부산대학교 도서관

This thesis unpicks the complexities, and rhizomatic nature, of the underpinning concepts of the trend towards Children-as-Researcher projects. The approach adopts a post-qualitative position, which evolved and emerged from the initial research design and pilot studies, and is presented in the thesis demonstrating the autoethnographic nature of the research experience. Adopting the style of a travelogue, the writing of the thesis is in itself a methodological tool that enabled/enables an exploration of the spaces between children, teachers and research to be encountered. Being in dialogue with Deleuze and Guatarri (1980) 'lines of flight', Barad (2007) 'entanglement', along with St Pierre (2014) 'becoming' and Lather (2006) 'to produce knowledge differently' provides not so much an analytical framework to give structure, rigidity, and a systematic interpretation of data, but rather permission and confidence to explore uncharted territories, to peek behind the curtain and reveal the spaces there. In doing so I consider the 'present absence' within 'empty data-sets', the significance of 'silence' in voice, and take a risk in adopting a playful approach through which to do so. My playful approach, whilst not quite the same as Watson (2015), who advocated the use of humour as an integral part of research in the social sciences, both as a tool for analysis and presentation, is simply put - fun. As such it is a different way to think about research, not to be too serious but to be enjoyed by both the researcher and the reader. This different way of thinking about research is evident throughout the thesis and can be seen visually through changes in font and print as well as through language and images, notably in the cartographic representation of my research experience. In many ways the changes in direction, reflecting the journey metaphor, can be seen in this abstract which does not completely follow the conventional summary of the research to include findings and outcomes. There are no spoilers here, except to say that the takeaways, the new knowledge, can best be summarised as presenting new spaces to be considered as a result of a blurring of methodologies in a nonconventional manner, in order to provoke and stimulate the educational research community that remains curious about Children-as-Researchers.