Early Childhood Qualitative Research (Changing Images of Early Childhood)

264 Pages·2006·3.47 MB·English

by  J. Amos Hatch

Early Childhood
Qualitative Research
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Changing Images of Early Childhood
Series Editor: Nicola Yelland
Childhood and Postcolonization: Power, Education, and Contemporary
Practice
Gaile S. Cannella and Radhika Viruru
Playing It Straight: Uncovering Gender Discourse in Early Childhood Education
Mindy Blaise
Shift to the Future: Rethinking Learning With New Technologies in Education
Nicola Yelland
Early Childhood Qualitative Research
J. Amos Hatch
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Early Childhood
Qualitative Research
J. Amos Hatch
Edited by
New York London
Routledge is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
270 Madison Avenue 2 Park Square
New York, NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon
Oxon OX14 4RN
© 2007 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑95341‑3 (Softcover) 0‑415‑95472‑X (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑95341‑2 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑95472‑3 (Hardcover)
No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,
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used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Early childhood qualitative research / edited by J. Amos Hatch.
p. cm. ‑‑ (Changing images of early childhood)
ISBN 0‑415‑95340‑5 (hardback) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑95341‑3 (pbk.)
1. Early childhood education‑‑Research. 2. Child development‑‑Research. I. Hatch,
J. Amos. II. Title. III. Series.
LB1139.23.E2743 2006
372.2107’2‑‑dc22 2006014051
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the Routledge Web site at
http://www.routledge‑ny.com
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For Sally
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Contents
Series Editor’s Introduction ix
Introduction 1
J. AMoS HAtCH
1 Back to Modernity? Early Childhood Qualitative Research
in the 21st Century 7
J. AMoS HAtCH
Part I
Qualitative Methodologies in Early Childhood Settings
2 Hermeneutic text Analysis of Play: Exploring Meaningful
Early Childhood Classroom Events 25
StuARt REIFEl
3 using Digital Video in Field-Based Research With Children:
A Primer 43
DANIEl J. WAlSH, NESRIN BAkIR, toNY BYuNGHo lEE, YA-HuI
CHuNG, kAYouN CHuNG, AND CollEAGuES
4 The Potential of Focus Groups to Inform Early Childhood
Policy and Practice 63
SHARoN RYAN AND CARRIE loBMAN
5 Wanderings: Doing Historical Research on Early Childhood
Education 75
JANICE A. JIPSoN
6 Action Research in Early Childhood Contexts 95
FRANCES o’CoNNEll RuSt
vii
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viii • Contents
7 Critical Pedagogy and Qualitative Inquiry: lessons From
Working With Refugee Families 109
ElIzABEtH P. QuINtERo
Part II
Issues in Early Childhood Qualitative Research
8 Surviving a Methodological Crisis: Strategies for Salvaging
Your Classroom-Based Research When Things Go Wrong in
the Field 131
lISA S. GolDStEIN
9 Never Certain: Research Predicaments in the Everyday
World of Schools 147
SuSAN GRIESHABER
10 Researching With Children: The Challenges and
Possibilities for Building “Child Friendly” Research 167
GlENDA MACNAuGHtoN, kYlIE SMItH, AND kARINA DAVIS
11 Decolonizing Research in Cross-Cultural Contexts 185
BEtH BluE SWADENER AND kAGENDo MutuA
12 Who Chooses What Research Methodology? 207
JEANEttE RHEDDING-JoNES
13 Assessing the Quality of Early Childhood Qualitative
Research 223
J. AMoS HAtCH
Contributors 245
Index 249
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Series Editor’s Introduction
The terrain of educational research has been significantly remodeled since the
new millennium emerged. Conservative forces have constructed and imple-
mented an agenda that attempts to reduce educational outcomes to the minutiae
of observable outcomes that can be demonstrated in simple tasks that require
routine responses rather than consider the educational experience as engage-
ment with people and ideas. What counts as evidence for effective practices for
teaching has been brought into question because those in, and aligned with,
positions of power have determined that what counts are specifically observable
phenomena that are universal and unvarying. The paradox that is education at
this point in time, reflects a confusion about the kind of citizens we want to help
to mature in the 21st century against a desire to have individuals perform specific
tasks that a few consider to be universal indicators of a being a successful stu-
dent at any given point in time. The former context is complex and messy while
the latter is contained and specific. The former requires research that attempts
to explore the nature of our existence and challenges our belief systems while
the latter reduces performance to specified criteria with observable outcomes
and derives generalizations that attempt to describe universal phenomenan that
bear resemblance to a limited population of aggregated averages.
The book that Amos Hatch has compiled has come at a particularly relevant
time. Hatch himself presents a compelling case for research that enables us to
capture the richness of educational experiences as events that defy a reduc-
tionist conceptualization of behavior. The authors in this important collection
stress the importance of conducting research that is rigorous and allows us to
encounter the nuances that are part of our everyday lives. They do not reduce
our experiences to the simple and trivial. Rather, they enable us to generate new
understandings about those issues and dilemmas that underpin the work that
we do every day. In foregrounding the issues under discussion here it becomes
apparent that their examination gives voice to a new cohort of participants who
have previously been considered as subjects to be studied, rather than as col-
laborators and agents of change in our shared and intersecting lives.
This book describes research in early childhood educational contexts that is
rigorous and diverse. It encapsulates powerful notions of agency and asks ques-
tions that are of direct importance to teachers and children’s lived experiences.
In his powerful first and last chapters Hatch provides a context and rationale for
quality early childhood research that is empirically based and relevant to the
daily enactment of education for young children. The chapters by the authors
that constitute the book live up to the high standards that Hatch has set and
ix
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