Postgraduate Course: Participatory Methods: Research and Practice (fusion online) (EFIE11338)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Several disciplines are now actively engaging children and young people in participatory research, yet there is still much work to be done to do this well. It can be challenging to do this in a meaningful way, especially in protectionist contexts that prioritise risk reduction.
Through this course, you will be introduced to participatory research and explore a diverse range of participatory methods being used in many forms across international settings. Through hands-on activities, and challenge focused projects, you will develop the knowledge and skills necessary for meaningfully and ethically embedding participatory methods into your professional practice. |
| Course description |
In this course you will gain knowledge of participatory research and how it can be employed within childhood and youth studies research. You will learn about the different forms that participatory research practice can take, the key theories and principles that underpin it.
Through real-world examples, guest speakers and collaborative class activities, you will explore the ethical and methodological complexities of practicing participatory research in international and local contexts. The course will include opportunities for critical reflection on the challenges and limitations of participatory research through discussions and debates. These will give focus to how best we work with children and young people who may be considered 'vulnerable' or 'marginalised', the emancipatory potential of participatory research and the ethical dilemmas it can involve.
The course will use an intensive two-day model, with preparatory and post activities. During this time, you will be introduced to the key elements required to design and deliver a participatory research project. Your assessment will involve a blog and a collaborative group project, where you will put this learning into practice by piloting your own methods and applying them to a real-life example.
This course provides an introduction to the ways in which the climate crisis has become a health emergency. The actions taken to respond to the health emergency could, if comprehensive and innovative, be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.
Students will:
a) Examine the shifting narrative of the importance of health and climate from global bodies including the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, and national governments.
b) Review the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on health including the immediate effects of adverse weather conditions such as storms, droughts, floods, cyclones, fires, heatwaves causing illness, injury and death; the ecosystem mediated effects of climate events including vector-borne diseases, water-borne diseases, mental health challenges, and malnutrition; and the socially mediated effects of these events such as increased poverty, migration, and conflict.
c) Assess the risk and vulnerability factors which make those already most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change most at risk of health challenges.
d) Understand the implications of the changing health metrics on social and economic stability.
e) Identify current co-benefits and design for new untapped co-benefits of actions which simultaneously improve health outcomes and contribute to net zero targets.
The learning experience will be characterised by co-creation and peer-teaching with students actively engaged in generating materials that inform their fellow-students. A range of learning products and inputs, including from global thought leaders, will be utilised with a supportive environment where there can be provocation, dialogue, and expansive thinking looking at old solutions for these new intersectoral challenges and new solutions delivered in different ways.
The course will make use of a range of digital learning environments, enabling students to build knowledge across discussion forums, livestreamed sessions, and other collaborative networked spaces.
This course will have broad appeal to students with both humanities and science qualifications and those interested/currently employed in careers across business (especially working in ESG) and in public health, animal and environmental health, and global governance.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed. There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 5 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 2,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 13,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
83 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by means of the following assessment components:
1) Individual Reflective Blog (20%)
Individual reflective blog on the student's initial reflection on participatory research methods.
2. Pre-recorded Group Presentation (80%)
The group presentation will outline a proposal for a participatory research project. |
| Feedback |
Feedback will be both formative and evaluative. The course itself will use a participatory approach to teaching and engagement which will enable students to gain ongoing feedback on their work. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate and work with social science participatory methods which are at, or informed by, developments at the forefront of research methodology.
- Apply knowledge, skills and understanding in participatory research methods with children and young people that are at, or informed by, leading edge developments.
- Develop original and creative responses to methodological problems and issues.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Essential Reading:
Bradbury-Jones C., Isham L., Taylor J. (2018). The complexities and contradictions in participatory research with vulnerable children and young people: A qualitative systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 215(77), 80-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.038
Cuevas-Parra, P., & Tisdall, E. K. M. (2019). Child-led research: Questioning knowledge. Social Sciences, 8(2), 44.
Garcia-Quiroga, M., & Agoglia, I. S. (2020). Too vulnerable to participate? Challenges for meaningful participation in research with children in alternative care and adoption. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1609406920958965.
Jiménez, E. (2021). Decolonising concepts of participation and protection in sensitive research with young people: Local perspectives and decolonial strategies of Palestinian research advisors. Childhood, 28(3), 346-362.
Ritterbusch, A. E., Boothby, N., Mugumya, F., Wanican, J., Bangirana, C., Nyende, N., ... & Meyer, S. R. (2020). Pushing the limits of child participation in research: Reflections from a youth-driven participatory action research (ypar) initiative in Uganda. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1609406920958962.
Vaughn, L. M., & Jacquez, F. (2020). Participatory Research Methods - Choice Points in the Research Process. Journal of Participatory Research Methods, 1(1), 13244.
Recommended Reading:
Aldridge, J. (2016) Participatory Research - Working with Vulnerable Groups in Research and Practice, Bristol University Press [look at introduction and other relevant chapter for your own research if you wish].
Bradbury-Jones, C. & Taylor, J. (2015). Engaging with children as co-researchers: challenges, counter-challenges and solutions. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 18(2) 161-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2013.86458
Chapter cover | Participatory Research: Does It Genuinely Extend the Sphere of Children's and Young People's Participation? | SpringerLink
Collins, T., Jamieson, L., Wright, L.H.V., Rizzini, I., Mayhew, A., Narang, J., Tisdall, K.M.E, & Ruiz- Casares, M. (2020). Involving Child and Youth Advisors in Academic Research about Child Participation: The Child and Youth Advisory Committees of the International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership. Special Issue: Empirical Findings on Child and Youth Participation in Developing Countries. Children and Youth Services Review, 109 (104569).
Children's participation in child protection - How do practitioners understand children's participation in practice? - Woodman - 2023 - Child & Family Social Work - Wiley Online Library
Berman, G, Hart, J., O'Mathúna, D., Mattellone, E., Potts, A., O'Kane, C., Shusterman, J., Tanner, T. & UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti (2016). What We Know about Ethical Research Involving Children in Humanitarian Settings: An overview of principles, the literature and case studies, Papers inwopa849, Innocenti Working Papers.
Dan, D., David, D., Evie, E., Ollie, O., Thomas, D. and Larkins, C. (2019), "Next steps in children and young people's research, participation and protection from the perspective of young researchers", Journal of Children's Services, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 186-193. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JCS-07-2019-0038/full/html.
Houghton, C. (2015). Young People's Perspectives on Participatory Ethics: Agency, Power and Impact in Domestic Abuse Research and Policy-Making. Child Abuse Review, 24(1) 235-248.
Kustatscher, M., Calderón, E., Tisdall, E. K. M., Evanko, W. A., & Gomez Serna, J. M. (2022). Decolonising Participatory Methods with Children and Young People in International Research Collaborations: Reflections from a Participatory Arts-Based Project with Afrocolombian and Indigenous Young People in Colombia. In Decolonising Curriculum Knowledge: International Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Approaches (pp. 15-34). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Lee, L., Currie, V., Saied, N., & Wright, L.H.V. (2020). Journey to hope, self-expression and community engagement: Youth-led Arts-Based Participatory Action Research (PAR) for Social Change. Special Issue: Empirical Findings on Child and Youth Participation in Developing Countries. Children and Youth Services Review, 109 (104581).
Nind, M. (2014). Inclusive research defined. In What is inclusive research? (pp. 1-14). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved June 5, 2023, from http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781849668149.ch-001
Child participatory research methods: Attempts to go 'deeper' (sagepub.com)
Further Reading:
Davidson, E., Wright, L.H.V., Roesch-Marsh, A. (Forthcoming).The space before, the space beyond: activism, relationships and social change in the neo-liberal academy. Children & Society.
Schubotz, D. (2019) Participatory Research, SAGE Publishing. [ebook on order from library]
Warwick-Booth, L., Bagnall, A, and Coan, S. (2021) Creating Participatory Research - Principles, Practice and Reality, Bristol University Press. [ebook on order from library]
Hall, J., Gaved, M., & Sargent, J. (2021). Participatory Research Approaches in Times of Covid-19: A Narrative Literature Review. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20, 1-15.
Nind Ph.D., M. (Academic). (2011). What is participatory research? [Video]. SAGE Research Methods.
Spencer Ph.D., G. (Academic). (2017). Grace Spencer discusses participatory research [Video]. SAGE Research Methods Video |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Critical analysis.
- Oral and written communication skills.
- Access research materials. |
| Keywords | Participatory Research,Participatory Methods,Children,Young People,Vulnerability,Ethics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Miss Emma Davidson
Tel:
Email: e.c.davidson@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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