A1 Journal article (refereed)
Negotiating Ethics-in-Action in a Long-term Research Relationship with a Young Child (2023)

Rutanen, N., Raittila, R., Harju, K., Lucas Revilla, Y., & Hännikäinen, M. (2023). Negotiating Ethics-in-Action in a Long-term Research Relationship with a Young Child. Human Arenas, 6(2), 386-403. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-021-00216-z

JYU authors or editors

Rutanen, Niina
Raittila, Raija
Harju, Kaisa
Lucas Revilla, Yaiza
Hännikäinen, Maritta

Publication details

All authors or editors: Rutanen, Niina; Raittila, Raija; Harju, Kaisa; Lucas Revilla, Yaiza; Hännikäinen, Maritta

Journal or series: Human Arenas

ISSN: 2522-5790

eISSN: 2522-5804

Publication year: 2023

Publication date: 19/04/2021

Volume: 6

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 386-403

Publisher: Springer

Publication country: Switzerland

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-021-00216-z

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/75139

Abstract

This article continues the discussions of relational ethics put forward in Human Arenas in “Arena of Ethics” (Hilppö et al., 2019). Our aim in this article is to explore and discuss relational ethics, as ethics-in-action, in a long-term research relationship with a child. Our question is: How is ethics-in-action negotiated during critical incidents in the construction of a research space that involves a long-term research relationship with a young child? This article is based on a research project that focused on children’s transitions in early childhood education and care (ECEC). These transitions include the transition from home care to ECEC as well as transitions from child groups or settings to other ECEC groups or settings, and the transition to pre-primary education. We apply a particular lens to the corpus of data, analyzing and reflecting critical incidents vis-à-vis a negotiation of ethics-in-action during the construction of our research space, which involved a long-term research relationship with a child. Our results show that critical incidents in our study’s negotiation of ethics-in-action included (a) the focus child’s spontaneous contributions to the study’s interviews, (b) interdependencies between the child and diverse researchers, and (c) the child’s evolving expertise in data collection, which restructured our study’s research space. We conclude that ethical questions cannot be separated from the mutually constituted relationships or socio-spatial context in where they emerge; thus, they are relationally and spatially embedded.

Keywords: research ethics; children (age groups); early childhood education and care; case study

Free keywords: relational ethics; research space; early childhood education and care; transitions; qualitative case study

Fields of science: