Qualitative Fieldwork with Children: Context and Participation in Child Well-Being Research across Nations

by Samia Michail (Contribution by), Gabrielle Drake (Contribution by), Jan Falloon (Contribution by), Elisabeth Lefebvre (Contribution by), Christine Gervais (Contribution by)

Overview

Drawing on the multinational qualitative study ‘Children’s Understandings of Well-being’ (CUWB), this unique edited collection offers practical insights into conducting fieldwork across diverse geographical, social and cultural contexts, using the same basic protocol.

The book explores the practical, ethical and philosophical challenges the researchers faced, and the ways in which these issues were dealt with by the different research teams. Contributors provide rare insights into the diverse institutional requirements and professional practices highlighting the way research methods are embedded in contexts that are at one and the same time both local and global.

With contributions from experts in child well-being research from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the US, the book provides valuable perspectives for researchers across a wide range of settings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529228069
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	10/07/2025
Series:	Sociology of Children and Families
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	346
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lise Mogensen is Associate Professor in Medical Education at Western Sydney Universityand disability studies lead on the Australian Children's Understandings of Well-being (CUWB) research team.

Susann Fegter is Head of Department at General and Historical Educational Science, Technische Universityät Berlin and project leader of the CUWB research project.

Lisa Fischer is Research Assistant at the Department of General and Historical Educational Science, Technische Universityät Berlin and co-lead of the CUWB emerging scholar network.

Jan Mason is Emeritus Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney Universityand former project leader of the CUWB research project.

Tobia Fattore is Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Macquarie University. He is a project leader on the CUWB research project and co-Editor-in-Chief of Child Indicators Research.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Examining the Social Realities of Qualitative Research with Children. Context, Messiness and Multinational Comparison - Tobia Fattore, Susann Fegter, Lisa Fischer, Jan Mason and Lise Mogensen

Part 1: Power-Relations and Ethics in Research with Children

2. On Vulnerability in Interview Situations in the Field of Childhood Research: Reflections on the Reproduction of the Generational Order - Veronika Magyar-Haas and Catrin Heite

3. Transactional Horizons as Mitigation of Power Imbalance in Adult-Child Interviews - Daniel Stoecklin

4. The Re-Constitution of Children/Childhood and Adults/Adulthood in Research Process - Stella März

5. Ethical Dilemmas in Doing Research with Children: Dealing with Asymmetrical Power Relations - Anne Carolina Ramos

6. Legal Protection to Privacy and Consent in Research with Children as an Ethical Inequality Problem - Lisa Fischer and Stella März

Part 2: Including Marginalised Children in Qualitative Research

7. Navigating Child Well-Being Research in Institutional Settings: Children with Intellectual Disability and Children in Care - Lise Mogensen, Gabrielle Drake, Samia Michail, Tobia Fattore, Jan Falloon and Jan Mason

8. Narrating Oneself: How Do Children Negotiate the Telling of Their Lives to Adult Researchers and How Can We Provide an Adequate Research Frame? - Emre Erdoğan, Pınar Uyan-Semerci and Başak Akkan

9. Conducting Participatory Research with Children in Constrained Contexts: Methodological Considerations for Training Emerging Researchers Through a Social Justice Lens - Sabirah Adams, Shazly Savahl, Graciela Tonon and Phadiel Hoosen

10. Focus Group Method for Studying Wellbeing Children with Intellectual Disability - Claudia Bacter, Ioana Sîrbu, Adela Lazăr and Sergiu Bălțătescu

Part 3: How Qualitative Methods and Tools Facilitate Research with Children

11. Team Meetings and Field Notes as Sources for Reflecting on the Challenges of Engaging Children as Research Partners - Christine Gervais, Flavy Barrette, Élisabeth Lefebvre and Isabel Côté

12. A Collaborative Methodological Approach for Understanding Well-Being in School: Photographs to See Them/Us and Listen to Them/Us - Lorena Ramírez-Casas del Valle, Jaime Alfaro, and Verónica López

13. Well-Being Maps and the Introduction of Avatars in Filmmaking: Reflections on Ethics and Visual Methods in an English Qualitative Study of Child Well-Being - Colette McAuley

14. Revisiting Observation in Research with Children in the South - Graciela Tonon and Damián Molgaray

15. (Re)integrating Auditors in Qualitative Research with Children - Daniel A. DeCino, Lisa A. Newland, Gabrielle A. Strouse and Daniel J. Mourlam

16. Conclusion: Embracing Diverse Cultural Contexts and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Qualitative Research with Children Across Nations - Lise Mogensen, Tobia Fattore, Jan Mason, Susann Fegter and Lisa Fischer

Editorial Reviews

By teasing out the awkwardness, messiness and discomfort of fieldwork with children across diverse contexts, this insightful book illuminates the gaps between theory and practice, between ethics boards and reality.” Samantha Punch, University of Stirling

From the Publisher