Research with children from the perspective of pre-service teachers

In the present global evidence-driven view of education, practitioners are expected to carry out more and better research and, to do this well, it is important that this is initially addressed with pre-service teachers so that they begin to develop their teacher-researcher identities and acquire strategies that will improve their professional performance. Good-quality research requires good-quality data, and how to obtain these data when children are involved needs to be carefully considered, especially in a teacher education context. The aim of this article is to identify which research strategies are mostly followed by pre-service teachers in two Education degree programmes at the School of Psychology, Education and Sports Sciences Blanquerna (Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain) when collecting data for their undergraduate dissertation. This is a longitudinal and descriptive study following a mixed approach. The main findings indicate that the active participation of children in pre-service teachers’ research is quite limited and, based on this, suggestions to improve provision are made. These suggestions are based on sharing the models that promote children’s participation with the students and discussing them so that they can be applied in their personal research. The final aim of the article is to align pre-service teachers’ research practices with the educational view that acknowledges children as capable research participants.