A Key to success or a system for marginalisation of the majority?: Uses of drawings in approaching the constructs of education held by Sierra Leonean youths

Abstract

This edited collection showcases how research artefacts are embedded into and structure ethnographic collaborative research with youth. Each chapter presents a methodologically detailed reflexive discussion, alongside substantive empirical findings, on how researchers and participating youth generated, manipulated or appropriated different types of materials and artefacts as part of the research process. Each project showcases the affordances and possibilities of different research devices in collaborative work with young people across geographical and institutional contexts and situates these discussions within various theoretical traditions interested in the material dimensions of social life. The collection of studies is closed with a commentary from leading researchers in the field who highlight the importance of paying attention to the objects in use within ethnographic collaborative research to develop more socially-engaged and reflexive research with young people. The book is of interest to experienced and novel researchers across a number of disciplines (Psychology, Education, Anthropology, Sociology, Linguistics, Media Studies...) interested in youth, ethnography and collaborative research. In addition, the detailed discussion on the implementation of different participatory projects can also be relevant to professionals and community activists who work with/alongside young people.