The United Nations Convention of the Rights of Children (UNCRC) implores researchers to include children as active participants in research. Offering child participants in education research more developmentally aligned ways to express themselves provides opportunity for their meaningful contributions to the topics being studied. This oral presentation shares the unique methodological design from the author's doctoral dissertation research on the topic of educator and child attachment bonds. Devising and deploying a Creative Appreciative Inquiry was the result of a culmination of consolidating rarities exampled in the literature. On the research topic, it is rare for (a) an Appreciative Inquiry to be utilized, (b) arts-based methods to be used, and (c) young children to be brought into the research as active participants. Combining an Appreciative Inquiry methodology with arts-based data collection methods gives new ways of understanding the topic of teacher/kindergarten student relationships for researchers and educators. Through this presentation, topics of assent, meaningful contributions to data, and analysis considerations will be explored using examples of art created by the researcher and the child participants.

Authors:
Jeffery Thornborrow, Nipissing University, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Jeff Thornborrow, Assistant Professor and Director of the School of Social Work at Nipissing University in North Bay Canada, is a co-researcher on, A Realist Evaluation of Rare Dementia Support, funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research

See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule

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