Giving up the ‘Good Research Child’

Do you like apples? Do you want to plant trees? Do you love books? Qualitative research with children is peppered with vignettes of what we conceptualise as the ‘Good Research Child’. Good Research Children tell stories, plant trees, eat healthily, love reading and engage enthusiastically with researchers as co-playmates. They explore the world with drawings and oral stories and are enthusiastically portrayed by their adult researchers as unique, special and meaningful. Even when their actions are unexpected, this can provide rich material to be ‘used’. How are Good Research Children produced, what work do they do and how can we resist their pull?