This book is a practical guide for researchers who want to engage young children in rights-based, participatory research. It presents the Narrative Approach, an original and innovative method to help children understand their participation in research. This approach moves away from traditional paper-based consent to tailor the informed consent process to the specific needs of young children. Through the Informing Story, which employs a combination of interaction, information and narrative, this method enables children to comprehend concepts through storytelling. Researchers are stepped through the development of an Informing Story so that they can deliver accurate information to young children about what their participation in research is likely to involve. To further inform practice, the book documents the implementation of the Narrative Approach in four case studies demonstrating the variety of settings in which the method can be applied.
Fiona Mayne is a lecturer and researcher in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Western Australia.
Christine Howitt is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Western Australia.