Young children's explorations: young children's research?

‘Exploration' is recognised as research behaviour; anecdotally, as an early years' teacher, I witnessed many young children exploring. However, young children's self-initiated explorations are rarely regarded as research by adult researchers and policy-makers. The exclusion of young children's autonomous explorations from recognition as research conflicts with ‘new sociology’ perspectives positioning children as social actors. These tensions have driven a small-scale interpretive study, developed with children aged four to eight years in three ‘good’ schools in England to investigate (1) Do children aged four to eight years in three Early Childhood Education and Care settings explore?; (2) If so, what are their explorations and what effects and affects them?; and (3) Do young children's explorations count as epistemology? Findings indicate that in settings where ‘free-flow’ play characterised practice, four- to five-year-old children engaged in exploration, but its quality was affected by several factors, including variable levels of children's autonomy. Seven- to eight-year-old children in a teacher-directed setting explored less than the four- to five-year-old children, but were frequently observed ‘off-task’, pursuing self-initiated explorations.     

Childhood obesity in transition zones: an analysis using structuration theory

Childhood obesity is particularly prevalent in areas that have seen rapid economic growth, urbanisation, cultural transition, and commodification of food systems. Structuration theory may illuminate the interaction between population and individual‐level causes of obesity. We conducted in‐depth ethnographies of six overweight/obese and four non‐overweight preschool children in Hong Kong, each followed for 12–18 months. Analysis was informed by Stones’ strong structuration theory. Risk factors played out differently for different children as social structures were enacted at the level of family and preschool. The network of caregiving roles and relationships around the overweight/obese child was typically weak and disjointed, and the primary caregiver appeared confused by mixed messages about what is normal, expected and legitimate behaviour. In particular, external social structures created pressure to shift childcare routines from the logic of nurturing to the logic of consumption. Our findings suggest that threats to what Giddens called ontological security in the primary caregiver may underpin the poor parenting, family stress and weak mealtime routines that mediate the relationship between an obesogenic environment and the development of obesity in a particular child. This preliminary study offers a potentially transferable approach for studying emerging epidemics of diseases of modernity in transition societies.     

Shared meanings of success,happiness, and health among adults with cerebral palsy and physiotherapists: implications for practice and research

Purpose: To describe shared meanings of success, happiness, and health of adults with cerebral palsy and physiotherapists.

Materials and methods: Ethnography employed open ended/semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires (Satisfaction with Life Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II^®, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Life Habits Questionnaire, Medical Outcomes Study-Social Support Survey, and PROMIS^® Pain Interference Scale). Content analysis of qualitative data and principal components analysis of questionnaire responses identified shared meanings.

Results: Fourteen adults with cerebral palsy and 15 physiotherapists (median age 46) had similar levels of education. For both groups, social achievements, personal goals, employment, and supporting a family defined success. Adults with cerebral palsy more frequently identified tenacity and persistence as important for success. Both groups described happiness as spending time with loved ones, recreational activities, and having purpose in life. Adults with cerebral palsy identified the importance of self-acceptance for happiness. For both, health included self-care of mind/spirit, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal wellness, and physical fitness (the ability to perform physical tasks). Analysis of questionnaire responses identified shared meanings (eigenvalue 41, 95% explained variance).

Conclusions: Adults with cerebral palsy and physiotherapists share similar experiences, behaviors, and feelings about success, happiness, and health. This knowledge may improve communication, enhance evidence-based practice, and foster services to support wellbeing.

• Implications for rehabilitation

• Cerebral palsy is a life-long condition, but we know little about social and physical outcomes for adults with cerebral palsy.

• Lack of understanding about meanings of success, happiness, and health may be a barrier for consumers accessing and for providers delivering evidence-based services.

• Physiotherapists and adults with cerebral palsy share similar meanings (feelings, experiences, beliefs, behaviors) of success, happiness, and health- or wellbeing.

• Knowledge of this common ground may result in improved communication between providers and consumers, and foster more relevant and meaningful services to support the wellbeing of adults with cerebral palsy.

     

Negotiating motherhood: the struggles of teenage mothers

AIMS: This article presents the results of an ethnographic study exploring how teenagers negotiated motherhood. The main aims of the study were to explore how the young women negotiated motherhood and how they constructed their own identities and relationships through teenage parenting. BACKGROUND: Approximately 10% of all births occur to teenage mothers worldwide. This phenomenon is of concern because teenage mothers are reported to be disadvantaged financially, educationally, and cognitively in both the short and long term. Many teenage mothers find strength and fulfillment in their motherhood role but this does not come without cost to themselves or their children, as many teenagers are considered unsuitable to be parents and do not have adequate support. DESIGN: This interpretive study incorporated ethnographic practices and was guided by feminist principles. After ethical approval from the university, data was collected over a 12-month period from five homeless Australian sole-supporting teenage mothers. Methods used included observation, interviews, field notes, journalling, and discussions with key informants. FINDINGS: The five participants described stories of disrupted lives, unhappiness in childhood, turmoil during adolescence and a need to find love and connection in their lives. Analysis of the data revealed four major themes; transforming lives and opportunities for change, accommodating the challenges, tolerating the abandonment of supports and living publicly examined lives. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that becoming a sole-supporting mother during the teenage years was a difficult struggle for the young women, because of their youth, their lack of preparation for motherhood and their reliance on welfare supports. In addition, they experienced negative public attitudes directed towards them wherever they went, and this included their visits to community child health centres. Recommendations are made for nurses to take a different approach when working with teenage mothers to help ameliorate the negative impact of poor parenting.     

Use of Computer Technology to Enhance Immigrant Families'' Adaptation

PURPOSE: To summarize how computer technology influenced immigrant families' adaptation to life in the United States. DESIGN: Critical ethnography. METHODS: Data were collected from 1998 to 2000 from 13 parents and 16 children from nine Taiwanese immigrant families using semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire. Narrative analysis was used with interview data. FINDINGS: Participants faced the demands of language proficiency, economic survival, loss of social networks, and social disconnection during resettlement. Computer technology provided participants with new occupational opportunities and strategies to overcome the barriers and stress created by resettlement. Internet and E-mail access greatly facilitated these participant families' adaptation. CONCLUSIONS: Study findings warrant further exploration to assess bow new computer technology promotes immigrant families' adaptation and alleviates stress associated with resettlement, including information about their health and health care.     

Rethinking ethnography: reconstructing nursing relationships

AIMS OF THE STUDY: Critical ethnography is being adopted increasingly by nurses as a legitimate form of research methodology. This paper explores the research practices and dilemmas that emerge from this methodology using a recently completed ethnographic study of nurse-nurse and nurse-doctor interactions in a critical care hospital setting. BACKGROUND: Critical ethnography provides a useful methodology that facilitates mutual dialogue among participants. It may be limited, however, by the central role of researchers and by a tendency to negotiate participants' realities according to a particular 'truth'. These concerns have been strongly critiqued by poststructuralists using concepts such as discourse, subjectivity and power. By incorporating the notion of a poststructural analysis into critical ethnography, researchers are in a position to examine critically the tensions in their own practices, and their struggles with documenting and analysing ethnographic accounts. DESIGN: Six registered nurses comprised the participants of the research group. Through the method of professional journalling, the first author of this paper explored her professional interactions with doctors and other nurses in her role as a nurse in the critical care setting under investigation. Other methods included participant observation, and individual and focus group interviews with nurse participants. ISSUES OF METHODOLOGICAL CONCERN: This paper considers three issues of methodological concern: researcher/participant subjectivity; the movement from empowerment to reflexivity and the construction of one form of ethnographic 'truth'. These issues are discussed in reference to the research relationships with the nurse participants and the process of analysing ethnographic accounts. CONCLUSIONS: In working with critical ethnography using a poststructural analysis, we were able to generate valuable insights about previously hidden areas of relationships among nurse participants in a research group during all stages of the research process. It also provided a means of informing the analysis of ethnographic texts.