Paper short abstract:

This paper will draw upon my experience of using drawings made by children as a source of data . It will further elaborate on the role drawings can play in mediating power dynamics in the field and in the analysis of data, when used as a participatory method of data collection in childhood research.

Paper long abstract:

Researching with children, in an attempt to capture their perspective on social institutions and processes and using their own words to explicate the social relationships they are actively engaged in, offers different set of possibilities and challenges. Over the years, the changing epistemic status of children within social research has subsequently led to the usage of a range of innovative and more participatory methods of collecting and analysing empirical data (co)produced by children. In my own fieldwork with Indian diasporic children in the UK, I have used drawings activity as an effective way of engaging them in my research. Rather than analysing their drawings solely from my own (adult) perspective or using psychoanalytic techniques to tease out latent meanings, I have let the children talk about their own drawings and explain it in their own words. The conversation around the drawings produced rich and textured data that gave deep insights into their social worlds that interviews alone could not capture. I conceptualise children's drawing as an intersubjective social practice embedded in everyday contexts which evokes diverse subjective meanings that are mediated and produced with reference to social, cultural, economic and political modalities. Drawing activity additionally serves as an effective way of dealing with the power differential between the adult researcher and the child. The paper therefore interrogates the process of producing knowledge about children's life experiences using drawings made by children as an important source of data.