‘Baby-cam’ and researching with infants: Viewer, image and (not) knowing

Abstract

This article offers a methodological reflection on how ‘baby-cam’ enhanced ethically reflective attitudes in a large-scale research project that set out to research with infants in Australian early childhood education and care settings. By juxtaposing digital images produced by two different digital-camera technologies and drawing on informal conversations with those who have viewed the images, it addresses the question: ‘What might we perceive or sense differently if we look at one filmed event through two different camera technologies, one of which is baby-cam?’ It is proposed that baby-cam-generated digital images may provide participatory researchers with a useful heuristic device in that they can remind researchers of the limits of their own ‘gaze’ and ways of knowing and theorising infants. When utilised in this way, baby-cam may assist infants to move further towards more fully claiming their ‘participant’ stance within early childhood education and care participatory research.