Introduction

Abstract

This book builds on the legacy of work by Hobbs and May (1993) and Bell and Newby (1977), some of the first researchers to publish collections of personal accounts of doing social research. Telling stories is a natural part of the human condition (Barthes 1977). They help us to understand our worlds, enable us to explore who we are and facilitate our interactions with others. Indeed, such is the inevitability of narratives it is argued to be problematical only in a culture in which they are absent (White 1980:5). Here, in this book, we tell some of our stories with the aim of shining a light on the ways in which research with children is constructed, conducted and critiqued. Moving from the proscriptive accounts of how research should be conducted, the latter decades of the 20th century saw a rise in the explicit consideration of research as far from straightforward (see, for example, Devine and Heath 1999). This book emphasises that by acknowledging and talking about these challenges and ethical dilemmas, students, academics, researchers and practitioners are better placed to engage in empirical research with children.