The camera is not a methodology: towards a framework for understanding young children's use of video cameras

Abstract

Participatory research methods argue that young children should be enabled to contribute their perspectives on research seeking to understand their worldviews. Visual research methods, including the use of still and video cameras with young children have been viewed as particularly suited to this aim because cameras have been considered easy and fun to use for young children. However, how children learn to use cameras introduced into early childhood classrooms for research purposes is not well understood. In terms of visual research methodologies, this is a problem because participant use of cameras is associated with understanding the nature of visual data generated during the recording process itself. In this paper, we consider observational data of young children playing with video cameras introduced into their classrooms for research purposes. Drawing on the concepts of culturally mediated tool use and epistemic and ludic play, we theorise these observations to generate a new framework for understanding how children learn to use cameras through play-based activity. This framework suggests that research with children using still or video cameras may need to accommodate this learning within research designs and procedures in order to take full advantage of this medium. Pedagogical implications for using the framework to support young children's technological play are also considered.

Keywords:

• video cameras
• participatory research
• play
• mediation

Notes on contributors

Jo Bird is a fulltime doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Education at the Australian Catholic University. Her research considers the use of digital technologies in early childhood settings.

Yeshe Colliver is a fulltime doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Education at the Australian Catholic University. His research examines stakeholder perspectives on learning through play in the early childhood curriculum.

Susan Edwards is a principal research fellow at in the Faculty of Education at the Australian Catholic University. Her research focuses on dimensions of the early childhood curriculum, including teacher uses of theory, digital technologies, play and sustainability.