Critical Inquiry With Children as an Unlearning Process: A South Korean Case of Critical Inquiry Centering Learning From Children

Abstract

Critical inquiries with children have been increasingly conducted in various educational settings. However, valuing children’s way of knowing while keeping inquiries critical remains an ongoing issue. This study aims to understand what can be learned about the design, conduct, and interpretation of critical inquiry from children’s engagement. I present a case of critical inquiries that I conducted with five fifth-grade migrant Joseonjok children in an after-school class in South Korea. By documenting the moments when the children’s engagement in critical inquiries raised methodological dilemmas, as well as the moments that allowed me to learn, this study provides concrete examples of how children instilled unexpected complexity into the critical inquiries and how the inquiries continued to change over time. The findings suggest critical inquiry with children can be a process of unlearning in which teachers and researchers acknowledge that what they believed they knew could be wrong and reconstruct their knowledge about children and children’s way of knowing by learning from them.

Learning How to Know Together: Using Barthes and Aristotle to Turn From ‘Training’ to ‘Collaborative Learning’ in Participatory Research with Children and Young People

“…To learn about power dynamics and place value on children and young people’s marginalised knowledges, there is benefit in dialogue with young researchers, but also the need for space for academics to step back, to journal, to engage in conversations, to write, and to look at relationships, positions and interpretations (Aldana et al, 2016; Chou 2015; Satchwell et al, 2020). As Ryu (2022) notes, there is need for academics and teachers to sit with the discomfort of not knowing how to pursue an inquiry, and to allow insight to arise from children. In this article we therefore sit back, and reflect on insight and discomfort in a study co-initiated by young people, outline the theoretical grounding that supported our critical reflection, and explore what this revealed in terms of what academics can learn from children and young people about how to ‘do’ research.…”

“…In participatory research, children and young people tend to be given training or capacity building in research practices by adult academics (Bradbury- Jones et al, 2018; Montreuil et al, 2021; Larkins et al, 2021). The assumption appears to be that academics know best how to do participatory research; but children and young people have a lot to teach academics about how to do research and critical inquiry (Moore et al, 2006; Ryu, 2022). In this article, we engage with Ryu’s (2022) suggestion that there is need for greater reflection on who is learning what from whom in participatory research with children.…”

“…The assumption appears to be that academics know best how to do participatory research; but children and young people have a lot to teach academics about how to do research and critical inquiry (Moore et al, 2006; Ryu, 2022). In this article, we engage with Ryu’s (2022) suggestion that there is need for greater reflection on who is learning what from whom in participatory research with children. We also respond to Montreuil et al’s (2021) call for greater transparency within participatory research processes, by proposing an approach to critical reflection that values everyone’s unique knowledges and retains the potential for children and young people to challenge academic orthodoxy.…”

Demystifying Participatory Analysis With Children: A South Korean Case of Migrant Children’s Engagement in Analytic Works in Participatory Research

“…While in typical contexts students are the ones whose understanding is checked and evaluated, and teachers take the role of judging and awarding points based on that understanding, the bilateral flow of information in our research helped to partially disrupt this normalized power difference. In addition, I took the position of a curious and supportive adult who wanted to learn from the students (Ryu, 2022), sharing my sincere curiosity about their views on issues of migrant belonging. Through my effort to be humble and transparent, I learned unexpected things from our group.…”