Street Children as Researchers: Critical Reflections on a Participatory Methodological Process in the “Growing Up on the Streets” Research Project in Africa

Abstract

This chapter explores the development of participatory research with street children and considers how to ensure that their voices are properly represented in research. Through an initial discussion of the emergence of children as active agents, the chapter explores the impact of including children more readily in research for street children. Their particular position offers a unique insight into children's lives, simply because of their more independent status, yet their position has also made it harder for researchers to access their lives. The importance of participation as a central methodological process is discussed before focusing on a new research initiative that seeks to challenge research boundaries by employing street children as researchers and experts on their own lives. The remainder of the paper introduces the Growing up on the Streets research and critically explores some of the practical and ethical challenges this process has presented. The chapter concludes by urging others to work more in partnership with young people, who may be excluded from traditional forms of research, adapting techniques to facilitate the greater involvement of street children and other marginalised young people, in expressing their views and representing themselves through their own stories in research arenas.

Learning on Harare’s streets under COVID-19 lockdown: making a story map with street youth

“… 12. See reference 6; also Growing up on the Streets (2013), Briefing Paper 1: Research Principles , StreetInvest/University of Dundee, available at https://doi.org/10.20933/100001136; Growing up on the Streets (2014), Briefing Paper 2: Methodology , StreetInvest/University of Dundee, available at https://doi.org/10.20933/100001137; and van Blerk, L, W Shand and P Shanahan (2016), “Street children researchers: critical reflections on a participatory methodological process in the Growing up on the Streets research in Africa”, in R Evans, L Holt and T Skelton (editors), Springer Handbook of Children’s Geographies , Springer Press, New York, pages 159–178. …”

‘Street citizenship’: informal processes of engaging youth as citizens through research and knowledge exchange in three African cities

“…This means they do not exist as citizens in policy: often they have no birth registration or formal identity documents. They are generally located outside systems of education and family life: the sites of citizenship learning (van Blerk, 2014). Further, positioned as marginalised and out of place (Ennew and Swart-Kruger, 2003), they face discrimination and removal from the spaces of their street/community engagement (van Blerk, 2013).…”

Assessing Assets Among Street-Connected Youth: New Angles With Participatory Methods in Tanzania

“…Participatory activities may generate direct data or be used as prompts to gather more information. Methods could include questions, prompts, concept or spatial mapping, action research, and other “tweaks” to standard methods such as having participants work in small groups (Jakobsen, 2012; Morse, 2008; van Blerk, Shand, & Shanahan, 2017). Drawings, visual techniques, and performance tasks are among the approaches used with street-connected youth.…”