Using Creative Methods with Children - Article Example

?DEVELOPING CREATIVE METHODS WITH CHILDREN Summary For bringing in new and ground-breaking methods in social research, researchers are trying to makeuse of creative methodologies. A research has been conducted on children who are in a migratory position. A variety of approaches have been made in order to make this creative research. Both qualitative and participatory approaches have been made. The researcher has conducted this research to bring out to what level a child is affected when they are in a stage of mobility. The main focus has been stressed upon participatory method of research. As a result, researchers have increasingly come to regard more inventive and non-verbal research practices as a means of transcending traditionally adult-focused techniques and have adapted methods like the interview and survey to access and research non-adult worlds. (Robinson and Gillies, 2013, p.87) This particular research has been derived from the debates undertaken by researchers who have done extensive research on childhood, its ethics, its proper methodologies and innate authoritative nature of the relative of children. Through art based participatory activities, school children of two schools (Victoria Primary School and Shetley Primary School) between the ages of 9-10 years who are mainly Bangladeshis and studying in the London borough of Tower Hamlets were researched upon by the researcher (Mand, 2012, pp.149-150). The children at Victoria Primary School participated in the research process through participatory activities which included ranking, mapping, drawing, role play and even workshops. The Shetley Primary School also followed the same process but its participatory mode of research was a bit restricted as they did not have workshops. Evaluation The researcher has employed a variety of creative modes for carrying out his research and also its findings. ‘Participatory' research methods can be used not only to enable local people to seek their own solutions according to their priorities, but also to secure funding, to co-opt local people into the agendas of others or to justify short-cut research within a top-down process (Cornwall and Jewkes, 1995, p.1668). Weakness of the Article: The basic reason for developing participatory research method was to conduct research upon the people who were existing on the margins of the society (i.e women and elderly people) (Bergold and Thomas, 2012), but here the researcher has applied the participatory research method on children studying in London who are not at all living on the margins of the society. The participant is also expected to set up the agenda along with the researcher and also help in the final readings of the final research (French and Swain, 2004). But, in this case, the researcher has not been able to get the final help from the children on whom he had conducted his research, even though they had actively participated in the process. In participatory research process it is somewhere expected that “voices” should be present in the research process. Though the researcher had tried to input the voice in case of Shetley School but the researcher failed in his attempt as the voices got suppressed in the process which he himself felt at the time of evaluation. Though the researcher has tried to sort out the different areas of thinking and their different ideas yet he has not been able to categorize properly their issues, problems and also their solutions which are very important to any research and specially in participatory mode of research where the researcher gets a wider scope to research upon and also has the people to participate in that particular research process. The agenda of the research which is generally also decided upon by the participants in the participatory mode of research, has not been given due importance in this research process. Strength of the Article: One of the characteristics of participatory approaches lies in innovative adaptations of methods drawn from conventional research and their use in new contexts, in new ways, often by as well as with, local people. Here, the researcher has innovatively used his research method by applying non-verbal research methodologies and has also used them in his final findings of the research. The process of constructing a visual representation is in itself an analytic act revealing issues and connections that local people themselves may not have previously thought about doctors (Cornwall and Jewkes, 1995, pp.1668, 1671).. Thus the researcher has effectively used visual representation to bring out issues in children in this research process. All researchers are by definition also participants in research activities, from 'participant observer' anthropologists to epidemiologists or medical. The researcher here had actively observed and engaged himself in the research process on a “one-to-one” basis when the children were actively drawing sketches. The museum’s function had been clearly stated in the funding application wherein they would provide contacts, space and would also invite “non-traditional audiences” (i.e local Bangladeshi community). This in itself reflects that it would permit a scope to the local people a chance to communicate their grievances. THE POTENTIAL AND CHALLENGES OF RIGHTS BASED RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE: EXPERIENCES FROM BANGLADESH Summary The researcher has conducted a field research on 210 Bangladeshi people both young and elders in a rural district, Tangail, from July 2007 to March 2008. She is herself a Bangladeshi and has focused in this research paper as to how in a research, social and spatial dimensions should be given importance. The effect of inter-generational power relations on young people’s voluntary participation has been researched upon by her in this paper. The researcher has related the challenges as to how she suffered resistance when she put ethical principles into practice which were relating to young people’s right who had voluntarily participated and also to maintain their privacy and confidentiality. The researcher also ensured that the research findings on confidentiality were completely kept private and secured. The researcher took a participatory approach in this research. She has maintained that an approach should be made based on rights which will give due respect to the autonomy and competence of all young people and children will also make space to voice their issues and grievances. Rights-based research with children acknowledges their agency, not as the outcome of academic theory but rather as recognition that they are subjects of rights. (Beazley et al, 2009, p.369) The researcher has also raised doubts as to whether the UNRC can offer a universal foundation for this sort of research and also whether it is at all possible to apply practically the universal framework for researching childhood experiences in developing countries. Ethical Considerations or Implications: The researcher herself being a native had to undergo several problems during the research process which created trouble for her at some time but also helped her in her research findings. The identity of the researcher as a practitioner helped her to a great deal. People were encouraged and were able to trust the researcher and could also relate their subjective experiences and opinions. While conducting this research it is essential to understand and consider that children do not hold any kind of power in comparison to the adults and they are deeply involved in relational structures. It can be derived that the young mass of people and their competencies are so placed that they can necessarily form the shape of any research process or even their outcome. There are ethical considerations which the researcher has to keep in mind before conducting his research. Here, the researcher has well maintained her ethics as she has completely informed the people about her research so that people can voluntarily participate in the research process. In spite of “empowering” participants with correct information about the research, they were unable to understand it fully as the gatekeepers had highly influenced them. Even when the researcher went to the classroom of Class 10, she wanted to give them a voluntary choice of participation, but the teacher present there instead commanded the children. At another instance, when the researcher explained her concern on older children being taken into participation process, the field manager acting as the gatekeeper thwarted her and also spoiled her ethical considerations which she had regarded for the research process. It became difficult for the researcher to maintain her ethical considerations as there were some unequal relations in the society (between boys and girls) which she could not evade and which ultimately affected her research work. The ethical point of rights could not be well maintained as the role of gatekeepers and the children’s right to take decision always clashed with each other. The researcher followed the ideas and practices of child researchers who thought that ethics was ‘situational and responsive’. She found that ethics could not be pre-determined and had to be negotiated and contextualized as many factors during her research were conflicting and had different implications (Ahsan, 2009, p.396). All research requires ethical guidelines to protect the research subjects and guide the researchers. Participatory research attempts to break down the distinction between researcher and subjects and to build collaboration between the parties (Macaulay et al, 1998, p.105). Here the researcher has neither been able to keep up with the ethical guidelines nor have been able to break free the difference between her and the researched upon people. The people have been paying respect to the researcher due to her position instead of accepting her as a person who is also a participant and is also working in the same platform. The research themes, and the biographies and social background of the research partners, call for very intensive contact (Bergold and Thomas, 2012). References Ahsan. M. (2009), The potential and challenges of rights based research with children and young people: experiences from Bangladesh, Children’s Geographies, Vol. 7, No.4, pp.391–403 Bergold. J & S. Thomas, (2012), Participatory Research Methods: A Methodological Approach in Motion, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 13, No.1 Cornwall. A And Jewkes. R, (1995), What is Participatory Research. Social Science Med. Vol.41, No.12, pp.1668-1771 Beazely et al, (2009), The right to be properly researched: research with children in a messy, real world, Children’s Geographies, Vol. 7, No.4, p.369 French, S. and J. Swain (2004), Researching Together, In French S. and Sim J. (eds.) Physiotherapy: A psychosocial approach (3rd ed.). ButterworthHeinemann. Oxford. Mand. K, (2012) Giving children a ‘voice’: arts-based participatory research activities and representation. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. Vol.15, No.2, pp.149-162 Macaulay et al., (1998), Participatory Research with Native Community of Kahnawake Creates Innovative Code of Research Ethics, Canadian Journal Of Public Health, Vol. 89, No.2, p.105 Robinson, Y & Gillies, V (2013), Introduction: developing creative methods with children and young people, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Vol.15, No.2, p.87 Read More