Work

Researching with young children: Reconfiguring language and researcher becomings

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: In this paper, ontological engagements in research, ‘positioning oneself in-between’ and acknowledging ‘reaching beyond the spoken’, are challenged through affective encounters within a fieldwork in early childhood education. The study focuses on a single circle-time event where the spoken language is unfamiliar to the researcher. The indeterminacy of the unfolding circle-time destabilises research premises that had appeared carefully reasoned. Drawing especially from Deleuze and Guattari’s work on human subjects, thinking and language, this paper explores and makes tangible the often-hidden struggles that changing one’s ontological orientation does to research. The study shows, how embracing an immanent, relational ontology helps resist human-centred, adult-built, language-laden norms and sensitises educators and researchers to unforeseen emergences.

Source: Journal of Early Childhood Research

DOI: 10.1177/1476718x261455270

Author: Satu Karjalainen

Institution: University of Oulu

Language: English

Topic: Posthumanist Ethics and Activism

Subfield: Cultural Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650