Child-framed video research methodologies: issues, possibilities and challenges for researching with children

Video-based research methodologies in educational settings have been associated with the perceived user-friendliness of the technology for children, teachers and researchers. Video is considered an appropriate way of capturing the pedagogical complexity of classrooms, and a supportive medium for encouraging children to participate in research activity. In this paper, we present a research methodology that was applied to investigate the relationship between the pedagogy of play and children's conceptual knowledge. The basis of the methodology centred on a play experience designed by teachers. Children (ages 4–5) were videoed while engaging in the experience and then invited to watch these recordings and to comment on their own play and learning. The discussions with the children were also video recorded and later shown to the teachers who designed the experiences. The videoed data of the children responding to their recorded play were used to generate discussion with the teachers around what they believed the children were learning through play and the children's perceptions of their play. In this paper, we examine why the decision was made to video the play and the children's reactions to their play. We explore the logistics of applying a video-based methodology, consider the challenges associated with this approach and suggest strategies for minimising the impact of researcher subjectivity and reflexivity in video research methodologies in a ‘children as researchers’ or ‘child-framed’ research context.