Philosophy for children (P4C), rooted in the Socratic Method and constructivist and pragmatic assumptions, is a dialogic and democratic pedagogy which teaches pupils to philosophise; to develop multi-dimensional modes of thinking through discussion of questions which connect with all human experience. Despite a wide range of research, both…

This paper describes and analyses the assessment process in a Swedish year five classroom, involving pupils aged 11 to 12 years. The paper is based on classroom observations and interviews, which were analysed to explore the assessment process in daily classroom practice, and investigates how the assessment process was understood by pupils and the…

This article considers various approaches to consulting primary pupils about mathematics. This is done first through a literature review and second by drawing on our experience of designing and piloting pupil consultation in collaboration with staff in one primary school. Our concern is with the utility and drawbacks of the methods used rather…

Research concerning children is often presented with only a brief comment on the research methods adopted. This paper takes a "behind the scenes" view and I discuss my adoption of a non-hierarchical "least adult role" adapted from Mandell's work in 1991 to undertake qualitative research in the sensitive area of children's…

Some methodological issues are discussed that arise from our comparative research conducted since the early 1990s into primary schooling in Finland and England. This research has been identified as part of a "new" comparative education that uses qualitative research strategies and which prioritises sensitivity to cultural context in data…