Children's agency in research: reflections on recent projects with young learners

Duration: 46 mins 41 secs

Share this media item:

Embed this media item:

<iframe width="_width_" height="_height_" src="https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1265190/embed" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Choose size:

About this item

Available Formats

About this item

Description:	The talk presents some reflections for research students about working with new media and learners; it is concerned with multimodal methods, the use of video and other modes in data collection.

Created:

2012-06-20 10:43

Collection:

Agency Conference 2012. Researching Agency in Educational Contexts: Theories and Methods

Publisher:

University of Cambridge

Language:

eng (English)

Keywords:

Agency; Learner; Research; Multimodality; Video;

Credits:

Editor:

T.Fisher


Abstract:	Children and young people are frequently used as sources of data in social research, including educational case studies and related qualitative work. This talk will focus on the concept of "Agency" among the subjects (and objects) of these studies as it relates to research in formal and informal educational settings, specifically how to access what is sometimes referred to as the "Learner voice" as the authentic and agentive response or behaviour of the learner. In a recent doctoral project, as well as in funded research in classrooms around children's productive engagement with media and technology cultures, data of various kinds was collected by means of video, drawn artefacts, recorded interviews and focus groups with the central aim of enhancing "Agency" in the work on the part of the children themselves. In analysing the data, perspectives from identity and socio-cultural theory were employed alongside frames of reference provided by leading authorities in learner voice. The talk will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of these various approaches and suggest methods which may provide further insight into the lives of learners in social and educational research. The talk does not seek to provide answers but to problematise this kind of work and to stimulate further debate about what it means to do research of this kind which attempts to uncover aspects of "Agency" in the lives of children and young people.

Abstract:

Children and young people are frequently used as sources of data in social research, including educational case studies and related qualitative work. This talk will focus on the concept of "Agency" among the subjects (and objects) of these studies as it relates to research in formal and informal educational settings, specifically how to access what is sometimes referred to as the "Learner voice" as the authentic and agentive response or behaviour of the learner. In a recent doctoral project, as well as in funded research in classrooms around children's productive engagement with media and technology cultures, data of various kinds was collected by means of video, drawn artefacts, recorded interviews and focus groups with the central aim of enhancing "Agency" in the work on the part of the children themselves. In analysing the data, perspectives from identity and socio-cultural theory were employed alongside frames of reference provided by leading authorities in learner voice. The talk will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of these various approaches and suggest methods which may provide further insight into the lives of learners in social and educational research. The talk does not seek to provide answers but to problematise this kind of work and to stimulate further debate about what it means to do research of this kind which attempts to uncover aspects of "Agency" in the lives of children and young people.

Available Formats

Format	Quality	Bitrate	Size
MPEG-4 Video	768x576	3.41 Mbits/sec	1.17 GB	View	Download
WebM	768x576	1.5 Mbits/sec	526.89 MB	View	Download
MP3	44100 Hz	125.0 kbits/sec	42.62 MB	Listen	Download
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)		689.06 kbits/sec	234.93 MB	Listen	Download
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)	22050 Hz	63.03 kbits/sec	21.49 MB	Listen	Download
Auto *	(Allows browser to choose a format it supports)