Using visual methods researching with children in a primary school setting

This chapter considers the complexities of researching vulnerable groups in a primary education context. The place of ‘difference’ is addressed on three levels: the respective power differentials between researcher and ‘subject’, the nature of ‘re’presentation of children in research and the experiences of those children who are considered or who consider themselves ‘different’ in physical activity or physical education contexts. The approaches discussed focus on the self-identification and expression of children who feel limited in their ability to access these phenomena in a conventional sense. Children’s inactivity has been problematized in public and academic consciousness for a number of years and the suggestion that we need to research children’s activity is far from new. Little attention, however, has been afforded to the nature of the ‘problem’ of children’s (in)activity and engagement with physical education and activity. Of significance here is the need to explore ways of empowering children in self-representation during the research process so that a complex picture of the way physical activity and education is experienced can be adequately explored to inform practice. Specifically, it considers how children who may not appear different, might actually feel so, and the impact this has on their experiences and potential experiences