Research about and with children, families, and communities

This chapter presents examples of contemporary research investigations into the contexts of children's development. Three broad approaches are described to illustrate some of the different ways that research is conceived and conducted, including large-scale longitudinal empirical research about children, families, and communities, such as the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children; ethnographic and collaborative research, with a focus on research within early childhood settings; and research that seeks to include the perspective of the child. Together, findings from these and other research studies provide insights into the complex inter-relationships between contexts that influence children's development, learning and well-being.