It was again a very productive and positive experience, on both a personal as well as research level, in this second setting in a different municipality.
The manager was amazing in how she not only thought about the process with me but also thought for me as she of course knows her setting the best. I was very grateful for her active engagement from day one, when we first met in January. She for instance proofread and made suggestions for improvement regarding the information letters and forms before handing them out to parents.
Although I did not intend to jump straight into the research, the children seemed to remember me from my visit in January so I took out my camera and they learned to use it on the very first 'play day'. I ended up having hours of footage that led to short 5 films.
What I did differently this time with regards to showing the films to the children, was that I selected a few clips each day that I showed the children the following day. This worked really well. The children kept asking for the latest footage as soon as I, or they, arrived in the morning. The children seemed much more interested in watching the film clips on a daily basis than when shown the final edited version, a week or 10 days after the end of the research week.
One morning when I turned around from unpacking my gear, I had a row of four expectant 2-year-olds sitting in a row on the floor, excitedly waiting to see the next lot of clips they were in. It was so funny. There was one clip they wanted to see over and over again, a clip of them playing outside.
Interestingly, on the second day a child asked me "where am I?". I had however not yet received parental consent, so did not have any footage of this child. I spoke to Mum at pick-up time and she happily agreed and signed the consent form after getting a bit more information from me about the research. This child was so pleased to be able to then see herself playing with her friends, the following time I brought footage to the setting. But, what if Mum had not consented? I would have had a real dilemma as the child's right to have a say, and participate, would have been in conflict with Mum's right to say no. It is argued that 2-year-olds cannot give informed consent; however, one of the children told me on two occasions (when I picked up my camera) to "go away" before I even had the chance to ask if it was ok to film, very aware of what was about to happen and also aware of the right to say no. It was only towards the end of the week, when the child had seen a few clips with the other children in, and trust had been built, that I was happily given consent to film, and it is evident from the footage that the child is relaxed and comfortable being filmed. Incidentally, the child's Mother fed back to staff the day after I showed the films to parents, how happy she had been to see how her child interacted with the other children in the setting. The setting is therefore currently considering using film as a medium of communication with parents, in the future.
It was with some sadness I saw this research stage coming to an end as children, parents and staff had been such a pleasure to get to know and interact with, again a real privilege to be part of their world for this brief period of time.
