Using Evidence for Advocacy and Resistance in Early Years Services ― Exploring the Pen Green Research Approach

Insightful and relevant, Using Evidence for Advocacy and Resistance in Early Years Education supports practitioners working in Early Years settings to develop the knowledge and skills required to carry out research into their own practice. Based on the renowned Pen Green approach, which advocates that co-constructed practitioner- and parent-led research leads to more effective practice and improved outcomes for all, contributors to this fascinating book explore a variety of research methodologies and techniques that have been used and developed over thirty years of provision at the Pen Green Centre for Children and Families.

The Pen Green Centre are leaders in the area of participatory research, and for many readers this book will be a primer in this new and developing approach. This practical text, which uses highly inclusive research methods, shows how providing opportunities for workers, researchers, parents, practitioners and children to co-construct the research gives it an authenticity and validity which would otherwise be lacking. Using Evidence for Advocacy and Resistance in Early Years Education will be of use to practitioners working in early years settings, researchers in early childhood education and policy-makers at all levels of local and national government.

Eddie McKinnon is a Researcher and Workforce Development Advisor at the Pen Green Research Base, UK.