Stories are more than they seem. Stories can connect humans with other humans, more-than-human things, animals, places and times. And stories can disrupt dominant ways of knowing and being in the world (Ranco & Haverkamp, 2022). Re-telling stories of connection and disruption in research, this paper shares four short autoethnographic musings,…

The use of ethnographic approaches to study social settings has been steadily increasing over the last several decades. However, relatively few studies have been conducted with children, particularly in physical activity settings. This dearth of research may be due to the reported challenges of trying to 'fit in' in the world of children. This…

In this article, we recount our experiences learning from and with Latinx children of immigrants in urban schools. Highlighting how insights gleaned from our respective ethnographic projects have led us to embrace more explicit commitments to participatory engagement, we consider how young people's perspectives can and should fundamentally shift…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine critical, college-going identities and literacies of first-generation immigrant youth within a dual enrollment, youth participatory action research seminar. Design/methodology/approach: This study is a qualitative case study drawn from a larger, critical ethnographic study. Findings: Findings illustrate that…

In this article, we reflect on the role of heartache during the first 2 years of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. The project--a partnership between an LGBTQ+ community center, an art and design college, and a public research university--brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ young (18-26…

Many challenges exist to conducting participatory research and consultation with young people, especially with those considered vulnerable or at risk. Beyond respecting the safety and wellbeing of young research participants, researchers must be aware of barriers to youth engagement and be attuned to the many forms of youth resistance. As young…

Engaging with children as research informants and supporting their participation in research is increasingly recognised as valuing children's views on matters that affect them. Less attention, however, is given to the ways in which children co-construct and manage their participation in child-researcher interactions. Drawing on sociology of…

As students explore watershed ecology they also speak to elders in the community, participate in hands-on folklife experiences, and learn the techniques and skills of oral history and ethnographic field methods.

This article examines the interactions between a collective of self-described "African American," "multiracial," and "African immigrant" high school youth researchers, and two African American community elders. Drawing from a year-long critical ethnographic study of the youth research collective, the author documents…

This exploratory case study considered the opportunities for print literacy learning within multimodal ensembles that featured art, singing and digital media within the context of an intergenerational programme that brought together 13 kindergarten children (4 and 5 years) with seven elder companions. Study questions concerned how reading and…

This exploratory case study integrated digital media into an intergenerational art class. Its goals were to generate knowledge of how to bring young children and elders together to expand their opportunities for meaning-making and seeing themselves in affirming ways so as to generate transferable understanding of digitally enhanced multimodal…

This ethnographic study presents findings of the literacy practices of Burmese refugee families and their interaction with a book distribution program paired with an intergenerational family literacy program. The project was organized at the level of Bronfenbrenner's exosystem (in "Ecology of human development". Cambridge, Harvard…

This qualitative study considered how a high school in the south central United States serving predominantly immigrant students from Mexico and Central America made use of older Hispanic or Latino staff members as surrogate or stand-in grandparents (fondly called "abuelitos" by the students). The caring, intergenerational relationships…

This qualitative case study examines the affordances and constraints of an intergenerational multimodal arts curriculum that was designed to expand communication and identity options for children and elder participants. The authors drew on actor-network theory to conceptualize curriculum as a network effect and refer to literature on multimodal…

This paper presents a participatory research approach to the study of youth activism within a community development and movement-building program. It employs participatory ethnography theory and methods to explore an innovative model of social change for social justice. Building on community youth development and transformative social work…