Studying Children

by Hedegaard, Marianne; Fleer, Marilyn

• ISBN13: 9780335234790
• ISBN10: 0335234798
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-01
• Publisher: Open University Press

Summary

Studying Childrenis the first book of its kind to offer a theoretical and practical discussion of how to undertake research using cultural-historical theory when researching the everyday lives of children.The authors discuss the complexities of child development, providing a critique of alternative perspectives of research and notions of development. They provide a number of case studies following researchers in early childhood as they move from a developmental approach to a cultural-historical framework for observing and planning for young children.The chapters: Provide a solid framework for understanding the foundations of this approach Address the importance of viewing research as an interactive technique Offer guidance on how to collect and interpret material Show how to make observations of and interviews with children, within a dialectical research approach Present examples of how to write and present findings using this technique The book is rich with examples of how to undertake specific methods, such as surveys, experiments, case studies, digital video observations, interviews, and children as researchers.Studying Childrenis a valuable resource for academics, researchers and students working in the field of Early and Middle Childhood at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Author Biography

Mariane Hedegaard is Professor in Child Development at the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

..Marilyn Fleer is Professor of Early Childhood Education and Director of the Centre of Childhood Studies at Monash University, Australia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Researching child development - an introduction	p. 1
A cultural-historical theory of children's development	p. 10
Developing a dialectic approach to researching children's development	p. 30
Principles for interpreting research protocols	p. 46
Interpreting research protocols - the institutional perspective	p. 65
Interpreting research protocols - the child's perspective	p. 88
Using digital video observations and computer technologies in a cultural-historical approach	p. 104
Conceptualising the environment of the child in a cultural-historical approach	p. 118
Interviewing using a cultural-historical approach	p. 139
Framing a questionnaire using a cultural-historical approach	p. 157
The educational experiment	p. 181
The role of the researcher	p. 202
References	p. 208
Index	p. 217
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