besley, T., Jandrić, P., Arndt, S. and Sturm, S., (2022). Exploring the philosophy and practice of collective writing. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54(7): 871–878. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1854731

Prado, E., & Bucholtz, M. (2021). Getting dressed as a social activity: The interactional competence of an Autistic teenager who doesn’t use speech. Research on Children & Social Interaction, 5(2): 239–270. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1558/rcsi.17673

Prout, A. (2005) The Future of Childhood: towards the interdisciplinary study of children, London: Routledge.

Pursi, A. (2022). Play. In A. Church & A. Bateman (Eds.), Talking with children: A handbook DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108979764.016

of interaction in early childhood education (pp. 309–330). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Qvortrup, J. (1985). Placing Children in the Division of Labour. In: Paul Close & Rosemary Collins (Eds.), Family and Economy in Modern Society. Hampshire & London: MacMillan, pp. 129–145. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17795-0_7

Qvortrup, J. (ed.) (1994). Childhood matters: Social theory, practice and politics. Aldershot: Avebury.

Rabiee, P., Sloper, P., & Beresford, B. (2005). Doing research with children and young people who do not use speech for communication. Children & Society 19(5): 385–396. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.841

Rescorla, L. A., & Dale, P. S. (Eds.). (2013). Late talkers: Language development, interventions, and outcomes. Baltimore: Paul H Brookes.

Scott, S. (2018). A sociology of nothing: Understanding the unmarked. Sociology, 52(1): 3–19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038517690681

Sköld, J. (2006). Fosterbarnsindustri eller människokärlek: barn, familjer och utackorderingsbyrån i Stockholm 1890–1925. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wicksell International.

SNAE, Swedish National Agency of Education. (2022). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2022. Skolverket.

Speier, M. (1976). The adult ideological viewpoint in studies of childhood. In A. Skolnick (Ed.), Rethinking childhood: Perspectives on development and society (pp. 168–186). Boston, MA: Little, Brown.

Spyrou, S. (2017). Time to decenter childhood? Childhood, 24(4): 433–437. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568217725936

Stafford, L. (2017). ‘What about my voice’: Emancipating the voices of children with disabilities through participant-centred methods. Children’s Geographies 15(5): 600–613. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2017.1295134

Sjöberg, J. (2013). I marknadens öga: barn och visuell konsumtion (Diss.) Linköping University Electronic Press.

Sköld, J. (2006). Fosterbarnsindustri eller människokärlek: barn, familjer och utackorderingsbyrån i Stockholm 1890–1925. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wicksell International.

Tesar, M., Duhn, I., Nordstrom, S.N., Koro, M., Sparrman, A., Orrmalm, A., Boycott-Garnett, R., MacRae, C., Hackett, A., Kuntz, A.M. and Trafí-Prats, L., 2021. Infantmethodologies. Educational Philosophy and Theory, pp.1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.2009340

Tiefenbacher, R. (2023). Finding methods for the inclusion of all children: Advancing participatory research with children with disabilities. Children & Society, 37(3): 771–785. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12628

Tisdall, E. K. M. 2012. The Challenge and Challenging of Childhood Studies? Learning from Disability Studies and Research with Disabled Children, Children & Society 26 (3): 181–191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2012.00431.x

Underwood, K., Chan, C., Koller, D., & Valeo, A. (2015). Understanding young children’s capabilities: Approaches to interviews with young children experiencing disability. Child Care in Practice, 21(3): 220–237. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13575279.2015.1037249

Woolgar, S. (2012). Ontological child consumption. In A. Sparrman, B. Sandin, & J. Sjöberg (Eds.), Situating child consumption: Rethinking values and notions of children, childhood and consumption (pp. 33–53). Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

Zelizer, V. (1994). Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Downloads

Published

27-12-2024

How to Cite

Orrmalm, A., Sjöberg , J. ., Sparrman , A. ., Tiefenbacher , R. ., Löw, J. ., Annerbäck, J. ., Sköld , J. ., Holmbom Strid, E., Hedrén , S. ., Lago , L., Anatoli, O. ., Hrechaniuk, Y. ., Prout , A. ., & Tesar , M. . (2024). Centring children in research: A collaborative exploration into child-centredness as method and theory . Child Studies, (6), 11–32. https://doi.org/10.21814/childstudies.5745

Issue

Section

Articles