Two Steps Back: Exploring Identity and Presence While Observing Infants in the Nursery

Abstract

In this chapter, I employ the central constructs of Pierre Bourdieu’s (1930–2002) Theory of Practice as an analytical framework for developing a reflexive understanding of the interplay between individuals (including researchers and the researched) and their social contexts. The backdrop for the presented discussion and analysis is my experience as an observer during a three-month naturalistic observational study of infants’ relationships in an early childhood centre. In the chapter, I take the stance that observational researchers frequently become part of the context that they are studying. Accordingly, I focus on events that prompted a consideration of my own presence, identity and actions in relation to those of the infants within the nursery context.

Appendices

Commentary to Sheila Degotardi: Two Steps Back: Exploring Identity and Presence While Observing Infants in the Nursery

• Cecilia Wallerstedt,
• Niklas Pramling &
• Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson 

1. Department of Education, Communication, and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

   Cecilia Wallerstedt, Niklas Pramling & Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson

In this chapter, Sheila Degotardi raises a number of important principal issues. In this commentary chapter, we will, albeit briefly, elaborate on some of these. More specifically, we will discuss (i) changing notions of knowing and skills and what these imply for research on infants, (ii) a critical revolution in human ontogeny taking place in infancy that we suggest is important to relate discussions about studying infants to, and (iii) some ethical considerations.

Changing Notions of Knowing and Skills

With sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1930/2004, 1987; cf. Mead, 1934/1967; and more recently, Fleer, 2010; Kozulin, 1998), the idea of knowledge and competence as private matters that the individual has or has not got is challenged. Instead, a notion of competences as contingent not only upon others but also upon the availability of cultural tools (including speech as well as physical artefacts) is proposed. If viewed from this perspective, the fact that the observed child responds to the observer need not be seen as “noise” disturbing the “transmission” of knowing but rather as an invitation to children to come to know. For example, what the researcher observes, directs his or her camera towards, in a sense communicates to the child what to consider of interest (an expectation, conventional knowledge; cf. Bruner, 1993). In this way, to simultaneously make the child pay attention to and notice what would otherwise perhaps pass him or her by unnoticed provides an incentive for the child’s development, which is the very matter at the heart of child studies. Simply observing children may thus work as an incentive to the child’s development. Already discovering the fact that someone (an adult) is willing to share one’s (the infant’s) attention (cf. Tomasello, 1999) is important to the young child’s development and evolving notion of self (cf. Tomasello, Kruger, & Ratner, 1993), which, as we understand it, are the issues raised by Sheila Degotardi in this chapter. On a more overarching level, this reasoning could be seen as an example of a notion in Vygotsky (1987), to study something, set it in motion.

Noticing and Developing: From a Dyadic to a Triadic Relationship in Infancy

The basic implicit premise for Sheila Degotardi’s reasoning may be phrased thus: It makes a difference to a person whether another person is present; that is, already in infants is visible a basic human responsiveness (Stern, 1985). This premise/realization has important consequences for research, also with infants who are already mindful of “the other” (for the present discussion, the observer). However, while this responsiveness is present from birth, the kinds of relationships children develop with others and their surrounding world take a revolutionary change in infancy (at around 9 months of age; Tomasello et al., 1993). This change, we argue, has important implications for studying infants in research. Tomasello (1999) has argued that around 9 months of age an important change appears in the human ontogeny. Observations of children 6 months old who are engaged with an object when another person enters the situation, have shown how the young child tends to ignore the person, alternatively focus on the person and ignore the object. In contrast, when observing children 12 months old in similar arrangements, the child is able to focus on both the object and the other person. Hence, between these two periods in time, the child has gone from being engaged in dyadic relationships (to another person or to an object) to being able to participate in a triadic relationship. This fundamentally changes the child’s developmental disposition. In a sense, for two (or more) people to share attention on something “third” (e.g., an object) is fundamental to what can be referred to as an education (Pramling & Pramling Samuelsson, 2010).

This developmental revolution (Vygotsky, 1987), we argue, also has important implications for studying infants, that is, the issue discussed in this chapter (the infants participating in Sheila Degotardi’s study were ages 6–24 months at the time). Our reasoning goes like this. Children who have not yet developed this ability to engage in triadic relationships can be expected to either (a) focus on the observer, rather than on what he or she was engaged with before noticing being observed, or, alternatively, (b) continue to be engaged with the object and not pay attention to the observer. Hence, with these young children, the observer may be what the child focuses upon (allowing research on how children relate to other persons) or not be noticed at all (meaning the observer does not really make a difference to the child’s activity). These possibilities springing from Tomasello’s observations, in our view, constitute interesting tools for thinking about the relationship between the observer and the observed infant child in research. When the child is able to participate with another person in an activity around something “third”, the observer possibly enters a new role in generating data. The interplay between the observer and the child around something (a shared focus of attention) will be possible to study as a research interest in its own right. In more general terms, this reasoning testifies to the importance of researchers to simultaneously keep in mind what they know and how we know this, that is, one’s own role in the knowledge production (cf. Pramling, 2006). Empirical data is not collected or gathered, but generated and produced.

Ethics: In the Short and the Long Term

Due to them being dependent upon caregivers to cater for their needs, young children (infants and toddlers) appear particularly exposed to the researcher’s ethical considerations, as emphasized in this chapter by Sheila Degotardi. Studying young children, it is important to take on this responsibility, taking care that the child will not experience being studied negatively. This is an important consideration on the spot, in the here and now of observing. Particularly, using the video format in making observations raises the need for motivation. A principle here is to only use this method of generating data if it is motivated in terms of the research questions. In some cases, this means that it is motivated to use this method even if the interest of a study is solely on speech among children and teachers, since it is often difficult or even impossible to differentiate between all the different voices of the children if only having access to an audio recording. Hence, the interest need not be on visual aspects (e.g., what children do with toys) in order for it to be motivated to video record the children. But in some cases, it is of particular importance to question the choice of video. To give an imaginary example, pretend that you are interested in studying what is sometimes referred to as proto-musical conversations (Trevarthen, 1993). Whether caregiver and child have eye contact with one another may (or may not) be a critical feature for such “conversations” to take place. This would suggest the use of video recordings to generate data. However, one type of situation in which these “conversations” between infant and caregiver take place may be in routine caregiving situations, such as changing the child’s diaper. If this were the case, video recording this situation would not appear motivated. An audio recording would suffice, since there are only two voices, and these are distinct from each other, the caregiver’s and the child’s. Hence, deciding whether to video record is important to consider in the here and now, as discussed by Sheila Degotardi. But it is also important to consider this issue in the long-term perspective, that is, how the child may respond to having been filmed, as he or she gets older. Would the child feel exposed if he or she, say, 20 years later studies to become a preschool teacher and sees herself on film in the classroom for educational purposes? This is, of course, impossible to know in advance. But keeping such considerations in mind is an important part of making responsible research with infants.

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