Studying or finding out about children is exceptionally difficult--intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Physical, social, cognitive, and political distances between adult and the child make their relationship very different from the relationships among adults. This book explains the art and science of doing qualitative research involving children. Six themes run through the book: the importance of finding out in context; the situated nature of the research process; the centrality of social interaction; the social nature of research; the centrality of the children; and the situatedness of the methods. The chapters of the book are: (1) "The Child as Object"; (2) "Interpretive Science"; (3) "Theory as Context"; (4) "Ethics: Being Fair"; (5) "Researcher Role as Context"; (6)"Generating Data"; (7) "Constructing a Data Record"; (8) "Interpretation in Context"; and (9) "Writing as Context." The final chapter discusses issues of institutional and market constraints, and validity. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 7-9 include case studies. Contains 161 references. (HTH)