Researching infants’ experiences of early childhood educationand care

This chapter reports on an Australian study that set out to investigate and illuminate what life is like for infants in early childhood education and care settings, as far as possible from the perspective of the infants themselves. We begin by describing the project. We then identify some of the many methodological and technical challenges encountered in the early phases and ethical issues that have arisen in our efforts to address them. In particular, we reflect on our use of ‘baby cam’, a micro video camera system comprising a video camera and sound recording equipment worn by an infant. Drawing on an adaptation of Shier's (2001) pathways to participation model for conceptualizing and enhancing children’s participation in decision-making, we consider to what extent we can legitimately claim to be making progress in establishing participatory ways of researching with infants.