Researchers' subjectivities in a study of infants & toddlers

• Published in: International journal of research & method in education Vol. 46; no. 4; pp. 390 - 407
• Main Authors: Ferraz Almeida Neves, Vanessa, Katz, Laurie, de Brito Teixeira Silva, Elenice, de Paiva Macário, Alice
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 08-08-2023
• Subjects: Attitudes; Bias; Consciousness; cultural-historical psychology; early childhood education; Educational Research; Educational Researchers; ethnography in education; Foreign Countries; Infants; Interpersonal Relationship; Partnerships in Education; qualitative methodology; Research Methodology; Toddlers; Brazil
• ISSN: 1743-727X; 1743-7288
• DOI: 10.1080/1743727X.2023.2167976

Our purpose in this article is to examine the subjective processes of researchers while becoming conscious during the investigation of infants and toddlers (I/Ts) in educational settings. Based on the intertwining between Cultural-historical Psychology and Ethnography in Education, we followed a group of I/Ts at a Brazilian Early Childhood Education Center between 2017 and 2019. This extended length of time in the field allowed us to build a logic of inquiry with consciousness as its foundation. We focus on an analysis of four events which occurred at different times within this two-year period that make visible the researcher's processes of becoming conscious at the center of the research process itself. Becoming conscious enabled repositioning ourselves as researchers, transforming the research process, and reorganizing the latter as a whole. In this study, we demonstrate that 'becoming conscious' involves considering whether the research extends beyond being an object of knowledge, and includes a meta-analysis of the research path actually taken through approximations and distancing with data, as well as the creation of new interpretations, solutions and combinations of these, as the study progressed. We argue that becoming conscious, as a relational and situated process, is an essential dimension of educational research.