Participatory research centres stakeholder’s priorities and perspectives, and therefore involves partnerships with children, young people, teachers, and/or other professionals in University-led research, recognising and valuing the distinct, yet complementary knowledge, expertise and experience that each bring. As a result, participatory research is more likely to meet educational, societal and/or community need, and has considerable potential to bridge the widely recognised gap between research and practice.
The new SIG aims to:
- Bring together practitioners, teacher educators, researchers and allied professionals, from different disciplinary backgrounds, who have a shared interest in understanding and improving children and young people’s literacy skills and experiences, through participatory research approaches.
- Foster new, and strengthen existing, collaborative partnerships to conduct and communicate literacy research.
- Promote, innovate and advance rigour within participatory literacy research approaches.
- Contribute to our emerging understanding of methodological challenges and ethical considerations associated with participatory research approaches, particularly within literacy research.
- Provide an inclusive context for individuals from different backgrounds and career stages to learn about and contribute towards the development of participatory research approaches.
The Participatory Approaches in Literacy Research SIG is convened by Dr Sarah McGeown, Charlotte Webber and Dr Melanie Ramdarshan-Bold, with Professor Teresa Cremin and Dr Rachael Levy as critical friends. Our members include teacher educators, researchers and individuals from different national literacy organisations.
Researchers, teacher educators, practitioners and others professionals from all career stages are very welcome to join. If you would like to learn more about the work of the SIG, or are interested in joining, please email Charlotte Webber: c.webber-1@sms.ed.ac.uk