Research about and with Children and Young People - Enhancing Participatory Elements

We are seeking institutes and organizations conducting research on children and young people, with an interest in enhancing future research in alignment with children's rights and the goal of advancing sustainability, by - as one possibility or the oveall goal, depending on research partners interest - enhancing participatory elements in research processes.

We are a research unit at the German Youth Institute, specializing in studies on children and adolescents—ranging from small qualitative projects to large-scale surveys and the monitoring of the quality of government-supported childcare expansion initiatives.

As it is known, participatory research is more common in research processes in countries with indigenous groups, such as New Zealand, or in countries like Great Britain, Norway, and Sweden. With this in mind, we would like to initiate a staff exchange. Additionally, there is interest in learning from the practices and experiences of other disciplines, such as health sciences.

The goal is to gain insights into research practices from other countries and disciplines to advance ideas for participatory research. It is important to note that this is not about exclusively participatory projects, but rather about exploring how greater involvement of children and adolescents can be integrated into traditional research projects, such as quantitative studies, and at what stages of the research process this involvement would be most meaningful.

Researchers who come to our institute will have the opportunity to engage in and exchange knowledge on a wide range of research projects, particularly in the areas of childhood research, youth studies, research on educational, care, and childcare institutions, as well as family studies.