Ruth Cheung Judge, Matej Blazek and Ceri Brown
The phrase ‘out-of-school’ inherently refers to the whereabouts of learning. This chapter thus discusses the role of place in learning itself and in its research. The idea of…
Abstract
The phrase ‘out-of-school’ inherently refers to the whereabouts of learning. This chapter thus discusses the role of place in learning itself and in its research. The idea of place does not envelop only physical locations, but rather how these integrate with social dynamics, personal meanings and attachments and with the matter of power and inequalities. Reflecting on the case studies presented in the book, the chapter focusses on two issues. First, it considers what role place plays in the constitution of different forms of learning. It questions where ‘out-of-school’ learning actually takes place (at home, in the community, in other institutionalised environments) and how these places differ in terms of relationships between children and adults as well as among children themselves, in terms of materialities and embodied activities and in terms of rules and expectations facilitating the learning process. It also considers how places like home, community and school are connected, revealing patterns of power and agency that foster and transform children's learning experiences. Second, the chapter notes that place also influences the process of researching out-of-school learning, showing that researchers' emplacement is critical for the form and scope of knowledge research can produce. Examples in the chapter show the importance of where the research activities are located, where researchers engage with their participants, how their presence sits with the pre-existing power dynamics that constitute the place itself and how the question of emplacement has both epistemological and ethical implications in research on children's learning.
Tim Jay and Karen Laing
Proponents of robust research design and methodology (particularly, although not exclusively, in more positivist-leaning epistemology) have often suggested that the role of the…
Abstract
Proponents of robust research design and methodology (particularly, although not exclusively, in more positivist-leaning epistemology) have often suggested that the role of the researcher should be as invisible, or distanced, as possible in the research process. Many of the case studies presented in this book take a more qualitative, interpretative approach, reflecting the often complex, situated, local and dynamic contexts in which out-of-school learning occurs. This raises particular challenges relating to the researcher role, especially when the researcher's presence materially changes the context and phenomena that are being researched. Some of the case studies describe the tensions and affordances of the researcher as insider/outsider and demonstrate how this role can develop and change as a project progresses and the implications this has for research practice, research quality and research governance.
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Laura Mazzoli Smith and Tim Jay
This chapter reflects on the concept of knowledge – or perhaps, more accurately, the multiple knowledges – generated in this field of study. We consider, through drawing on some…
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This chapter reflects on the concept of knowledge – or perhaps, more accurately, the multiple knowledges – generated in this field of study. We consider, through drawing on some of the examples of ways in which knowledge about out-of-school learning is constructed in the case studies, issues such as the authenticity and value of knowledges pertinent to this field, the power structures and knowledge hierarchies involved and the localised sites of such knowledge production. We conclude with some thoughts about how researchers can manage the tensions involved in making decisions about whether to try to integrate or to keep separate such multiple forms of knowledge.
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This chapter explores how the case studies were ‘messy’ research. Because we were researching in contexts with many unknowns, the research process was unpredictable. ‘Tidying up’…
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This chapter explores how the case studies were ‘messy’ research. Because we were researching in contexts with many unknowns, the research process was unpredictable. ‘Tidying up’ the research in advance and working within clearly defined parameters was not usually possible. Across the case studies, mess occurred at different points and in different ways in the research process. For some projects, the design itself was subject to uncertainty and change; sometimes what had been planned was not possible; sometimes what had been planned was not the best course of action as the project progressed; and sometimes the design itself was emergent, requiring creativity and flexibility to meet the project outcomes. Some projects faced messiness when trying to combine methods and data. Others encountered messiness when collecting data, deciding what counted as data, and interpreting data. The real-world nature of our research and our need to be responsive to dynamic and often unknown out-of-school contexts meant that our methods could not fit into the neatly structured shorthand that is often used to think about (and teach about) methods. As researchers, we were constantly dealing with fluid and changing identities, as our relationships with participants and spaces developed during the project. This also means that tidying up our research could be counter-productive. The chapter concludes that making sense of mess in research can reveal understandings that are sometimes hidden. Mess and complexity, then, is something to be held on to, celebrated and engaged with, rather than tidied away.
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Ioannis Costas Batlle, Laura Mazzoli Smith and Ruth Cheung Judge
One of the themes that cut across most of the cases is the importance of spending time forging relationships with participants in the research setting. Whilst this can be a long…
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One of the themes that cut across most of the cases is the importance of spending time forging relationships with participants in the research setting. Whilst this can be a long process which under the drivers of the current ‘neoliberal academy’ may appear to yield few tangible outputs, we argue that dedicating effort to building relationships – and being willing to take a ‘slow’ approach – is an essential methodological aspect of researching non-formal education. In this chapter, we first outline the importance of developing relationships and embracing slowness in research, illustrating how these concepts play out in Case Study 2 – Youth Sports Programmes, Case Study 6 – Geographies of Youth Work, Case Study 7 – Parents' Everyday Maths, and Case Study 9 – Theories of Change. Finally, we distil two key recommendations from the four cases: trusting relationships can lead to richer data collection, and building relationships can lead to a more ethical and caring form of research.
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Over the course of a two-year project, we set out to investigate the mathematics in children's everyday lives. We recognised the fact that this was a challenging project and that…
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Over the course of a two-year project, we set out to investigate the mathematics in children's everyday lives. We recognised the fact that this was a challenging project and that gaining access to children's personal lives would take time and some careful research design. A particular challenge centred on the difficulty of ensuring that our participants shared our understanding of ‘mathematics in everyday life’ and were happy and confident in sharing examples with us. In this chapter, we describe the way that we gradually increased the depth of our understanding of children's experience of mathematics outside of school through a series of studies with groups of primary school children. A structured diary study, and parental survey, allowed us to start a conversation with our participants about the kinds of activities we were interested in. A photo elicitation study then encouraged participants to cross the home-school boundary and share representations of their lives outside of school. These studies enabled us to develop enough of a shared language to carry out small group interviews with children and explore the mathematical thinking and learning in their out-of-school lives.