listen to me! Humanizing human practices: Third International Conference on Dialogical Practices

Workshop 10
September 24th 1430-1530
Humanizing research practices in the everyday lives of children
Tilde Mardahl-Hansen, Kurt Bendix-Olsen, Crisstina Munck and Ditte Krogh Shapiro
The workshop demonstrates how participant observation can be undertaken in ways that humanize empirical
research practices with children. To gain insight into what matters to subjects in their personal lives, the
research strategy of four ongoing PHD projects is to participate in children’s everyday lives in and across
contexts. The projects draw on social practice theory and critical psychology, which imply an understanding
of children as participants in socio-cultural, historical practices.
To understand the subjective aspects of children’s participation in social practice the research strategy is to
take part in the same social contexts as the children, and be able to follow the children’s engagements as they
conduct their everyday lives with others. By listening to children and looking from their perspectives the
researchers are able to co-create knowledge about children´s subjectivity as part of social practice.
Participant observation situates the researcher as a person in the everyday lives of children, as both persons
and research are situated in social-material time and space.
The methodological approach is illustrated by two empirical studies:
One project focuses on how children between 2-3 years conduct their everyday institutional life, by
participating with the children in the course of their daily activities in daycare. By taking part in the
children’s arrangements it is possible to see how the professionals influence the children´s possibilities for
taking part in peer engagements.
In another project, on Syrian families seeking asylum in Denmark, the researcher takes part in different
everyday life contexts of children during their first year in the exile country. By exploring how children
conduct their everyday life in transitional and disrupted trajectories the subjectivity of children is
highlighted. We would like to open and facilitate a discussion on situated research practices.
The aim of the workshop is to demonstrate how participant observation can be undertaken in ways that
humanize empirical research practices with children. By listening to children and following their personal
engagements research contributes with knowledge about how structural conditions constitutes possibilities
and constraints in children's everyday life.