Summary
Contents
To help the researcher understand why and how children react to adults who are doing ethnographic research, Fine and Sandstrom explore the methodological and ethical problems of qualitative research with minors. They correct numerous fallacies held by researchers that children think like adults and that they cannot hide their thoughts and feelings from adults, especially strangers. Recognizing that age is an important determinant of children's response, they discuss problems and present strategies for conducting research with three age groups of children: preschool children (4 to 6 year olds), preadolescents (10 to 12) and middle adolescents (14 to 16). This is the first major methodological statement on doing participant observation work with children.
Participant Observation with Preadolescents
Participant Observation with Preadolescents
Preadolescents sail the passage between the Scylla of the Oedipus complex and the Charybdis of puberty. In contrast with its stormy neighbors, preadolescence (“the latency period”) seems relatively quiet. Although developmental psychologists do not agree precisely on which ...
