Research paths with and about children: media, images and corporality

Abstract

By considering the relationship between media, images and corporalities in research with and about children, this article discusses some scenarios and cultural practices of contemporary childhoods from an educational perspective. It presents the theoretical-methodological foundations that have guided investigations conducted by a Brazilian research group over the past four years, in consonance with approaches present in other Brazilian and international contexts. In an understanding of research as a space for critical reflection and a pedagogical process, the investigations chosen to compose the article link the themes of media, image and corporality and focus on the rights of children, playfulness, childhood authorship and the challenges of cultural practices in the digital culture. These challenges are highlighted by the need to listen to children’s voices, silences and performances to construct participatory methodologies. It also raises the importance of deconstructing a certain reductive rhetoric present in the social debate and to give visibility to the wealth of the already considerable body of studies about image, media and corporality in childhood. Finally, the text emphasizes the role of interdisciplinary articulation among researchers who work with these themes, to strengthen research aimed at qualifying educational mediation, in light of contemporary cultural changes.