A Digital Turn: Post-developmental Methodologies for Researching with Young Children

Abstract

The complexity of researching with infants, toddlers and preschool children using digital and visual tools is taken up in this chapter. A holistic research context for studying with children, where ethical and cultural validity is the norm, forms the basis of the methodological imperatives in early childhood research. Yet, the uniqueness of visual and digital tools has not been adequately theorised as a methodology for researching with young children. In this chapter the significance of theorising both visual and digital approaches to research is put forward. It is argued that these tools must be conceptualised in relation to the theoretical lenses being adopted in the study design by the researchers as that positions how they make decisions about how the data is to be gathered and, importantly, what role the researcher takes in this process. Through a theoretical discussion of both visual and digital approaches in research, this chapter introduced the post-developmental methodologies that make up the content of this book. Here critical theory, post-structuralist theory and cultural-historical theory are used to theorise visual and digital tools as methodologies that capture the holistic view of children’s development and learning across home, school, preschool and childcare from a range of cultural perspectives.