Methodology in Child and Childhood Research

The course will provide an overview and theoretically discuss the various steps in a research process, such as data collection, analysis, interpretation and the making of a research text. The possibilities and limitations related to the use of different methods will be addressed. Children's perspectives within research involve the exploration of children's everyday lives from children's perspectives and experiences. A grassroot's perspective such as this entails a methodological approach towards children as informants in the research process and calls for the use of a variety of methods. These may include various forms of interviews, observations, visual methods and fieldwork. Methodological issues such as accessing children as informants and research ethics will be addressed. In addition, historical methods and discourse analysis of texts, documents and social practices will be included. Though the main emphasis is on qualitative research, various quantitative methods and the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches will be addressed. Lectures draw on ongoing empirical research based at the centre as well as from an international milieu of children and childhood researchers.

The course aims to prepare the students for doing research on children and childhood as a social and cultural phenomenon through knowledge about: * Basic principles related to empirical research. * Relations between theoretical perspectives, research questions and methodology. * Methodological discussions related to children's perspectives and children as informants. * Different methods and techniques (with a focus on qualitative approaches).

Total lecture hours: 30 hours, total seminar hours: up to 16 hours. The course consists of: (1) A common introduction with lectures. (2) A seminar with presentation and discussion of the individual students' working papers. The student will be required to do a practical exercise (e.g. an interview, text analysis and/or observation). Based on this exercise, the student must write a working paper. Students may choose between doing the exercise and writing the working paper individually, or together with 1-2 fellow students. Each student will be required to comment on another student's working paper.