Children's voices (Bateman, 2017)

Bateman, A. (2017). Hearing children’s voices through a conversation analysis approach. International Journal of Early Years Education. 25(3), 241-256. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2017.1344624

In this paper, Amanda Bateman explains how the methodology of conversation analysis allows for authentic documentation of children’s voices. Rather than theorizing children’s view of the world, ethnomethodological and conversation analytic (EMCA) research looks for how children talk in – and talk into being – interaction with the world; in other words, ‘through the transcription of everyday interactions we are able to see how voices are asserted, elicited and responded to during the co-production of everyday social organization.’ (p. 242). The collaborative endeavor of talk is illustrated in this paper (eg how the re-telling of traumatic events gives credence to the child’s experience), where the voice of the child is neither privileged nor overlooked, but integral to the co-construction of social actions.