Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Blaðsíða 80

78
CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN CHILDREN’S CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION
derstood the decision to participate in the re-
search was theirs. Furthermore, consent was
treated as an ongoing process where chil-
dren could withdraw their participation at
any moment throughout the research2.
Sample
Gaining access to groups ofchildren in their
everyday lives can be difficult and therefore,
schools are frequently used when conduct-
ing research with children (Thomas and
O’Kane, 1998). Although much consump-
tion takes place out with schools, it was de-
cided that schools do, nevertheless, repre-
sent an opportunity to gather valuable data
on children and consumption. The data was
collected in one nursery and two primary
schools. This is a form ofconvenience sam-
pling, which is, according to Schensul
(1999: 233), appropriate in exploratory re-
search:
“Studies of adolescent behavior in general, for
example, could be undertaken in the high school
nearest to the researcher’s office - with the usual
cautions that such populations may not be
representative of all adolescents in a given
society”.
The study concentrates on pre-adolescent
children since these have largely been ig-
nored (Buckingham, 2000; Hill et. ai,
1996). Furthermore, it has been argued that
particularly the middle years (from four to
ten years of age) of childhood seem to have
passed unnoticed to researchers (James et.
al., 2001). Therefore, the age groups forthis
study were one group of pre-school children
(ages 3-5), one primary two/three (ages 6-
8)3 and one primary six (ages 10-11). For
the primary two/three and primary six age
groups there were two groups from each age
group. These comprised children from two
areas with different socioeconomic back-
grounds. Thus, in total the study involved
research in three settings in total (one nurs-
ery and two schools).
Sampling whilst in the field involved pur-
posive sampling. In other words, samples
were chosen to best enable the research
questions to be answered. Ethnography pro-
vides the flexibi 1 ity to utilise a range of pur-
posive sampling due to the length of time
spent in the field. Upon field entry and
throughout the fieldwork heterogeneous
samples4 were used to understand the key is-
sues in children’s cultures of consumption
(Saunders et. al., 2003).
Agar (1996) suggested adopting a funnel
approach where the ethnographer upon en-
tering the fíeld is open to learning a wide
range of issues pertaining to the research
questions. Afiter some experience in the field
the ethnographer can focus on central issues
of importance in the culture. Childhood
studies advocates this approach to avoid re-
search that is driven by adult-centred re-
search questions (Davis, 1996; Morrow and
Richards, 1996). Another factor of impor-
tance was to identify those cases that devi-
ate substantially from the average and ex-
plore these to ensure that data generated is
not confined to the mainstream of children.
Authors in childhood studies have been
criticised for ignoring the presence of adults
and their role in structuring the world of chil-
dren (Handel, 1990). Therefore, significant
others that can shed light on children’s cul-