Learning how to know together: using Barthes and Aristotle to turn from ‘training’ to ‘collaborative learning’ in participatory research with children and young people

Abstract

Dominant approaches to participatory research with children and young people provide ‘training’ for young researchers. In this process there is a risk of schooling out of them their unique insights on how to do research with their peers. This paper proposes an approach to critical reflection which uses the notion of reflecting on the disturbing moments of punctum (Barthes, 1980) in research practice, and uses some of Aristotle’s conceptions of knowledge to help consider the learning that is useful and exchanged in the process of conducting research. We apply this approach to critical reflection to explore a large scale collaborative research study with children and young people in England. This process of reflection reveal that children and young people can teach academics about the need for transparency around facilitation of cocreated spaces of shared learning; the value and possibilities of young-researcher-led off-script peer interviewing; how to mirror young researchers’ wisdom about when to be in silent exchange in moments of interviewing; how to embrace surviving difficult shared experiences as an opportunity to talk about difficult things; how to voice sensitive stories without exposing vulnerabilities; and how to play with data in creative analysis. We argue that this approach to critical reflection can encourage a turn away from the dominant idea of academics delivering ‘training’ in participatory research with children and young people and towards a notion of ‘collaborative learning’ in which everyone’s competences are valued.