Re-Imagining Research Partnerships: Thinking through "Co-research" and Ethical Practice with Children and Youth

Abstract

Intentions to co-research and engage in participatory research pervade education and social science research with children and particularly research on engagement in digital spaces, with digital tools. Starting in the 1900s, there were many attempts to explicitly describe co-research methods and intentions in education but recently co-research has been used in a more taken-for granted way. Using snapshots from three research projects, I trouble my own attempts at co-research. Firstly, in a two-year ethnographic study, research positions were shifted by following the children’s lead and multimodal textmaking interests. Secondly, in an arts-informed classroom study of family photography and family stories, the ways in which the children understood the research process, and gave or withheld assent, influenced how they engaged as co-researchers. Finally, a larger comparative arts-informed study of youths’ digital practices in Hamilton is explored with an eye to how co-research evolved for the youth throughout the project. None of these projects were designed to engage with co-research in a comprehensive way. Yet, across these snapshots, a more nuanced understanding of co-research is envisioned; one that involves reflexive ethical practice and an emergent and attentive focus on consent.