“So That I May Hope to Honor You”: Centering Wholeness, Agency, and Brilliance in Qualitative Research With Multiply Marginalized Young Children

Abstract

Scholars of early childhood education have urged qualitative researchers to adapt their methods for use with young children. However, unjust social imaginations of childhood (e.g., who is considered a “child”) play out in qualitative research, particularly for young children who are made most vulnerable by intersecting oppressions (e.g., racism, linguicism, ableism). Extending Morrison’s metaphor of “the white gaze,” we argue that qualitative research is often framed through an “adult gaze,” which presumes children’s worth in terms of who they will ultimately become and differentially imagines who is considered a child in the present. Informed by theoretical understandings from the fields of critical childhood studies and early literacy studies, we consider how qualitative researchers might disrupt the adult gaze and honor multiply marginalized children by centering their wholeness, orienting toward their agency, and creating space for their brilliance.