Chapter 1. Surveying the terrain - Realising the potential of researching with young families -- Chapter 2. 'An audit on self' - Positioning ourselves for researching with young families -- Chapter 3. Interpretivism - valuing the unfolding lives and stories of young families -- Chapter 4. Knock, knock! Who's there? Opening the door to creating ethical, respectful and participatory research spaces with young families -- Chapter 5. Gathering layers of meaning in context -- Chapter 6. Considering CHE (connectivity, humanness, and empathy) - Principles for sustaining respectful, authentic and dialogical research with young families -- Chapter 7. The 'retelling' of stories through sense-making of data -- Chapter 8. Forging frontiers - reframing methodological innovation and possibilities for research with and of young families.

This book explores the distinctive theoretical and methodological features associated with conducting ethical and respectful research with young families, along with its unique considerations and challenges. With parents and young children understood to be both major players and ‘first educators’ in supporting childhood health, development and learning, this book examines how opportunities for research can be conceptualised within this privileged space. This volume embraces an interdisciplinary approach to this research, examining topics such as researcher identity and positioning, issues of consent, notions of power and relationships with families, methods for collecting data and frameworks for making sense of that data. Rather than providing concrete methods of practices and tools, this book will help raise the consciousness of researchers who are engaged in research with these young families. It is sure to appeal to students and scholars of education and early childhood development, as well as those concerned with conducting research ethically and respectfully.