Protecting Youth in Research

1 or 1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course is part of a suite of elective courses offered in partnership with the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues (CGCI) (Office of the VP for Global Engagement) open to all undergraduate and graduate students. Though there is no required sequence, you may wish to take 4101, 4103, or 4103 along with 4100, to get more comprehensive preparation for engaging with children and youth globally. Most post-graduate level researchers and professionals in the social sciences, or aspiring to pursue careers in areas like international development and protection, receive basic academic training on research methods. However, few programs prepare their students into the practice of fieldwork: the process of collecting data in its natural settings to understand social dynamics, practices or environments. Furthermore, despite the aspiration of many professionals to work with specific populations like children and young people, academic and/or training programs that provide insights on the specific dynamics concerning working alongside them are scant. Moreover, training that examines the pitfalls of mainstream research and data collection methods, and their historical tendency to replicate inequalities and knowledge hierarchies –in the process silencing or dismissing the perspectives of communities or groups like youth and children—is limited. Faculty or employers often lack time to discuss field dynamics or challenges with students or incoming employees, or assume that people will simply learn how to conduct fieldwork through practice. Most troublingly, while organizations put emphasis on reducing the vulnerability of researchers in the field in compliance with their institutional guidelines, there is limited focus on how researchers unaware of fieldwork politics and dynamics may further the vulnerability of the people they seek to assist. This class seeks to address these gaps. It serves as an introduction to field research for those with limited or no prior experience conducting fieldwork, and who aim to work with young people and children. It aims to provide a critical overview of the dynamics of field research –especially on the ways it impacts groups in vulnerable situations –and effective techniques to reduce the inequalities inherent to research projects.