This training session will take place on 21st June from 9:30am until 12:30pm on Zoom. We will introduce and discuss key principles underpinning creative, qualitative research methods, with a particular focus on research with children. The session will explore questions such as: are there methods that are intrinsically better suited to researching with children? What are the considerations when selecting and designing methods to use with children? What does ‘creative’ mean when talking about research methods? Rather than presenting ‘a method’ as a fixed tool, we will explore how to flexibly use and adapt face-to-face and online methods to suit attendees’ own research questions, context and participants. Particular attention will be paid to go-alongs, group research activities, photo-elicitation interviews, and arts-based approaches including drawing methods. Through a series of activities, attendees will be guided to explore a chosen method in more depth, including selection / justification, planning and preparation, ethics (procedural ethics and ethics in practice), data generation, analysis, writing up / representation.
The session will be of value to students at any stage of their studies, from any discipline, who are interested in increasing the visibility of children in research and including children’s voices to expand the evidence-base in the social sciences. Many aspects will also be relevant to undertaking qualitative, creative research with adults. The facilitators will draw on examples of research in UK and Tanzanian contexts. No preparatory work is required, though attendees will be provided with an optional reading list prior to the session.