Postdevelopmental Approaches to Childhood Research Observation

This book challenges the developmentalist paradigm that dominates research into children and childhood, focusing on observation as a research method. It offers new postdevelopmental ways of conducting childhood observations which are diverse in context and theoretical orientation, and in the process, deconstructs the dominant traditions of childhood research. Written by leading scholars based in Canada, Norway, the UK, and the USA, the chapters consider observation as it is enacted in the home, nursery or classroom. Drawing on a range of theories including feminist new materialism, social semiotics, and posthumanism, the chapters cover a range of topics including reciprocal methods, photography, childhood art, and memoir.

Jayne Osgood is Professor of Education at Middlesex University, UK and Visiting Professor at Oslo Met University, Norway.

Mona Sakr is Associate Professor of Early Childhood at Middlesex University, UK.