Negotiating AdultûChild Relationships in Early Childhood Research

Researcher-participant relationships are central to the possibilities and potential success of research and given generational inequities, researcher-child relationships are laden with ethical questions of power, voice, and representation. This book suggests that an in-depth examination of research relationships is both necessary and illuminating when considering ethical issues. This insightful book discusses the technical implementation of ethics in research with children an ethics of risk-avoidance rather than an ethics of relationships through an exploration of the complicated and often 'messy' situations faced in negotiating relationships in research with children. This is accomplished through the authors' key concerns throughout the book: To examine adult-researcher and child-participant relationships in research, considering how such relationships affect the entire research process and participants themselves To explore broader relationships surrounding research with children, placing the researcher-child dyad firmly in its socio-cultural context To begin to reconceptualise adult-child relationships more generally The book will draw on research data from the authors' own research to support the conceptual ideas under discussion and will further the debate of early years research for undergraduate and postgraduate students alike.