Cultivating Cross-Coastal Environmental Stewardship: Examining the Educational Possibilities and Practicalities of Child-Centered Data Generation From Afar

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Participatory Qualitative Methodologies Across Time, Space, and Context (Table 23)

Abstract

COVID-19 forced field-based researchers to reconsider data generation with children. Many paused their ethnographic studies indefinitely because engaging with children in physical spaces was unsafe. Thus, participant recruitment, retention, and distribution of educative materials to children needed reimagining. Designed as a comparative multi-sited study across three communities, we examined alternative ways to conduct place-based inquiries with children remotely. Highlighting methods used in this year-long, qualitative study, presenters will 1) compare the outcomes of two recruitment efforts: an open call for participation online and a more traditional form – inviting children from partner schools, 2) provide lessons they learned alongside child participants for creating a living archive of tri-coastal communications, and 3) forward considerations for future remote participatory research with children.

Authors

• Cassie J. Brownell, University of Toronto

• Jon M. Wargo, University of Michigan

• Kathleen Schenkel, San Diego State University