A Day in the Life
Three international teams of researchers explore the worlds of thriving young children, taking an ecological approach. At the centre of the innovative project methodology is the videoing of 'A Day in the Life' of children and youth.
The original project involves two-and-a-half-year-old girls at home in Canada, Italy, Peru, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and the USA. The multidisciplinary, international project team studies the girls' interactions with their environments, including members of their families. Participatory understandings are developed through watching and discussing parts of the original data with the families and subsequent detailed scrutiny of the video records and transcripts. The project team has been led to pay attention to diverse activities including humour, musicality, swinging, drawing, place-making, eating, play, joint book reading and many others that demonstrated reciprocity in the development of understandings. The project is contributing to studies of human culture as it is woven in the everyday.
The second project explores using a range of visual methods the resilience of adolescents in diverse locations around the globe as well. Teenagers in four locations in Canada partnered with in four locations abroad (China, Thailand, India and South Africa) are being studied to determine the themes emerging from observing the days in their lives that indicate the roots of their thriving. This team’s research can be accessed here through the Resilience Research Centre at Dalhousie University in Halifax Nova Scotia. Themes of the contributions to thriving of traditional culture, identities, security strivings, and humour are emerging in this work.
The third initiative is commencing to study a ‘day in the life’ of children in transition to school, and in particular, transitions of children from cultures different from the culture of the larger community in which the school is located. This project engages scholars and early years educators in six cultural contexts chosen for their initiatives in fostering vibrant transitional experiences in transitions to school.
International Perspectives on Early Childhood Research: A Day in the Life
The project has published many journal papers, book chapters and contributed to international conferences (see the publications page). A book consolidating the work of the original project was published in 2010 by Palgrave Macmillan. A flyer with order form.
Editors: J. Gillen and C.A. Cameron. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Preface Chapter 1 Introduction: Julia Gillen and Catherine Ann Cameron Chapter 2 Using video technology: Roger Hancock, Julia Gillen and Giuliana Pinto Chapter 3 Musicality: Susan Young and Julia Gillen Chapter 4 Emotional security: Catherine Ann Cameron, Ayshe Talay-Ongan, Roger Hancock, and Sombat Tapanya Chapter 5 Eating: Julia Gillen and Roger Hancock Chapter 6 Notational systems: Giuliana Pinto, Beatrice Accorti Gamannossi & Catherine Ann Cameron Chapter 7 Humour: E. Leslie Cameron, Beatrice Accorti Gamannossi, Julia Gillen and Catherine Ann Cameron Chapter 8 Conclusions: Catherine Ann Cameron & Julia Gillen Appendix: Locating the children |
Reviews
The International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies calls the book "exciting....thoughtful and innovative" here.
Honig, M-S. (2012) Review of International Perspectives on Early Childhood Research: A day in the life. (eds J. Gillen & C.A. Cameron) Childhood 19 (2) 280-282.
Ross, J. (2011) Review Infant and Child Development 20: 347-348.
Robson, S. (2011) Review of International Perspectives on Early Childhood Research: A day in the life. (eds J. Gillen & C.A. Cameron) Early Years: Journal of International Research & Development 31 (1) 101-102.
The project has also led to another project that develop its methodology in new directions. Susan Young is leading MyPlace: MyMusic: an international project to explore everyday music in the home among seven-year-olds in diverse locations, including Brazil, Singapore and Kenya.
Last updated: 25 March 2013.