Migration is a complex and worldwide phenomenon. By 2021, Chile’s migrant population corresponded to 7.6% of the total population. Currently, the largest nationalities are representative of Venezuela (30.7%), Peru (12.5%), Haiti (11.4%), and Colombia (11.4%). There has been discrimination against migrant families from these territories not only based on their skin color, nationality, personality, culture, socioeconomic status, but also based on their parenting practices (Pavez-Soto, 2012; Tijoux-Merino, 2013). 

By 2019, 12% of children attending any Early Childhood Education Centre (ECEC) were identified as migrants. But the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to changes in attendance at ECEC, and since then migrant children exceed non-migrant attendance (Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, 2021). Exploring how EC practitioners and migrant families are experiencing this new scenario could contribute tremendously to the promotion of culturally-responsive teaching practices. Especially since considering that the National Curriculum and the ECE training in Chile are mainly based on theories from north-western countries.  

The majority of studies focused on parenting and children aim to classify parenting practices into standardised categories or to associate specific behaviours with future outcomes on children’s development and learning processes. Research from the area of Sociology of Childhood and Parenting Cultural Studies is relatively new and has contributed enormously to the exploration of migration in the school system but from only one perspective; children, teachers/headteachers, or families. Throughout my doctoral dissertation, Children and Parenting Cultural Studies have been unified since "the positions of adult/parent and child/son/daughter are mutually constituted and changed" (Vergara Del Solar et al., 2019). This research uses a relational approach (Mayall, 2002) and participant observation methodology to examine what are the views about childhood and parenting practices held by children, their migrant caregivers, and their ECE practitioners in Santiago de Chile.

Specifically, I plan to use the submission for the ECER conference to reflect on the process of proposing and implementing a research design that acknowledges and treats migrant families, especially young children, as experts. My experience as an EC practitioner a few years ago has prompted me to ask how to position myself as a researcher who does research with children instead of, continuing to do what was usual for me; researching about children. Would it be possible to carry out an ethnography if my intentions are to involve families in decision-making throughout the process? To what extent this research would be beneficial to these families and EC practitioners and not only to my doctoral research?

Participants include 4 five-to-six years old children, their migrant caregivers (4 mothers and 1 father) from Venezuela and Peru, and 2 EC practitioners from the Kindergarten classroom these families are part of. The school is located in a commune in the south of Santiago, the capital of Chile. The Participant Observation (PO) methods contributed to the development of a holistic understanding of how the families and EC practitioners from this research “make sense of their experiences and what is occurring around them” (Frey, 2018, p. 2). For four months, I visited this school from 9:00 to 12:30, focusing on the interactions between the different members of the school community, with a special focus on migrant children, their families, and EC practitioners. Apart from observing, I also did research with children at school and at home during this same period of time. This process was represented and summarised in research notebooks created by children and complemented with the perspective of their caregivers. Parallely, I visited the caregivers in their houses at least two times to share some meals together and develop in-depth interviews with the purpose to know their views on childhood and parenting experiences as migrants. I established a general direction for the conversation while ensuring flexibility for the caregivers to direct part of the conversation. During those months, I had several conversations and structured interviews with the EC practitioners about their understanding of childhood, migration, their relationship with migrant families, and diversity, among other topics. Currently, I am following a reflexive data analysis approach and a crystallization technique in order to amplify and connect participants' expertise in their experiences as children and parents (Brown, 2018). The crystallization process provides another method for achieving depth, particularly through the compilation of many details as well as the representation, organization, and analysis of the details (Ellingson, 2009) Then, the written, audio, and visual data is crystallized with the data generated by reflections of and with children.

I am currently working on the analysis and constantly reflecting on my positionality while analysing the knowledge co-created with this community. These are the expected conclusions I expect to discuss once the paper is finished: Researcher positionality: Thorne (1993) claimed that in order to address children as experts, researchers should “disrupt the common-sense adult-centered and adult–child power relations by developing and negotiating child-centered relationships with the children” (as cited in Mayeza, 2017, p. 2). Participating in the daily routine of a classroom as an adult, and considering the understanding children have of what being an adult means, implied children recognised me as an authority. Deciding which role to adopt was one of the main challenges during the research process since including children in the research process requires the researcher to constantly work toward establishing friendly and child-centered relationships with them. Children’s experiences: Migration is a dynamic and complex process (Fouron & Glick-Schiller, 2001). Young children have experienced different migration journeys that have impacted their subjectivities and identities. They recognise how their life as children has changed during these years, are aware of their fears for the future, and how their relationship with their parents and other relatives has changed, among other topics that arisen. Caregivers’ experiences: All the families from this research migrated for economic and political reasons. Although they all claimed they have not been discriminated against in Chile, their narratives tell us that they have experienced discrimination in different aspects of their life, even in parenting. They have been facing differences in terms of the language and the meals offered at the school. EC practitioners’ experiences: There are some contradictions in their practices and discourses regarding their beliefs and interactions with migrant families that will be shared in the final document.

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