Co-Researching With Children in the Time of COVID-19: Shifting the Narrative on Methodologies to Generate Knowledge

Abstract

Children and young people’s participation in decision-making has substantially increased in the last 3 decades; although, their participation in research has been more problematic due to traditional views that exclude them from the realm of knowledge generation. This article critically reflects on the way that 12 children and young people engaged as co-researchers in an intergenerational research project that explored the perspectives of children and young people during the COVID-19 outbreak. Drawing upon the experiences of these child researchers, the author discusses the methodological and ethical complexities of their engagement—which is already a disputed topic—in the context of the global health crisis characterized by lockdowns, isolation, and social distancing. The author outlines the strategic role that the child researchers had in reaching their peers and collecting relevant data, which would not have been possible without them, due to the circumstances of the pandemic. Furthermore, it is argued the need to rethink the role of children and young people as partners in research, especially in times of crises, and to embrace the epistemological position that they are able to deliver quality research results. The generation of collective knowledge is intertwined with relations, situations, and contexts, and together they influence each other, making the research project dynamic and unconceivable without the child researchers.