Learning to be Friends

Abstract

Although the socially constructed character of childhood is now well established, the methodological challenges this raises remain so far relatively unremarked. Drawing on a recent period of fieldwork, carried out among English schoolchildren aged between 4 and 9 years old, this article explores the contribution of participant observation as a research method to the study of childhood. Two key aspects are discussed. Taking children's friendships as its focus, the article argues, first, that participant observation permits a more comprehensive understanding of the process of friendship making than traditional sociometric techniques. Second, it shows that, for the researcher, the remembered experiences of participation and observation allow for a continued reflexive critique to be made of the data, a learning process which patterns the path through which children's friendships are themselves constructed.