The tree(s) of hope and ambition: An arts-based social science informed, participatory research method to explore children's future hopes, ambitions and support in relation to COVID-19

Williams, Sara; McEwen, Lindsey Jo; Gorell Barnes, Luci; Deave, Toity; Webber, Amanda; Jones, Verity; Fogg‐Rogers, Laura; Gopinath, Deepak; Hobbs, Laura

Abstract

This paper offers a new child-centred methodology that explores children's visions of their futures, encourages self-reflection and depth and shares children's voices with peers and researchers, as unbrokered as possible. This final stage of a longitudinal, arts-based, social science-informed project was delivered by partnering with schools in socially disadvantaged areas of Bristol, a UK city. Our two-phase activity used a Tree metaphor to explore children's hopes, ambitions and support, looking forward to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis combined multi-disciplinary thematic and visual-narrative analysis, and revealed diversity, intersection and individuality in themes that scaled out from the child and their family over different timescales. Themes included emotion (concerns; empathy), experiences (happenings, resources skills; aspirations) and relationships, linked to their recent experiences of COVID-19 mitigation. The paper reflects critically on children's and researchers' positionality, and the complexities involved in developing research methods that encourage children's autonomy, agency and authenticity.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 26, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 19, 2023
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 3, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 17, 2023
• Journal: Children and Society
• Print ISSN: 0951-0605
• Electronic ISSN: 1099-0860
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1356-1375
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12767
• Keywords: Arts-based methods; children; future(s); health and well-being; hope(s); pandemic; COVID-19
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10900949
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12767
• Additional Information: A subset of consented children's artwork and associated documentation will be available from Bristol Archives at the project end (Summer 2022).