Beyond pseudonyms: Using New-Hermetic materialism and colour theory for ethical representation

(Thanks to Rebecca Diack for the photo)

In this article, published through the Global Studies of Childhood, I explore how we represent children in Early Childhood research and question the assumption that pseudonyms are always the most ethical solution. While anonymisation is essential, assigning names or numbers can unintentionally reduce children to tidy data points. I wanted to find a way of protecting identity without flattening presence.

Drawing on New-Hermetic Materialism, I introduce colour theory as a relational alternative. In the doctoral study underpinning this paper, each child was represented by a colour. These colours were not randomly assigned, nor were they labels. They emerged slowly through observation, practitioner dialogue and reflective attunement. In many ways, it felt as though the children themselves gave birth to the colours through their gestures, energies, rhythms and ways of being in the classroom.

Colour became a way of staying close to each child’s presence without fixing their identity. Informed by psychological, symbolic and artistic traditions, as well as vibrational perspectives, colour is approached not as metaphor but as resonance. It gestures toward something felt and relational rather than something defined.

This approach sits within wider conversations about ethical representation in childhood research. It asks how we might protect anonymity while still honouring complexity. Rather than extracting voice or reducing individuality, colour offered a way of remaining responsive and ethically attentive.

The paper ultimately proposes a relational ethics of presence, encouraging researchers to move gently with children’s becoming rather than translating them into manageable categories.