Abstract

SANTOS, Sandro Vinicius Sales dos  and  BAPTISTA, Monica Correia. Methodological triangulation in ethnographic research with and about children. Rev. Diálogo Educ. [online]. 2023, vol.23, n.76, pp.201-229.  Epub Apr 05, 2023. ISSN 1981-416X.  https://doi.org/10.7213/1981-416x.23.076.ds08.

This article analyzes the scope and limits of research methodologies and advocates the importance of triangulation in the construction and analysis of data in childhood studies, especially in research with and on children. Situated at the intersection of the New Social Studies of Childhood with scientific production in the field of Early Childhood Education, the text starts from the following problematization: What methodological guidelines would be adequate to allow ethnographic investigations to consider the peculiarities of childhood and the social relationships in the first years of life, especially in educational contexts? To discuss this and other questions, data from a survey whose field work was carried out during nine months of 2012, in a Municipal Early Childhood Education School, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, are reviewed. Eighteen four/five-year-old children (eight girls and ten boys) participated in the study, as well as two teachers. Data production was carried out through participant observation; of drawings articulated with orality; of photographs produced by the children, also combined with their speeches and interviews. The analyzes suggest that triangulation, when associated with ethnographic principles, such as prolonged observation; the construction of holistic analyzes and, at the same time, focused, associated with the self-correcting and reflective dimension, makes it possible to broaden the interpretation of the data and expand the construction of meanings and possibilities for research with and on children and childhood.

Keywords : Early Childhood Education; Childhood Studies; Research methodologies with and about children; Triangulation of methods.

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