Being, Learning, Sharing, Doing: Young children co-led research praxis
Our research evolved through ethnographic and participatory approaches including relational collaborative ethnography and intergenerational auto-ethnography, alongside creative, play and art-based approaches. We have named our approach Being, Learning, Sharing, Doing young children co-led praxis (BLSD).
BLSD evolved through being, playing, learning, sharing, doing and working together with 42 families with very young children under 8 (including two of the researchers’ own families), across various locations in Scotland and Greece. We also worked with a group of 16 young children advisors. Seven young children advisors (1.5-8 years old) across Scotland and Greece [four of which were children of two of the researchers (in Scotland)] and a group of 9 young children advisors from the Children’s Network in Greece. Young children and their families were involved from the early stages of research (e.g. theme of research), to co-designing child-community-centred play cafes, and to the actual creation of a pop up play cafes and play festival experiences for young children and their communities. Young children traversed through different ages during this time; the youngest was newborn, now 19 months, and the oldest 6 years old, now 8 years old).
Feel free to experiment and play with our reflective Being Learning Sharing Doing approach by adding your own research methodological approaches.
If you are interested in evaluation processes, see below how our approach could be applied:
For further information see
