Young children aged 0-8 years can be researchers

Complementing Sen’s definition of capability (1993), two strands of enquiry have developed strongly in recent years to highlight young children’s potential proficiencies as researchers. Psychology has been transformed by the application of increasingly advanced neuro-imaging techniques to reveal potentially sophisticated cognitive abilities in infants and young children. Concurrently, a new sociology of childhood positions children as competent from birth: a perception exists of children as social actors with power to enact change, albeit dependent on context. Varied lenses for understanding young children’s behaviours have emerged and the field of children’s participation in matters affecting them has grown. Consequently, interest has developed in children as co-researchers or researchers, rather than research objects. However, discourse focused on children’s research tends to be characterised by adults relaying their own agendas through children and is dominated by engagement with older children. Recognition of young children aged 0-8 years researching their own agendas is slow in its development. Nevertheless, it is proposed that children aged 0-8 years can be researchers. This proposition invites questions, for example: How can children aged 0-8 years be conceptualised as researchers? What warrants may be established for young children’s research? What factors may support or inhibit young children’s research? How might young children’s research be disseminated and used?