Process of Researching in Childhood

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Most Relevant Topics in Mills and Mills “Researching Childhood”
Canadian Studies Pertaining to Children
Works Cited

Introduction

For scholars to better understand a field, research to unearth or explore a certain attribute within the same is usually carried out. Childhood is no exception. For childhood scholars to better understand this phenomenon and some of the overriding attributes, they will have to conduct studies and research that will explore an identified facet in detail.

In their book Childhood Studies: A Reader in Perspectives of Childhood, Mills, and Mills (181-193) recognize this fact. They lay it down to the reader in the form of several issues that surround researching childhood. These range from the role and persona of the investigator, data collection, data presentation, and a myriad of other dos and don’ts likely to be encountered by a researcher. In the process, they quote the works of several scholars to justify their position and opinions.

The Most Relevant Topics in Mills and Mills “Researching Childhood”

After reading Mills and Mills’ account of researching childhood, the writer of this essay realized there are some topics that are relevant to them, based on certain justifications that will be identified later. The following are some of the topics that were identified:

Coming up with a Topic

Childhood has been defined variously, depending on the orientation and values of the scholar concerned. Mills and Mills (7) hold the view that many scholars conceptualize childhood to fit their goals and values in their particular fields. James and Prout (233) for example conceptualize childhood as a school transitional phenomenon. This is whereby the individual progresses from nursery to secondary school, depending on the system that the child was taken through.

The definition is not the only thing that is multidimensional in childhood studies. There is a myriad of others, for example how childhood experiences vary from one culture and society to the other. This being the case, it is important for the researcher to define their topic, so that they can locate their study within the childhood field.

Mills and Mills (185) caution that the researcher should avoid attempting to come up with or discover new information in the field. This is because studies cannot be exhausted, and what one may call a discovery may contradict what another researcher regards as their discovery.

Data Collection and Style of Writing

There are several techniques that are at the disposal of the researcher when it comes to the collection of data. Mills and Mills (189) use the questionnaire as an example of data collection tools that the researcher can use.

The tool for data collection will be determined by the kind of data that the researcher intends to collect, together with other factors such as the goals and objectives of the study. Collection techniques for a qualitative study will not be similar to those for a quantitative one, for the goals and objectives of the two studies are different.

Data collection and style of writing go hand in hand. This is because the kind of data that was collected will determine the style that the researcher will use to organize their findings. Mills and Mills (190) opine that every study involves a kind of storytelling, where the researcher gives a commentary of the whole process.

This topic is important because the researcher has to be aware of what to do and not do when writing in research, for example, they should avoid attempts at humor, for the reader may not be so amused.

Canadian Studies Pertaining to Children

The writer was interested in finding out studies that have been conducted in the past regarding childhood and children in general. They were especially interested in studies that have been conducted in Canada. The following are some of the studies that were of interest to the writer:

University of Waterloo Studies on Children

This university, located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has a research center that is dedicated to the study of children. Several researches that touch on children in Canada and elsewhere in the world have been conducted in this center. A case in point is the development of the Language Use Inventory (LUI), a study that was conducted in 2009. This study can be found on the following website:

The aim of this study was to help the researchers know how children develop language, thought and knowledge in their childhood realm (University of Waterloo 2010 1).

Children’s Development of Concepts Related to Country and Nationality: A Canadian Perspective, Brown, James A. 1980

Despite the fact that this study was conducted a number of decades ago, the findings are still informative to contemporary childhood scholars. This is despite the fact that a lot of new information has probably been added to what Brown, from the University of Western Ontario, had investigated. This study was published in the Canadian Journal of Education (Volume five, issue three) 1980. Brown sought to find out how well children knew about their geographical locations and how well they understaood their nationality (Brown 55). The study can be accessed in the following JSTOR journal.

Works Cited

Brown, James. “Children’s Development of Concepts Related to Country and Nationality: A Canadian Perspective”. University of Western Ontario. Canadian Society for the Study of Education, 1980. Web.

James, Allison and Prout, Alan. 1990. Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood. London: Routledge, 233.

Mills, Jean & Mills, Richard W. 2000. Childhood Studies: A Reader in Perspectives of Childhood. London: Routledge, 7-20, 181-190.

University of Waterloo. “LUI Recommended by a Panel of Experts”. 2009. Web.

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