Research with children from a transdisciplinary perspective: coproduction of knowledge by walking

Abstract

Based on a transdisciplinary perspective, this contribution aims to describe the methodological issues presenting themselves when walking is deployed as a tool to coproduce knowledge in a research project conducted with children. An analysis of two projects, one in Switzerland and the other in Spain, shows the relevance of working across a number of disciplines to study the movement of children and adolescents in their living environment. These research projects use a participatory methodological device, combining the interview and walking technique (mobile interview or accompanied itineraries) as a method of analysing and understanding the experiences of young social actors by prioritising their viewpoints. We also show how adopting a transdisciplinary approach to data coproduction enables the participants to inhabit the research through their physical presence and their words.

Young children’s negotiation of language policies and multilingual curriculum at an ethnic minority elementary school in rural China

“…Grounded in 5 months of multimodal data collection from ethnographic fieldwork, this study explores the educational practices and policies at the Minzu elementary school 5 through amplifying Hoche and Han children’s voices to see how they negotiate a multilingual and multicultural curriculum as China undergoes massive shifts to capitalist practices (Day and Schneider, 2018). With this purpose in mind, this study adopted a transdisciplinary approach (Camponovo et al, 2023; Mitchell and Moore, 2018; Moulaert et al, 2011) that focuses on perspectives of the children themselves and considers the intersectional perspectives of the complexity of broader political, economic, and cultural context through a local and global lens (Bloch et al, 2018; Huaman and Martin, 2020; Nespor, 2013).…”

“…Through this role, I encouraged the children’s active participation in data co-production and created opportunities for mutual understanding between my child participants and me to facilitate the transdisciplinary approach (Mitchell and Moore, 2018; Moulaert et al, 2011). As explained by Camponovo et al (2023), this transdisciplinary approach involves children actively participating and co-producing the data while providing them space to reflect on their experiences, share valuable data, and develop a critical viewpoint. Through prioritizing and privileging children’s own knowledge constructions about the multicultural curriculum via the transdisciplinary approach, child participants were provided with inquiry-driven opportunities to rethink the new perspectives regarding their current learning experiences.…”

Estudos sobre crianças e espaços públicos urbanos a partir do Projeto CRiCity: Recomendações

“…Debruçando-se sobre temáticas inseridas numa determinada pesquisa, as pessoas têm oportunidade de mostrar sítios da sua comunidade, relacionar com as suas experiências ou dar exemplos concretos que auxiliem a interpretação da realidade, permitindo recolher dados ricos, diversificados, multissensoriais e contextualizados. Surge assim como uma mistura entre a técnica de entrevista e a observação participante explorando a relação entre sujeito e lugar e promovendo a co-produção do conhecimento (Camponovo, 2021). As "walkings interviews" são, por isso, um istrumento útil para relacionar a experiência vivida dos participantes com um contexto histórico, social e cultural específico (Heijnen, 2021).…”

“…Podemos, por exemplo, ver práticas semelhantes no projeto "Growing up in the cities", desenvolvido em meados de 1970 e revisitado nos anos noventa, com apoio da UNESCO e que visava envolver crianças e jovens em iniciativas de investigação-ação que documentassem, explorassem e transformassem as suas vidas e territórios. (Lynch & Banerjee, 1977;Chawla, 1997;Driskell, 2002) A utilização deste método em pesquisas participativas com crianças tem várias vantagens: a) é altamente motivador porque permite que estas saiam da rotina e dos espaços institucionais -como a escola ou o ATL -para atividades no exterior que, por norma, apreciam bastante; b) possibilita sair do universo da memória e da abstração, gerando debates que se situam mais no domínio do palpável e do sensível, aspeto particularmente importante nesta faixa etária; c) garante relações de poder mais equilibradas (Camponovo, 2021) e uma maior agência por parte das crianças, pois são estas que conduzem o entrevistado/a, tanto relativamente aos percursos como aos temas abordados; d) provoca uma análise e reflexão mais abrangentes, não limitadas à palavra, mas onde entram em jogo o corpo, as sensações ou as emoções.…”

Exploring the experiences of autistic pupils through creative research methods: Reflections on a participatory approach

“…This involves tracing around a person's body to create a life‐sized outline that then, through a creative and reflective process, is annotated to produce an image representing multiple aspects of their embodied experience (Jager et al, 2016). Guided tours (Camponovo et al, 2021; Stevenson & Adey, 2010) or embodied or walking interviews offer opportunities for better understanding autistic individuals' perceptions and attitudes towards or knowledge and experiences of their lived environment (Marcotte et al, 2022). Recognizing that such methods are more naturalistic than traditional experimental or even qualitative studies in psychology, our aim in this study was to trial and reflect on the possibilities that lie in drawing on different creative and participatory approaches in developmental research.…”