Abstract:

Education researchers have explored the challenges and opportunities of engaging children and young people as active contributors to research about practice. Such approaches are gaining attention as researchers argue for a view of participatory research as a political process, a collaborative form of inquiry that honours the basic right of people (including children) to have a say in forms of decision making which affect their flourishing in any way. Such views are consistent with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, which set out a clear commitment to support individuals to develop to their fullest potential in respectful, social and contemporary educational environments. More recently, educative practices that enact student voice and agency make links between education and research using co-design and participatory methodologies and recognising the value and insights that children can bring to understanding and designing learning environments.

In this paper, we report on a historical study of one such participatory methodology that emerged from the development of cultural probes. We describe and analyse how research probes have previously been used: for example, in different communities, professions, and disciplines as alternatives to traditional data collection methods; participatory research and co-design and; research with children. Using insights gained from that historical study of probes, we put forward a research design and methodology where students are creative, co-inquirers using probes as they tackle a complex challenge or opportunity. We conclude by speculating about the value of engaging children as “stakesharers” in such inquiry-led approaches to education within a transdisciplinary university-school research project on critical thinking.

Keywords:

Cultural probes, co-design, participatory methodologies, agency, inquiry-led.