hud.ac.uk/research/education
Issue 09 November 2020
Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic In March 2020, as the UK entered lockdown, the University of Huddersfield closed its campus in order to limit the spread of Covid-19. HudCRES staff quickly adapted to working from home – modifying research projects and moving teaching and meetings online – minimising, as much as possible, the disruption to our existing work and students’ learning. Throughout this challenging time our research has continued to evolve, and new projects have been initiated, in response to the realities of life and education in a very different world.
Corona Chronicles Led by Professor Helen Lomax, with Dr Kate Smith (Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research), the CHEER research project explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the everyday lives, education and relationships of school children aged 9-11 (UK school years 5 to 6). The project is informed by participatory action research and children as researchers – its methods are inclusive, collaborative and value all voices. Children from five primary schools have been supported to visually ‘chronicle’ their experiences during the pandemic using creative media of their choosing (photographs, drawings, narrative and film). These chronicles, together with image elicitation focus-groups with children and teachers, a parent survey and children’s wellbeing selfassessment will generate new understandings of the material,
familial and personal resources available to support children’s resilience and flourishing. To find out how the team are researching remotely with children see the two-minute video produced by visual artist Belinda Walsh.
Outputs, including an illustrated guide to children’s wellbeing co-produced with children themselves, will enable the research to contribute directly to educational and societal recovery and be of value for responding to future pandemics/crises.
For updates and access to creative resources for researching remotely with children follow Professor Lomax on Twitter @LomaxHelen or attend the HudCRES online event ‘Seeing the World through Children’s Eyes: Visual Methodologies and Approaches to Research in the Early Years’ in December 2020 (see back page for details).