Introduction

Many people express their opinions about the lives of children and young people, whether from the first-hand experience of their own families, from working with children or engaging with accounts in the media. Research with children and young people offers different possibilities for investigating the reality of childhood in different contexts from the local to the global. This course considers various reasons for carrying out such research and investigates the possible influence of our own views and experiences of childhood and youth. Different definitions of research are explored through first-hand accounts by researchers across a range of disciplines and studies, from the small-scale to international studies studying children's lives across several countries. Attention is drawn to the role of both researchers and participants, raising issues about how children and young people can be directly involved in the research process.