Developing creative research methods with challenging pupils

Abstract

This paper gives a personalised account of our attempts to develop creative participatory methods with challenging pupils within the context of ethnographic research carried out in UK inner city secondary schools. During the course of our fieldwork, we drew on a variety of innovative and arts-based activities, designed to help us build relationships with the pupils and gain an understanding of their experience from their perspectives. We discuss the ways in which the emergent methodology facilitated this process but also some of the complexities and issues that arise in relation to conducting creative participatory research.

Compliance through care and commitment: why young people do as adults ask

“…comments on 'sticky notes'). The use of participatory activities with young people has been shown to stimulate their involvement and encourage participation (Gillies & Robinson, 2012). The focus of enquiry was on understanding on what basis young people comply with directions from adults.…”

Recrutement et consentement à la recherche : réalités et défis éthiques

“…C'est pourquoi les chercheurs doivent être en mesure de bien évaluer les signes comportementaux de dissentiment (tels la passivité, le manque de coopération, le silence, l'irritabilité, les signes d'ennui, etc.) afin de les interpréter pour ce qu'ils sont, c'est-à-dire un retrait de l'assentiment (Gillies et Robinson, 2012;Graham et coll., 2013).…”

“…Plusieurs études reconnaissent la valeur de l'utilisation de méthodes originales et novatrices lors de recherches portant sur des populations négligées ou, du moins, peu étudiées, comme c'est le cas des enfants (Fernandez, 2003;Hill et coll., 2004). Selon ce point de vue, les méthodologies adaptées permettent de se distancer des termes utilisés par les adultes à l'égard des objets étudiés pour reconnaître l'enfant dans sa singularité, ses compétences et ses expériences (Gillies et Robinson, 2012). D'autres, au contraire, critiquent la mise en place de méthodologies adaptées et soutiennent que les enfants n'ont pas une vision du monde fondamentalement différente de celle des adultes qui les entourent (Samuelsson et coll., 2015;Sarcinelli, 2015).…”

Reflexive Practices for the Future of Design Education: An Exercise in Ethno-Empathy

“…To make this move, anarchist pedagogies encourage us to rethink the world we are in now, pointing towards the pedagogical importance of imagination. Similarly, we noticed that many social scientists and designers have embraced the need for allegory as a method for representing non-coherence through the research process (Law, 2004) (Kara, 2015) (Cuta, 2011;Gillies & Robinson, 2012;Woelfer, 2014;Young & Barrett, 2001) (Preece, Sharp, & Rogers, 2015). Allegory is seen as a tool through which we are able to discover, enact, and extend new, partially connected, and non-mainstream realities.…”

“…By using allegory (inventive methods book) as a mode of discovery for our different realities and experiences, we intended to challenge and escape the limits of heteronormative patriarchal categories that current ethics processes uphold. To achieve this, we structured our workshop so that it would iteratively build on methods created for and with its participants (Gillies & Robinson, 2012;Hillgren, Seravalli, & Emilson, 2011).…”