Engaging Young People in a Research Project: The Complexities and Contributions of Using Participatory Methods With Young People in Schools

SAGE Open ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824402110684
Author(s):  
Paulo Padilla-Petry ◽  
Raquel Miño Puigcercós
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Young People ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Participatory Methods ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Youth Agency

The lack of student engagement in school has been studied from different approaches. Participatory methods are gaining acceptance and relevance in educational research because they respond to both ethical and validity concerns. Since youth engagement in participatory research should not be taken for granted and may overlap with student engagement in studies in schools, this article presents an analysis of adult researchers’ and young co-researchers’ field notes, journals, and reports of an ethnographic participatory research about learning in and outside school carried out in five secondary schools with 35 students. Findings show the different perceptions of youth engagement between young and adult researchers and how youth agency and autonomy may be more easily desired than recognized by adult researchers.

scholarly journals Imagining research together and working across divides: Arts-informed research about young people’s (post) digital lives

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412110100
Author(s):  
Diane R Collier ◽  
Mia Perry
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Creative Methods ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Complex Project ◽  
Community Spaces ◽  
Research Assistants

Research that ‘grows apart’ from its original design and proposal is not uncommon, especially when involving participatory and creative methods. However, the disconnect between research intentions and research realization is seldom probed for the insights offered; this paper addresses this gap. Taking up the conceptual lens of research imaginaries, this paper dives into the tensions and discoveries experienced in between the design and the practice of a multi-site participatory research project. The study involved two groups of young people, in two cities in two countries, with a focus on digital lives. In a commitment to collaboration with artists, senior researchers, research assistants, and young people in community spaces, a complex project emerged. This paper describes the tensions and possibilities of an emergent methodology and in doing so argues for increased attention to the movement of research designs; rather than the adherence to them.

scholarly journals Reflections on a Participatory Research Project: Young People of Refugee Background in an Arts-Based Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher C. Sonn ◽  
Michele Grossman ◽  
Angela Utomo
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Research ◽  
Creative Arts ◽  
Research Project ◽  
School Based ◽  
Arts Programs ◽  
Multiple Media

In Australia we have been engaged in community research with different groups who have been marginalised or excluded on the basis of race or ethnicity. To date, little research has been undertaken on the role of creative arts programs for refugee background young people. This article will describe a research project exploring how arts-based interventions facilitate well-being and settlement of recently arrived young people of refugee background. Specifically, the article discusses the usefulness of participatory research in evaluating a school-based arts program where refugee-background young people had the opportunity to tell their story through multiple media such as photos, individual narratives, and embodied performance (e.g., dance). Reflections and lessons on the challenges of conducting a participatory research project are also offered.

Negotiating space for queer-identifying young people in a refugee organization: viability, complexities and tensions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Churnjeet Mahn ◽  
Ej Milne ◽  
Mayra Guzman ◽  
Farhio Ahmed ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Young People ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Peace Studies ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
The United Kingdom

Abstract There is relative invisibility and silence around the presence, management and support of queer people in mainstream refugee organizations in the United Kingdom. Institutional silencing exists, particularly where visibility or acknowledgement has the potential to disrupt existing structures. At the same time, queer refugees face the risk of exclusion, and may also undertake self-censoring. Drawing on empirical data from an innovative, cross-disciplinary, community-based participatory research project between a United Kingdom-based refugee organization and two universities, this article explores the viability, complexities and tensions inherent in making queer identities visible. While highlighting the potential of arts-based methods to explore inclusive approaches to sexuality, we discuss the limits of this work and the resistance it created. This article is co-authored by members of RX—a collective of young people with refugee backgrounds; two community researchers; a humanities researcher; and a peace-studies researcher.

Engaging Adolescents in Secondary Schools

2017 ◽  
pp. 45-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Reschly ◽  
Angie J. Pohl ◽  
Sandra L. Christenson ◽  
James J. Appleton
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
School Mental Health ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Service Delivery Models ◽  
Engagement Interventions ◽  
Tiered System ◽  
Delivery Models

The chapter “Engaging Adolescents in Secondary Schools,” from the volume School Mental Health Services for Adolescents, covers the topics of student engagement, connections between engagement/disengagement and mental health, and interventions to enhance engagement. Student engagement is a construct with wide appeal to scholars and practitioners who study and work with school-age youth. Engagement interventions have the potential to enhance students’ functioning across academic, behavioral, and social-emotional domains. Tables of student engagement interventions, organized by type (academic, behavioral, cognitive, affective) and level of intensity (universal, targeted), in accordance with response-to-intervention (RTI)/multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) service-delivery models, are included, along with general implementation recommendations.

Research Using the Methods of Digital Ethnography

2022 ◽  
pp. 295-317
Author(s):  
Carlos Rodríguez-Hoyos ◽  
Adelina Calvo-Salvador ◽  
Aquilina Fueyo Gutiérrez
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Young People ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Digital Ethnography ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
Research Techniques ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Methodological Approaches

This chapter describes three research techniques used within the field of digital ethnography aimed at understanding the digital culture of adolescents from qualitative and participatory perspectives. The authors carry out a theoretical review of some of the underlying principles of digital ethnography and creative and participatory research techniques. The authors then describe three research techniques based on the following methodological approaches: the mirror method, participant field notes, and digital visual cartographies. The mirror method technique analyses how adolescents construct their subjectivity through the images they use in social networks. Participant field notes are designed to facilitate the involvement of the young people in the field notes taken by the researchers, thus breaking with their private nature and providing opportunities for enhanced reflexivity. Digital visual cartographies aim to help understand, among other issues, the spatial dimension associated with the use of digital devices by young people.

The education system, aspiration and loneliness

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Janet Batsleer ◽  
James Duggan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Education System ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Educational Mobility ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Working Class Students

The normalised pressures which the current education system places on young people, into their twenties and beyond, mean that the regular summer reporting on the exam results of particular cohorts of young people are followed by reports of an increasing incidence of mental health problems and suicidality. Beginning with young people’s discussions of aspiration during the research project,this chapter points to the fact that discussions of aspiration, achievement and failure of aspiration in educational research have not engaged with the emotional dynamic created especially for working class students leaving their families through educational mobility nor by the belief that ‘success is individual.’ The subheadings of Instrumentality and Achievement; Individualism; On (Not) Disappointing Parents and Unhappiness as Loneliness frame the discussion.

RAISE IT UP!! Youth Arts and Awareness

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Thomas-Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Literary Arts ◽  
Systemic Oppression ◽  
Creative Self

RAISE IT UP! Youth Arts and Awareness (RIU) is an organization that promotes youth engagement, expression, and empowerment through the use of performance and literary arts and social justice activism. We envision a world where youth are fully recognized, valued, and supported as artist-activists and emerging thought leaders, working to create a world that is just, intersectional, and inclusive. Two fundamental tenets shape RIU’s policies, practices, and pedagogy. The first is that creative self-expression and culture making are powerful tools for personal and social transformation. The second is that social justice is truly possible only if and when we are willing to have transparent and authentic conversations about the oppression children experience at the hands of the adults in their lives. We are committed to amplifying youth voices and leadership and building cross-generational solidarity among people of all ages, particularly those impacted by marginalization. Though RIU is focused on and driven by the youth, a large part of our work includes helping adult family members, educators, and community leaders understand the ways in which systemic oppression shapes our perceptions of and interactions with the young people in our homes, neighborhoods, institutions, and decision-making bodies.

scholarly journals Participatory Research Approaches in Times of Covid-19: A Narrative Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160940692110100
Author(s):  
Johanna Hall ◽  
Mark Gaved ◽  
Julia Sargent
Keyword(s):  
Participatory Research ◽  
Participatory Methods ◽  
Research Issue ◽  
Participatory Approaches ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Narrative Literature ◽  
Geographically Distributed ◽  
Literature Base ◽  
Narrative Literature Review ◽  
Participatory Research Methods

This review aims to collate and organize the current literature base on the use of participatory research methods within Covid-19 and pandemic contexts. Participatory approaches rely on establishing trust and rapport between researchers and participants and advocate actively involving participants in the planning, implementation and evaluation of a research issue. However, by transitioning such approaches to an online and geographically distributed context, the openness and equitability of participatory approaches may be reduced or lost. By providing an overview of current empirical and guidance literature on the use of participatory approaches within the context of Covid-19, this review not only offers a basis for how a variety of methods may be used and adapted to distanced contexts, but also explicates the challenges associated with the use of these methods and the wider methodological implications posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this review outlines the issues associated with conducting this type of research more generally, providing implications for how distance-based participatory methods may be used in wider contexts where face-to-face interaction may not be appropriate, or fieldwork may be disrupted due to logistical reasons.

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