Researcher Positionality in Participant Observation with Preschool Age Children: Challenges and Strategies for Establishing Rapport with Teachers and Children Simultaneously

• Published in: Researching Children and Youth: Methodological Issues, Strategies, and Innovations Vol. 22; pp. 81 - 102
• Main Author: Gansen, Heidi M.
• Format: Book Chapter Reference
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing Limited 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Action research; Attachment (Psychology); Child psychology; children/youth; Educational observation; Ethnography; Participatory research; Peer relations; Preschool children; Social constructionism; Sociology; Sociology of the family; Preschool; children; least-adult role; participant observation; friend role
• ISBN: 9781787140998; 1787140997
• ISSN: 1537-4661
• DOI: 10.1108/S1537-466120180000022005

Abstract In this chapter, I focus on two methodological issues involved with conducting ethnographies of very young children; establishing a researcher role in preschool classrooms while simultaneously gaining access into children’s culture and the trust of adult gatekeepers involved (i.e., teachers). Drawing on my participant observation experiences in 10 preschool classrooms (over 470 hours and 19 months of observations), I challenge the use of the friend role (Fine & Sandstrom, 1988) and least-adult role (Mandell, 1988) in research with young children. I examine how teachers mediate the researcher’s role in participant observation of children in preschool classrooms demonstrating the importance of establishing a middle manager role between teachers and children when conducting participant observations. I also discuss strategies used to overcome adult’s mediation of the researcher’s role, and strategies for simultaneously gaining teachers and children’s rapport in participant observation research in ways that formulate positive relationships with adults and children. I demonstrate the importance of researcher reflexivity of children’s and adults’ assessments of researchers’ roles in the field, highlighting how researchers’ impacts on children are not dependent on the times they are present in the field. Instead, I show that children continue to critically assess researchers’ positionality and roles in the field, often times seeking the help of adults (i.e., parents and teachers), further stressing the need for researchers to negotiate an understanding of their roles with both adults and children prior to and while in the field.