ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the methodological lessons learned from an international, qualitative study that explored the experiences of children under eight years of age and their families with digital technologies. The challenge was to investigate the digital engagement of young children in the home context, across countries, from a qualitative perspective and to extract policy-relevant implications. Researchers collected data on young children’s behavior and perceptions related to the use of digital technologies through interviews with 234 families in 21 countries between 2014 and 2017. The chapter focuses first on discussing the challenges that researchers faced in the data collection, that is, the issues of sampling, finding a balance between standardization and flexibility, the development and implementation of the common research protocol and tools, and ethical considerations. Then it presents the challenges in the data analysis strategies: (a) the organization of the work of the international research team, (b) representativity as an interpretive factor, and (c) and ethical issues and dilemmas. These issues are examined from a research perspective that considers children as active participants and research as a reflexive process between researchers and participants. The chapter concludes by providing methodological recommendations for future research studies in this area.
