Katharine Smales (UCL) - 2021-22 Students
katharine.smales.19@ucl.ac.uk

Portable Magic: Young Children, Shared Reading and Digital Technology

My PhD research explores how children aged four to eight-years-old and their families constructed digital shared reading practices at home during 2020 – 2021. The study asks how children and their families use digital technology to take part in shared reading in a variety of ways involving video calls, audio and shared reading apps in increasingly networked home environments.

This qualitative study has an emphasis on digital ethnographic methods including innovative visual methods to surface the voice of the child, as well as parents. I’m particularly interested in the ethical aspects of giving children sound information and gaining consent from children and parents to participate as co-researchers.