The workshop is organized by the Arctic Youth Research Centre at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.
Nov 13th at 3–5pm and Nov 14th at 9–12am
(On-site session)
The workshop is organized by the Arctic Youth Research Centre at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. The Arctic Youth Research Centre conducts research on how to enhance children and young people’s sense of well-being in everyday life. A sense of belonging is essential for self-worth and participation in local communities. Participation and empowerment are crucial for all young people to thrive and achieve a good quality of life. In today’s rapidly evolving academic and professional landscape, collaborative research (CoRe) has emerged as a key approach to addressing complex challenges and driving innovation. CoRe Youth focuses on involvement, empowerment, and inclusion in interdisciplinary research with children and youth.
This workshop aims to explore different methodological and theoretical approaches to CoRe Youth. The presentations addresses how to develop and design collaborative research projects with children and youth; how collaborative research with children and youth can inform and influence policy changes in Arctic regions; and how to face and embrace challenges, obstacles, and successes in conducting collaborative research with children and youth.
On Friday, the 14th, at the conclusion of our final session, we warmly invite all participants, as well as anyone interested in collaborative research with young people, to join us for a reflective panel discussion on key themes explored throughout the week.
Nov 13th at 3–5pm
Introduction to the workshop
“Doing Collaborative Research in the Arctic: Creating safe and brave spaces”
Arctic Youth Research Centre, Professor Rita Sørly, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Theme: Doing Collaborative Research; Ethics, Theory and Practice
Chair: Professor Ilse Julkunen, University of Helsinki
Presentations
Sibling support through reading groups in upper secondary schools
Sunniva Solhaug Fjelldal, UiT- The Arctic University of Norway
Aim: To promote health and well-being for siblings of children with complex care needs, while also providing health-promoting benefits for other pupils.
Background: Sibling of children with complex health care needs often experience daily life as challenging and often feel invisible in social settings. We have explored the use of fiction literature in reading groups through interdisciplinary collaboration between public health nurses, aligning with the interdisciplinary subject in pupils’ educational plans, Public Health and Life Mastery, as part of their standard Norwegian curriculum.
Method: Action research where two PHNs and five teachers from two different upper secondary schools collaborated with the research team.
Findings: School nurses are not always aware of all children and adolescents in schools who are siblings of children with complex care needs. School nurses believe that fiction can foster reflection among students and emphasize the importance of including diverse literary texts in the groups to bring out different views and perspectives. Reading groups for pupils can provide a way to reach and support these siblings in a school setting. The reading groups fostered a sense of community among pupils and respect for differing interpretations of the texts.
Conclusion: Siblings of children with complex care needs are often a forgotten and overlooked group in the school health service and the school context. However, reading groups in an educational setting, supported by interdisciplinary collaboration between public health nurses and teachers, can provide support to these siblings by fostering peer understanding and awareness without requiring personal disclosure.
Navigating ethical barriers to collaborative research with LGBTQ+ youth in Ireland: reconstructing methodological frameworks for marginalised communities
Benjamin Foley, Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities, Dublin City University
Nothing about us without us is a philosophy that increasingly underpins research conducted among young people and marginalised minorities alike. The importance of participatory methodology in youth research is well documented, and has been shown to highlight blind spots in researchers’ perspectives, increase the diversity of participant samples by decreasing selection bias and attrition, and improve the relationships between communities and researchers, allowing for invaluable long-term collaboration. In spite of these benefits, significant challenges occur for researchers in prioritising participatory research methodologies.
LGBTQ+ young people represent an especially difficult community to conduct meaningful research with in Ireland. In recent years in Ireland, the socio-political climate for the LGBTQ+ community has changed significantly, and in many contexts has deteriorated. Accordingly, it is vital that young LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of growing up and entering young adulthood in Ireland are solicited in research – however, a number of ethical considerations represent roadblocks to their effective inclusion.
Examining the particular risks faced by young LGBTQ+ people in Ireland – as well as the challenges faced during the recruitment stage of the author’s doctoral research project – this paper discusses the problematic nature of ethical and methodological frameworks for research among marginalised youth. Exploring the ways in which established research traditions uphold cisheteronormative standards that systematically exclude a community’s most vulnerable members from participation, the author calls for a participatory reconsideration of methodologies: envisioning a new and inclusive framework for youth minority research that reflects the nothing about us without us philosophy in its protective measures for participants.
Collaborative knowledge-making: affect cards in the university teaching
Kristiina Korjonen-Kuusipuro, Nuorisoalan tutkimus- ja kehittämiskeskus Juvenia, Xamk
Anna-Kaisa Kuusisto, Tampereen yliopisto
In this presentation, we examine how a sensory ethnography-based creative invention, affect cards, can be used as a methodological tool for collaborative knowledge-making about emotions, affective experiences and their cultural meanings.
Theoretically, our presentation is based on cultural affect studies (e.g. Ahmed 2004) and transformative learning theory (e.g. Taylor, Cranton and Associates 2012) that among other things stress the role of emotions in learning new skills, critical thinking and sharing ideas openly. Affective, embodied sensory information is often difficult to recognize, articulate and access. Also, affective information is often considered personal and very intimate bodily experiences, but it actually includes shared cultural meanings that often remain invisible. Thus, we argue that a collaborative approach is needed to reveal the hidden patterns, to promote inclusion and to create shared understandings.
Empirically we draw on the use of affect cards as a pedagogical intervention with young university students. With the affect cards, young people examined emotions in multispecies encounters but simultaneously the cards provided ways to think about wider societal processes, students’ own academic expertise and knowledge-making practices. We argue that the affect cards enhanced the practical skills of the young people and helped to verbalise affects and emotions. Instead of being a fixed method, the cards were more like a tool toward collaborative engagement.
Our results show that the affect cards invigorated alternative thinking and offered a creative way of co-responding with the world. Using the affect cards guided participants toward critical thinking and discussion with others about their relationship with the world. Utilizing cards during teaching broadened the affective understanding of all participants – including us researchers and encouraged us to think of how we know what we know.
References:
Ahmed, Sara (2014) Cultural Politics of Emotion. 2. Edition. Edinburgh University Press.
Taylor, Edward D. & Cranton, Patricia and Associates (2012) The Handbook of Transformative Learning. Theory, Research and Practice. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco.
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The session will conclude with a joint summary.
Nov 14th at 9.00–10.30
Theme: Co-creating research and practices with youth
The second day of the workshop will shift the focus to the innovative and applied aspects of collaborative research, showcasing a diverse range of methods and practices that engage young people in new and meaningful ways.
Chair: PhD student Sunniva Solhaug Fjelldal, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Presentations
Co-research in Freire’s footsteps
Jaana Suontausta, Tampereen yliopisto
Ana Lucia Souza de Freitas has written:” To dream is to imagine horizons of possibilities; To dream collectively is to embrace the struggle toward the building of conditions for possibility.” For me participatory research is building conditions of possibilities. With backround in social pedagogy and social work, I cannot see research merely as observing or studying the realities we live in, but also as a way to change the realities for the better.
In my ongoing PhD study, the methodology is firmly rooted in Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy and inspired by the ideas of co-research as presented in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In this research it means joint action with young adults to reflect their realities, to promote their agenda in society and to support their capabilities to societal participation in their own terms.
Our aim is to study young adults’ sense and perceptions of meaning in life while not in employment or education and reflect on how the institutions of the Finnish society have influenced their sense of meaning and sense of significance. We have conducted semi-structured participatory peer interviews and are currently analyzing the data to adduce new ideas, solutions and procedures, and also to reflect one’s own experiences considering the central themes of the study.
In the presentation I will share and discuss the experiences with young adult co-researchers in this study. I will discuss some of the challenges, successes and ethical issues faced during our wonderful co-research experiment together.
It Takes Time to Build a Village; Co-creating a Board Game to Explore Youth Welfare Services
Marius Storvik, UiT the Arctic University of Norway
In line with the conference theme “”The Time together?””, this presentation details the collaborative research (CoRe) process behind an innovative board game. The project addresses the challenge young people face in a fragmented welfare landscape and explores how “”shared time”” can be structured through game mechanics to foster systemic understanding among social work and child welfare students.
The presentation focuses on three core aspects of the project, directly addressing the workshop’s call for papers on designing and developing CoRe with youth:
First, we discuss key design choices. The game’s concept evolved from a passive model of navigating a pre-defined map to an active one where participants collaboratively build the service map themselves based on a case study. This crucial shift empowers participants, turning the game into a platform for critical analysis and exploration, rather than a search for a single correct answer.
Second, the development itself is a CoRe project, co-created in an equal partnership with youth who have lived experience and university students. We explore the methodological choices behind this process and the inherent challenges, such as balancing realism with playability and translating complex legal frameworks into intuitive game mechanics.
Finally, we address the project’s potential to inform practice and policy. By simulating system gaps and fostering critical analysis, the game equips future professionals to better understand and challenge the fragmented reality they will enter. This provides a foundation for improved interdisciplinary work and can serve as a tool to visualize systemic flaws for policymakers.
When young people take research into their own hands – co-research amidst artificial intelligence
Tuula Nygård, Oulun yliopisto
Tomas Sammalmaa, Oulun yliopisto
The AIM project (2024–2028), funded by the Kone Foundation, works with young people to explore the ways in which artificial intelligence technologies shape their everyday information practices, such as information-seeking, evaluation, and creation. Also, the construction of young people’s agency and identity are of interest. Artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly become part of our everyday lives, and we use it in various ways, both consciously and unconsciously.
This research applies a co-research approach, which is a collaborative, democratic research method. Twelve young co-researchers were recruited for the project to explore topics related to AI using the methods of their choice. This presentation illustrates the co-research method through a study conducted by one co-researcher, who investigated the role of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) in supporting learning. The data was collected through peer interviews with seven young people aged 17–20. The stimulus interviews included an activation section in which the interviewees searched for information on a topic unfamiliar to them using an AI-powered chatbot. After this, they were interviewed about GAI in supporting learning.
The results showed that the interviewees considered the use of GAI useful for learning. However, they felt that GAI alone was not sufficient to promote learning, as the answers it provided lacked illustrative examples or were superficial. Iterating improves answers, but it requires self-direction and motivation from the student, especially if teacher guidance is not available.
The co-research method enables young people to take research into their own hands. On the one hand, participation gives them a sense of self-efficacy and increases their self-confidence, but on the other hand, encountering new things can be stressful. For professional researchers, the method involves an interesting balancing act: how to provide adequate guidance while maintaining the autonomy of the co-researchers?
Keywords: co-research, generative artificial intelligence, learning, young people”
Exploring Mobilities and Agency of Children and Young Adults in the Estonian–Finnish Translocal Context
Pihla Maria Siim, University of Helsinki/University of Tartu
The aim of this presentation is to share completed work and discuss the research planned within two projects that explore the mobilities of children and young adults in the Estonian–Finnish translocal context.
The first project (2015–2019) employed the method of storycrafting to capture children’s experiences and understandings of family mobilities. Storycrafting involves inviting a child to tell a story, which the researcher writes down word by word. The text is then read aloud to the child after which the child may correct the story until s/he is content with the outcome. In this study, children aged 3–14 were asked to tell stories featuring main characters of roughly their own age who move between Estonia and Finland.
Storycrafting provides fresh insights into children’s experiences by combining the real with the imaginary. Although the method is challenging, we found it to be highly rewarding, as it enabled children to express their personal experiences and emotions through imaginative storytelling. Children’s stories and drawings were later published in a book, accompanied by conversation prompts and short excerpts from researchers’ field diaries.
The second project (2025–2028) examines young adults’ lived citizenship and societal agency. Its aim is to explore how young people (aged 18–30) can contribute to building democracy and envision their futures in a translocal context. The project employs co-creation as a method and seeks to dismantle hierarchies by actively involving young adults in research design and knowledge production. Data will be generated through interviews and co-creation workshops held in diverse settings in both Estonia and Finland. The workshops are co-designed with young adults to foster meaningful discussions and collaboration among participants, while also enabling ethnographic observation and documentation.
Funding: Kone Foundation
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Following the presentations, there will be ample time for a joint discussion and a short break.
Nov 14th at 10.30–12.00
Theme: Researching for change
The final session will focus on how collaborative research can serve as a driving force for meaningful change in professional practice and society. The presentations will explore applications in urban development, risk assessment, and the practical challenges faced in the field.
Chair: Professor Merete Saus, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Fostering Youth-Driven Futures: A Model for Collaborative Urban Research with Young People
Turkan Firinci Orman, Independent Senior Scholar, Tampere, Finland
This presentation introduces a conceptual model of youth-led urban utopias and offers a framework for workshop series that advance collaborative research (CoRe) with children and youth. Grounded in utopian theory, critical environmental pedagogies, and participatory methodologies such as Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), the model positions youth as co-researchers through a four-stage process: engaging with urban realities, unlearning systemic constraints, prefiguring alternative futures, and envisioning sustainable cities. Drawing on examples such as Montreal’s youth initiatives and Indigenous mapping projects, the presentation illustrates how young people challenge neoliberal urban barriers and foster socio-environmental change. Adaptable to Arctic urban contexts, this framework offers methodological and conceptual tools for enhancing youth participation and policy engagement. The presentation invites discussion on translating the model into Arctic youth contexts to support inclusive, collaborative research initiatives.
Enhancing Youth Engagement in Violence Risk Assessment and Management – A Qualitative Study
Laura Väätäinen
Adolescents’ engagement in psychiatric and youth welfare institutions is often limited in violence risk assessment and management. Structured tools like Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression – Youth Version (DASA-YV) are available for professionals to assess daily risk for short-term violence, but youth participation in this process remains rare. This study explored how youth could be engaged in assessing and managing their own risk and how DASA-YV could be modified to youth youth-enhanced version.
This qualitative study involved co-design workshops with adolescents (n=10) and multidisciplinary professionals (n=25) in forensic psychiatric care (n=1), adolescent psychiatric wards (n=2), and youth welfare units (n=2) in Finland. Data were collected through semi-structured group (n=6) and individual (n=2) interviews and analyzed using inductive content analysis following the COREQ framework.
Findings revealed fragmented assessment practices combining structured (e.g., DASA-YV) and unstructured methods (e.g. discussions) with inconsistent use of youth participation. Both youth and professionals emphasized the need for age-appropriate, concrete materials, visual formats, collaborative assessment practices, and digital access. Youth emphasized challenges like lack of activities and consistency in management methods. Both groups emphasized the improvements in the DASA-YV form: adding debriefing sections, own sections for youths and professionals, mobile device usability, and integration into electronic health records.
This study emphasizes how co-design promotes shifting from professional-led assessments to shared decision-making that supports youth engagement. Including youth perspectives improves the relevance and usability of tools like DASA-YV and strengthens therapeutic relationships. Findings emphasize the value of collaborative research and offer practical guidance for shaping institutional practices and policies.
Keywords: youth participation, co-design, collaborative research, violence risk assessment, violence risk management, mental health, institutional care
Embracing the challenges, obstacles, and successes of collaborative research in practice
Ilse Julkunen, University of Helsinki/Arctic Youth
Recent collaborative research studies have emphasized that relationships among research project participants are crucial to increasing our understanding of effective and meaningful practices within the complex dynamics of social work. In this paper, we present a multicase study of real-world child welfare settings which examine the experiences of professionals and clients regarding the effects of child welfare practices. The project’s design was inspired by the Real World Evidence Framework, which embraces interactive and dialogical workshops with stakeholders. This paper reflects on the challenges of conducting these workshops during turbulent welfare reorganizations and the meaning of lived experiences. In the discussion, we underscore the importance of local reflective dialogue and its impact on improving practices based on clients’ experiences. The workshops provided a platform for sharing experiences and perspectives, leading to a more holistic understanding of child welfare practices and their effects. Experiences of effects formed also a meaningful knowledge base for both clients and the professionals in the study. Although the workshops did not succeed in including the participation of service users, the clients’ lived experiences provided professionals with insight into users’ understanding and created new meaning for practices. Nevertheless, our experiences advocate for the methodological development of interactive workshops conducted in practices.
Collaborative research panel
The workshop concludes with a robust panel discussion, where we will bring together the key themes, share reflections, and look towards the future of the field.