This presentation explores the potential of video research in promoting children’s efficacious agency in the formal and informal contexts of childhood. Our objective is to develop and refine video research methods that recognize children as active research partners. Our hypothesis is that through this we can grasp the authentic worlds and voices of children, allowing us to better understand the conditions for children’s efficacious agency in different contexts.

The dominant framework of most educational and psychological research practices mostly views children as incompetent and research is done on them as a process of measuring and normalizing childhood (e.g. Marr, & Malone, 2007). Within this framework the agentic actions (i.e. the ability to interact with the research) of research subjects are mostly viewed as disturbances and rejected from the data. Building on a situative and socio-cultural framework on human agency (Greeno, 2006; Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998; Martin, Sugarman, Thompson, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978), we maintain that validating and making use of this aspect of participation in research is a crucial factor in building more ecologically valid educational and psychological research.

Our method draws on the work of Goldman-Segall (1998) who has shown that children can take part in video research as competent actors and stake holders. Her ‘digital video approach’ legitimates children's own ways of being in front of the camera (allowing them to express their agency), and simultaneously maintains her position as an adult doing research alongside the children. In this approach, children have not only an epistemological, but also a strong ontological position.

In addition, our method will extend the idea of “stimulating activities” by Webster-Stratton et al. (2001). By composing video material that brings together the various experiences and knowledge that have gleaned from living with others, children can construct their own interpretations and stories about their lives, telling us a more complete and valid picture about it. These digital video compositions, written annotations and “voices” of children as represented in the field notes, in addition to the researchers, form the emerging patterns that inform our theories about efficacious agency.

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