Development Vectors of Interviewing Children: Inclusion, Trust, Agency

In this article, we will consider how the modern project of childhood, developed within the framework of the new sociology of childhood, forms a methodological framework for methodological rules and techniques in the development of empirical research methods using the example of interviewing children. Approaches to the understanding of childhood, described in theoretical works, influenced the development of the method. On the other hand, field work made it possible to open up the children’s world, as was done, for example, in the Chicago school of the first wave. Recognition of the plurality of childhood in the global world, on the one hand, gives rise to many unique practices of field work, on the other hand, creates the ground for the development of common ethical and methodological approaches and principles. The second part of the article presents the systematization of these principles at different stages of field work and, in particular, the application of the interview method and the ethical aspects of its implementation: the creation of a child-friendly toolkit, informed consent and the creation of trusting relationships, the dynamics of the interview situation, post-field relations, data analysis and representation of the world of childhood in scientific articles and political documents. In the final part of the article, we will outline the vectors for further development of the interview method and field practices for studying children.

new sociology of childhood, interview method, methodological inclusion, child agency, trust in an interview situation, interview gamification, stimulus material