Challenges in an ethnographic research with children in Turkey

In an ethnographic fieldwork with children and families, building relationships can be demanding for ethnographers as non-family members. Through participant observation, the researchers get being actively observed by the participants as well as they observe the participants The agents therefore take part simultaneously as observers and observes. Considering this constantly inverted interactive nature of researching, reflexivity (Davies, 2015) constitutes a significant aspect of ethnography. Research in a family context with children may challenge researchers in manifold ways due to the inherent power dynamics within families. Situating themselves within such power asymmetries, the researchers may thus have difficulty in reaching out to children. Literature is abundant on connecting with particularly children, as a marked, yet a mainstream group. For instance, approaching children through a participant observational methodology (Fine and Sandstrom, 1988) may facilitate the researcher’s communication with children in many aspects. It may help reduce generational hierarchy and aid in recruiting children as co-producers of the research. Yet, collecting data in a family context that comprises of myriad intersecting social variables can be complex and be considered to remain unmarked. This paper reflects on several concerns in entering into family settings through an ethnographic fieldwork with children It builds on participant observational data from a research on children’s intra-familial privacy in Turkey, consisting of qualitative interviews (Charmaz and Belgrave, 2012) with 33 families (comprising of 11 to 13-year-old children, the parents and siblings, if any) in urban and rural neighborhoods in Eski...ehir, in addition to ethnographic revisits (Burawoy, 2009), throughout a nearly six-month period, followed with another one-month after half-a-year. A major part of sample selection was made with the guidance of middle school teachers. This ensured the participation of families from an array of socio-demographic features (SES, religious tendencies and children’s gender etc). By presenting fieldwork notes and interview excerpts, this paper touches upon the challenges encountered in key four areas: First one concerns the parental presence and intervention during the interview between the researcher-children. Parental gatekeeping was a strong obstacle to hearing children’s voices in some families. Secondly, the cultural value attributed to the age gap between the adult researcher and child participants was found to make it harder to reduce power hierarchies. Turkish culture on forms of addressing among younger and elder people (ie younger ones are expected to refer to elder women as elder sister (“abla”) etc) led to an inevitable emphasis on authority roles. Thirdly, the researcher’s negotiation of her role did not appear convincing for some families. While reaching some families via their children’s middle schools facilitated bonding with the researcher in some families, it created an adverse impression to other families about the research. Finally, as the participating family members were from heterogenous sociodemographic background, the ethnographer was challenged with adjusting her role across families throughout the revisits. Working with different families demands being in a constant reflection on the varying contexts and being mindful of the appearances, use of everyday language and gender roles. The paper employs a posthuman approach to observe the relationality amongst the agents involved in an extended fieldwork. By gazing at the network of relationships in its integrity, it draws attention to the intricate relations in power dynamics that are challenging to address in a childhood and family research conducted by an adult researcher.