This chapter reports on the use of ethnographic fieldwork as a method of carrying out research with children in middle childhood. The chapter explores several themes and concepts that emerge when carrying out observations and group interviews with children. Original findings on the use of these methods are drawn from an ethnographic study of the musical cultures of children which includes sets of observations and group interviews in three primary school settings and three after-school settings in the South of Ireland. The approach adopted is informed by research that considers children as active research participants and employs ethnographic fieldwork methods and a muti-method approach to carrying out research with children. This chapter proposes to examine approaches to listening to children and ethical issues of informed consent and informed assent. It documents the interactive methods that were used in the study of children’s musical cultures and highlights how these methods facilitated children to engage meaningfully in the research process with due consideration of their role within the study.
The chapter draws on methodological approaches used in the study of children’s musical cultures in the disciplines of music education and ethnomusicology. It outlines the changing role of children in research studies since the 1990s. It considers frameworks for engaging children in the research process including hart’s ladder or participation (1992) and the Mosaic Approach (2001).