Partage d’une « expérience-leçon » d’une recherche de nature quantitative menée auprès d’enfants à l’éducation préscolaire : pistes de réflexion

Abstract

Research carried out with preschool children tends to confine them to the role of objects, without allowing them to really participate and express themselves about their reality. Yet children are the experts of their own experience. The aim of this reflective article is to highlight two major pitfalls arising from the quantitative research we carried out with pre-school children (4-6 years). The first is that the child participant is generally placed in the role of performer. The second builds on the first, and concerns the discrepancy between our desired outcomes, our approaches, and our research objectives. In conclusion, we argue that to do meaningful research with preschoolers, we must inevitably transcend the research process and dare to look critically and reflectively at our research practices.