ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some major paradigms found in the early childhood field. It shows that a researcher’s view of the world influences their choice of paradigm, and that their choice of paradigm effectively determines their methods and the type of knowledge they produce. The relationships between paradigm, methods and knowledge are illustrated by examples of research into relationships between children and the media. At a broader level, these relationships are applicable to any area of research into early childhood—indeed, to any area of research in general. The chapter illustrates how framing of research topic happens by showing how researchers have framed children’s relationships with the media within various paradigms, each one giving us a different view of those relationships. A structuralist approach to validity resembles a positivist approach, in that both regard knowledge as ‘out there’ waiting to be discovered. Poststructuralists seek to understand the dynamics of relationships between knowledge/meaning, power and identity.
