Children as Researchers- the Effects of Participation Rights on Research Methodology, by Pricilla Anderson discuss the roles of children as researchers and how important it is for them. When children conduct they can learn through experiences and project at schools. In studying children as researchers the article many focuses on three sections: stages of the research process at which children can be involved as actors, levels of participation and the use of methods which can increase children’s informal involvement in researching while also respecting the rights of the children. When using children as researchers we need to make sure that they are the subject of the research and accept that they can speak for themselves. Sometimes when children are used to conduct research they are seemed as incompetent because it is assumed that they are not able to make decisions on their own. They adults sometimes come in and take over or have biased opinions which causes the research to become biased. However as of currently they are political and funding to help grow and promote children as researchers.
When children have experience in conducting their own research they become more knowledge about what they have conducted, and through child centered research children tend to figure out things through their own trial and errors. The article also states that when conducting research preschoolers tend to ask questions to adults in order to figure things out, however from the age of 5 they begin to work things out themselves. This is similar to children who are autistic or health problems children will face. At first they are questions or they learn through what is being told to them but as an autistic child gets older he, begins to conduct his own research and begin to learn to cope and handle situations better. They can better understand their diagnostics.
In the Second Article Doing Research with Young People Cahill also believes that involving children in research helps to redistribute the power. What this means is that the research, wouldn’t be from the adult perspectives on what children thought felt and seen. It also means that listening to children can be critical to understanding and participating in social change. Through research children will be able to conduct their own research and have their own thoughts and opinion. Within this article it also talks about child center research allows for children to be an asset to the research, as researchers we must purposely leave room for errors so that the gaps can be filled.
In both article they reflect on the fact that there is not enough research done from a child’s perspective. However when involving children into research, they will understand that being involved in the research means that their own life stories and findings, can give insight into who they are and lead to more research being done.
