Interviewing by post…and PC: The making of child-friendly surveys from the Opies to Covid

Iona (1923-2017) and Peter Opie (1918-1982) were folklorists who undertook a national survey of school-aged children's oral culture and games in Britain in the third quarter of the 20th century. Drawing on information gathered from children themselves, the Opies’ resulting books broke new ground, showing for the first time the currency, vitality and extent of this vernacular culture, and the ways in which it was transmitted and re-created in space and time (Opie and Opie, 1959; 1969; 1985; 1997).

The extent to which the Opies centred children in their data collection was a novelty at the time. Since then, it has become widespread, certainly in the social sciences. Yet, the Opies published little about their methodology, raising questions as to how it developed as well as the nature of its subsequent impact.

The deposit of the Opies’ archival papers at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, has opened up access to their raw data, providing an opportunity to gain insights into their practices and principles as researchers. It also sheds light on the children who took part, and the role of the teachers who helped operationalise the Opies’ survey. The British Academy project ‘Childhoods and Play: The Iona and Peter Opie Archive’ exists to surface the collection and support research into children and childhoods. Through an affiliated project, the children’s survey submissions have been digitised and are gradually being made accessible online via the Iona and Peter Opie Archive website (www.opiearchive.org).

Drawing on our experience of working with these documents, we will present examples which begin to address some of the questions relating to the Opies’ research. We further draw on our recent involvement in the Play Observatory project (www.play-observatory.com) during the Covid-19 pandemic to demonstrate the inspirational value and continuing relevance of the Opies’ archival documents to contemporary research processes and digital methods. 

Julia Bishop is a research associate in the School of Education, University of Sheffield, where she researches into children’s folklore from historical and present-day perspectives. She is co-chair of the British Academy Research Project ‘Childhoods and Play: The Opie Archive’ (www.opiearchive.org) and her publications include contributions to Play Today in the Primary School Playground (2001), Children, Media and Playground Cultures (2013), Children’s Games in the New Media Age (2014), Changing Play (2014), and The Lifework and Legacy of Iona and Peter Opie (2019).

Catherine Bannister is a researcher in the School of Education at Sheffield, where she researches children's play and well-being, including digital play, and is also the co-organiser of the University’s newly established Contemporary Folklore Research Centre. Her interests include ritual and customary practices for and by children and young people, and her monograph Scouting and Guiding in Britain (2022) explores ritual's relationship to contemporary children's socialisation and group identity construction in the Scout and Guide movements.