The Reality of Research with Children and Young People

Abstract

The Reality of Research with Children and Young People illustrates the process of carrying out research through thirteen `research stories'. Each story includes a piece of published research, accompanied by a commentary from the author of the research explaining: · the origins of the research · how research questions were formed · factors influencing the choice of methodology and data collection techniques · problems that arose and how these were dealt with · personal reflections on the project. The research examples included in this volume have been carefully selected to demonstrate the reality of researching with children from pre-school age to late adolescence. They reflect the different traditions and variety of methods of collecting data, including interview, evaluation, ethnography, experiment, survey, case study, questionnaire, longitudinal, and standardised assessment.