In this article, the authors address some of the scientific challenges associated with using observation as a research method. The authors ask how researchers contextualise and understand observation in terms of its theoretical underpinnings and how it is conducted. Using a vignette in the kindergarten context, the authors explore how observation…

This case study discusses responsive walking methods from a yearlong river-child-walking project situated in early childhood education. Grounded by feminist anti-colonialism, this project reconfigured children's relations with a local river and challenged dominant, extractive methods of discovery. A behind-the-scenes approach is taken in this case…

This article explores how pedagogical documentation, as the refusal of method, can be aligned with post qualitative inquiry, opening up possibilities for refuting dogmas and methods in early childhood pedagogy, theory, practice, and research. It delineates understandings of pedagogical documentation in the educational project of Reggio Emilia, and…

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of early childhood education and development research in Malaysia, focusing on articles published in Scopus. Publications included in this study consisted of journal articles, books and book chapters, and conference papers, all of which sampled children between four to seven years old. The…

This paper reports on a design oriented study conducted in close collaboration between two researchers and three preschool teachers. Within this study, a play-based interview script was designed in accordance with theoretically driven principles. Based on this script, the preschool teachers conducted interviews with children from three preschools…

Drawing on public writing from a pedagogical inquiry research project collaboration between three early childhood educators, a pedagogist-researcher, and preschool-aged children, this article debates how pedagogical inquiry research becomes "hard work." Against the backdrop of mainstream early childhood education in the lands currently…

This book concisely explores the distinguishing features of scientific knowledge and research in early childhood education and care (ECEC). It has a dual-level focus of containing and relating the concrete practices of conducting research with the more fundamental conceptual discussions around research -- the Bildung of the researcher. The book…

This study is a researcher-practitioner action inquiry which was used to explore children's sensory experiences with a focus on the sense of smell (olfaction). We critically considered the early childhood theories that positioned children's sensory learning within equitable, socially just early childhood approaches and connected them to an action…

Research that uses innovative approaches to elicit the views of young children has grown hugely over the last 20 years. Against a backdrop of a greater acceptance of children's rights and sociological approaches to understanding children and childhood, with their combined emphasis on the competences and capacities of children, it is now accepted…

Since the advent of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), concerns have been raised regarding tokenistic engagement with children's participation rights as well as ethical considerations that must be addressed in research with children. This article explores how one particular ethical dilemma regarding representation…

Realist research is increasingly used to evaluate complex interventions. However, it can be challenging to codify and implement, with few examples to guide the process. This article describes how a team of social care leaders, practitioners and researchers developed initial program theories for the Trauma Consultancy Service (TraCS) in early…

This paper discusses advantages and disadvantages of being a researcher in a familiar setting. This study was conducted in a nursery in Turkey. In ethnographic research, conducting research in a familiar setting plays an important role in collecting and analysing data. Familiarisation with participants and settings is associated with 'insiderness'…

In this paper we present a working manifesto that emerged from our projects with pedagogists -- a new professional figure in the Canadian early childhood education context. Drawing on feminist scholars' work, we offer this manifesto as a feminist call to actively think against the anti-intellectualism sustained by existing structures in early…

This article focuses on how the capacity of diffractive readings is put to work in a study of two different types of visual material in research conducted in a preschool. The analysis with the help of--the language of the flat ontology--and the diffractive readings take place in educational research among three-year-olds. Children's photographs…

Background: Prior to approaching any field site activity, the question of how researchers in education will interact with the participants in terms of positionality requires careful thought. Observation is often used by educators and researchers as a means of collecting informal data on children's development and learning in early childhood…