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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Jill ClarkORCiD, Dr Karen Laing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
This chapter focuses on the learning arising from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) knowledge exchange secondment undertaken by a university researcher for a full academic year within a charity in a socio-economically deprived area of the North East of England. The charity worked alongside schools and other organisations to co-ordinate out-of-school learning activities, but there was a concern with the low levels of engagement by girls with the provision. A usual approach by the charity to finding out why the girls were not engaging with the activities provided might have involved asking the girls what provision they would like. Instead, we developed a participatory process where we – the researchers – worked with a group of young women to co-create a piece of research about their lives. As part of the process, we participated in a residential trip with them and their group leaders which provided a space – both physically and methodologically – for authentic dialogue and relationships of trust to develop. In this chapter, we outline the practical, methodological and ethical challenges (and opportunities) of engaging in this way in the context of a residential setting and conclude that this way of engaging with the girls led us to different kinds of insights that may not have been achieved with adopting more conventional research approaches.
Author(s): Clark J, Laing K
Editor(s): Jo Rose, Tim Jay, Janet Goodall, Laura Mazzoli Smith and Liz Todd
Publication type: Book Chapter
Publication status: Published
Book Title: Repositioning Out-of-School Learning: Methodological Challenges and Possibilities for Researching Learning Beyond School
Year: 2022
Pages: 61-71
Print publication date: 21/01/2022
Acceptance date: 02/09/2021
Series Title: Emerald Studies in Out-of-School Learning
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Place Published: Bingley
URL: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Repositioning-OutofSchool-LearningRepositioning-Out-of-School-Learning/?k=9781787697409
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 9781787697409
