ABSTRACT
In this chapter I reflect on and discuss some of the processes and issues involved in trying to gather data on the perspectives of children regarding their school lives. For illustative material the paper draws on some of my own experiences when collecting data from 9 and 11-year-old children in the middle school in which I was a full-time teacher — a position which, of course, posed particular problems as well as offering some almost unique advantages. The study was a major element of a part-time research project undertaken for a PhD. A general methodological account of the study is available (1985a) and many of the substantive findings have also been published in a book called The Social World of the Primary School, (1985b).
