Perry Starlight, Ali Orbit and Kim Cosmos' alien encounter: creating a picturebook as information for children and parents participating in research
| Date | 07 March 2023 |
| Pages | 1124-1146 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2022-0203 |
| Published date | 07 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Katharine Smales,Annemaree Lloyd,Samantha Rayner |
Perry Starlight, Ali Orbit and
Kim Cosmos’alien encounter:
creating a picturebook as
information for children and
parents participating in research
Katharine Smales, Annemaree Lloyd and Samantha Rayner
Department of Information Studies, University College London, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This study explored whether the creation of an illustrated picturebook could explain the terms and
practicalities of participatory, multi-method qualitative research to children aged four to eight years and their
parents/carers, creating conditionsto seek agreement to their participation, by using an age-appropriate design
whilst adhering to ethical guidelines. The purpose of this paper is to explore how this was done addressing
these issues.
Design/methodology/approach–Drawing on the researcher’s previous professional experience working in
children’s publishing and taking an innovative and collaborative approach to giving information to child and
parent/carer co-researchers, the researcher and an illustrator created a picturebook both as an eBook and a
paperback book to recruit and explain research and co-researchers’roles to young children and their parents/
carers.
Findings –The picturebook successfully recruited 30 children and their parents/carers. Other children
expressed their wish not to participate. These findings suggest that greater consideration should be given to
the ways information is given to potential research participants, particularly the visual, material and
paratextual elements of the information sheets and consent forms routinely used in research.
Originality/value –This paper offers insight into the publishing practicalities of creatinginnovative ways of
giving information about research participation to children and parents/carers and how these ways might
foster rich data collection.
Keywords Innovation, Ethics, Research methods, Informed consent, Illustration, Children (4–8 years),
Children’s agency, Co-researchers, Picture books, Picturebooks, Researcher positioning
Paper type Research paper
As adults we’ve seen so much before we tend to turn the pages of a picturebook without really
looking. Young children tend to look more carefully, so make sure you give them something to
look at ...- Anthony Browne
1. Introduction
This article explores one aspect of a Ph.D. study into shared digital reading at home,
specifically how information for that study was given to potential co-researchers aged four
to eight years and their parents/carers in the form of a picturebook created by the researcher
and an illustrator (see Figure 1). The methodology detailed here draws on the researcher’s
knowledge from their previous career in children’s publishing, working at Walker Books and
Macmillan Children’s Books for over a decade at Director level in Custom Publishing and
Communications, where creating bespoke books and disseminating information about books
JD
79,5
1124
With profound thanks to Daisy Wynter, Jamie Joseph, Andrew Flynn, Elizabeth Shepherd, Catherine
Ngwong, Mark Williams and also to the reviewers for their clarifying insights.
Funding:The creation of the picturebookwas funded by the Departmentof Information Studies,UCL.
The Ph.D. referredto throughout is funded by the AHRC LondonArts and Humanities Partnership.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 21 September 2022
Revised 6 January 2023
Accepted 13 January 2023
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 5, 2023
pp. 1124-1146
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-09-2022-0203
to young children and their parents/carers were the primary remits of these roles. The
picturebook was created, as part of the Ph.D. ethics application, as both an eBook and a
physical paperback book. Its purpose was to give information about the research, to recruit
and inform 30 children and their parents/carers as co-researchers and gain their provisional
consent.
Children and their parents/carers were considered co-researchers in this Ph.D. study, in
which they chose a digital shared reading practice to highlight for the research, created
parent-made videos and child-led sensory tours (Green, 2016) using video, as well as children
reviewing the video data with the researcher at interview, similar to methods used by Supski
and Maher (2021). Children and parents/carers were considered integral to the research in
which the reading practice was the unit of analysis, therefore involving both children and
parents/carers.
The research question which guided the information-giving aspects of this research was
as follows: How can information about the terms and practicalities of participatory multi-
method qualitative research be presented to young children and their parents/carers to foster
their understanding, creating conditions to seek agreement to their participation without
duress?
2. Problem statement
In order to widen the pool of research into the information worlds of young children from
their own perspectives and to enrich these experiences, consideration must be given to
how appropriate information is delivered to children about taking part in research.
Figure 1.
Cover of the Space
Explorers’picturebook
Picturebooks as
information for
co-researchers
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