Today I attended a fascinating presentation in the School of Education Research Seminar titled "Intentional research: Participatory approaches to ethical (infant) research and pedagogy" by Dr Andi Salamon.
Abstract: Participatory research approaches aim to break down distinctions between researchers and those being ‘researched’. Such approaches have been critiqued in relation to very young children with the suggestion that the participation of children under three in research (and often pedagogical practice) is an illusion (Palaiologou, 2014). It is argued, however, that possibilities exist to consider infant research participants in ethically symmetrical ways to adult participants, and by not doing so we can ‘other’ very young children (Salamon, 2015). Such seemingly conflicting perspectives highlight the inherent challenges of including people with the least power as research participants. This week’s SoE Research Seminar presents the innovative methodological shifts of a research project that documented and deconstructed infants’ evocative emotional communication. Framed through a theory of practice architectures lens the project afforded babies opportunities to participate, enabled by methodological choices, critical reflection on the ‘happening-ness’ of practices and considered as ‘intentional research’. The presentation aligns this approach with intentional teaching pedagogy in Australian early childhood education contexts, and discusses implications for high quality practices in pedagogy with infants, in qualitative research and in any educational system more broadly.
