ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the interim report of a pilot study conducted during the summer term of 1990 into children’s constructs of poetic genre. It is the research methods, devised and trialled during this pilot project which are the focal point of this chapter. It will be argued that educational researchers can influence classroom practice, not only in established ways, through the dissemination of research findings, but also, at earlier stages of the research project, through the design of research methods which are pedagogically appropriate and which are intended to be used for data collection in classrooms. However, this influence carries responsibilities on the part of researchers; an ethical responsibility to protect young informants and a responsibility to the teaching profession. We will present the range of issues that were considered in designing the research methods for the pilot project.
