Obviously, the pandemic affected everyone differently. Our research was in a fairly culturally homogenous neighbourhood which resulted in some similarities in experiences. This extends the breadth of the similarities between these young people and their experiences. The age range of these young people range from five to fifteen years of age. Age significantly affected their ability to stick to the various subject matter that was discussed. It is important to note that our interviews included more girls than boys. Only two boys handed in consent forms and only one returned a camera. This means that our interviews represent the experiences of girls in the neighborhood more than other young persons in the neighborhood. As it pertains to our research question, the movement and freedom of children during the pandemic was and is almost directly related to the decision of their parents. This relationship was discussed in a variety of ways:
- The Bingo Board
- Some young people were engaged with the prompts found in the Bingo Board and answered them to the best of their ability. Throughout the discussion of the board, students included dialogue that was rooted in the prompt discussed, but not always directly related to its specific response.
- Visual Map
- The young people were given access to pen and paper to draw a visual depiction of their neighborhood. While some actually drew their neighborhood, many others focused on drawing a variety of other things. This included their favorite places to play, the playground that resides in the middle of the neighborhood that they live in, a nearby garden, and parts of their home. The main takeaway is clear. The freedom of these children reside most commonly within the confines of the playground and its adjacent field. It is here that these young people are most comfortable and in control.
- Pictures and Dialogue
- Upon parental approval, each young person was given access to a disposal camera to take pictures with. They were also given the Bingo Board as well to aid in prompts for picture taking, but they did not have to abide by it.
- While some did use the Board a little bit, most took the opportunity to take a picture of whatever they found most intriguing. Many pictures that were taken could be related to some of the prompts on the board, but most of this was incidental. But through the interview portion of the research study, further details about the origin and purpose of the study were communicated.
- Interview Recording
- Upon parental approval, each child was recorded to elaborate on their visual map, Bingo Board, and pictures.
- In our interviews, many children did not focus on the pandemic despite our initial assumption that the pandemic would matter to their everyday geographies and experiences. The word pandemic was familiar to some, but it was rather the shift in geographical landscape that made it clear that life was different pre and post 2020 for all young people involved. This reasoning was understood based on the framework of questions during the interview and prompts on the Bingo Board.
Being “least adult” is often advocated in research with young people as a way of minimizing the power difference between researcher and research subject (Mandell 1988). The ‘Least Adult Role’ of researchers had a very interesting role throughout this study. Given the setting of the study (usually outside next to a playground) and the age range of the young persons that participated (5-14) and the age range of the undergraduate researchers (20 – 61), the least adult role was carried out to the best of the ability of researchers. Some of us played tag, soccer, sharks and minnows with the younger subjects. Cartwheels were attempted. Others talked to young research subjects (especially those who were a little older). This affected interviews in interesting ways. Some young people defaulted to the student-teacher relationship during interviews, especially if they were young enough to be excited by school. Some young people sought inclusion in the study for the attention from their older (college age) counterparts. This meant that they were also willing to (mostly) adhere to the guidelines of the study. Others were less interested in us as adults and more interested in us as newcomers; by the time we did interviews some were only interested in playing with us, not in talking about their photos. We haven’t seen this issue mentioned in literature on “fun” methods and relationship building in research with children but it seems like an important consideration for undergraduate researchers. Dependent upon age and understanding of the pandemic, the actual results of these interviews were different. Overall, the attempt to maintain a ‘least adult role’ in research was either negated by our young research subjects or fully embraced by those who wanted to play. This in itself was one of the most interesting aspect of our research results.
The cultural aspect of the lives of these young people is an important part of their daily lives. Many are related to immigrant parents and almost all are of middle to lower income level homes. This played a huge part in their everyday experiences and the impacts of the pandemic on their familial settings. Though the subjects were young people, it was clear that many of them understood to some level the effects of the pandemic on the geographic freedom and sovereignty on both their family as a whole, but also themselves as individuals.
Limitations in Research:
With the high prevalence of Covid while this class was conducted there were limitations in the research. Research required the subjects to be children and access to schools was limited because of the reasonable request to limit the number of outside people entering schools. This created unexpected delays in starting research, which then created limited time to conduct research. When starting research there was some chaos in handing out the consent forms and cameras. The chaotic nature of the environment being after school, with lots of built up energy, as well as the language barrier with parents and guardians led to a lack of consent forms being returned. This led to a limitation of the number of subjects that researchers could interview. There was also not a set group of subjects as those who attended the after school program and came out to the playground were different everyday. Many of the same subjects did show up regularly, however there were always new subjects that made matching names to faces difficult.
Many limitations when it came to the photos taken. Many photos had people in them which researchers could not use. However, this does show more of the social experience of the subjects. The community is very tight knit and people are always around. The majority of photos also did not follow the bingo board prompts. While the photos do give researchers information about the subjects, the photos did not give the information researchers were originally looking for.
