Uncertainty and practical judgement in research: a call for attentive ‘listening’

Daniela Mercieca,Duncan P Mercieca,Sarah Piscopo Mercieca

doi:10.1177/1468794120985685

Abstract

This paper draws upon research projects in which efforts have been made to find ways of listening to young children’s voices in early years contexts. This listening, namely in the mosaic approach, helps us to see how children make sense of their world, and adopt our planning and ‘being with’ young children. After setting the context of early years pedagogy and ideology of mosaic approach, this paper focuses on the researcher’s journey to turn her gaze inward before making any claims about her engagement with and listening to young children. Since this approach purposely leaves unanswered the question what kind of data is going to be collected, researchers have to decide what data is in the course of a research project, through their engagement with children. We argue for befriending uncertainty and dilemmatic thinking as it provides us with a different way of seeing, knowing and listening the hard to know. Through writing about phronêsis, this paper focuses on the process of decision-making and judgements that researchers undertake. The final argument calls for attentiveness and aims to acknowledge practical judgements as a fundamental part of researching early years.

Highlights

The parents, teacher, support-teacher, and inclusive coordinator are all gathered for their annual meeting to agree on Alexander’s learning plan for the year
We argue that acknowledging uncertainty and engaging in the continuous process of making judgements are fundamental aspects of the research process, in early years research
We have argued for the idea of working with uncertainty as opposed to working to reduce uncertainty when conducting research (Mercieca, 2011; Mercieca and Mercieca, 2013), and believe that uncertainty is productive in research if engaged with, giving the possibility of ‘making room for something else to come about’ (Lather, 2007: 7)

Summary

Introduction

The parents, teacher, support-teacher, and inclusive coordinator are all gathered for their annual meeting to agree on Alexander’s learning plan for the year. The thought process that she came with on her first supervisory meeting ran along these lines: EPs work with children; they should try and listen to children’s ideas and voices – EPs cannot assume they know all about children; so this research experience needs to help me as an EP find a way of listening to children. This research experience will help me find a way in my future work when I am engaged with children (Piscopo Mercieca, 2017: 10).

Results

Conclusion