The Importance of Listenning the Voices of Children From their Immediate Outdoor Environments of Their Early Childhood Centers

Abstract

In previous years, there was a common perception among researchers to include children as objects rather than subjects of the research. This perception was basically based on children’s verbal expressions of themselves, adults excessive control over children, adults desire to feel the power, the consent process to participate children into research, and lack of creative, innovative, and non-verbal communication methods. Fortunately, this perception has replaced with a new method which give children more opportunities to express themselves. Several innovative data gathering methods were added to the traditional ones or adaptation of some traditional ones including observation and interview has occurred. These innovative methods provide researchers to collect data with children rather than from children. Mosaic approach is one of the creative and innovative approaches. This approach includes observation, interview, photography, magic carpet, touring, drawing, and mapping as methods to make children actively participate into research. This review highlights the importance and benefits of children’s participation to research through participatory research methods. In particular, the researcher emphasized the necessity for conducting participatory research investigating children’s immediate outdoor environment in early childhood centers.