Abstract
This chapter discusses what considerations a researcher must do in the research of young children’s play in preschool when she is using video. In using video technology, several researchers have described how their studies of children and their activities are technically, analytically, and interpretively done, but there is a lack of understanding methodological reflections and knowledge of guidelines in research of the topic.
Researchers can get permission from parents and pedagogues to film children, but how can a researcher get an informed permission from the children? And how can a researcher detect if a child feels uncomfortable in the situation? How does the researcher know if a child wants to withdraw from the research? The permission has to be negotiated in relation to the specific child and in the specific situation. Examples from a study of children’s physical activities in sports preschool are applied to illustrate the ethical and methodological reflections. And the researcher on behalf of her research makes guidelines for how to deal with ethics and children in research.
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Notes
- 1.
Translation Dereck E. W. Chatterton, University of Copenhagen.
- 2.
Knud Erik Løgstrup, Danish philosopher (1905–1981).
- 3.
Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724–1804).
- 4.
Sitting like this in a circle before lunch talking about what is on schedule in the preschool or what happened at home in the weekend is a daily activity in many preschools, so this was a well-known situation for the children.
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Sørensen, H.V. (2014). Ethics in Researching Young Children’s Play in Preschool. In: Fleer, M., Ridgway, A. (eds) Visual Methodologies and Digital Tools for Researching with Young Children. International perspectives on early childhood education and development, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01469-2_11
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