Analysis of a university-NGO research partnership with and for children and young people in Covid-19

To gain a deeper understanding of the ways institutions work in partnership in research in times of adversity, this paper analyses what happened when people from two very different organizations, a university and a children’s charity, worked together on the VOICES research project during Covid-19. VOICES looked at how nearly 2000 children and young people in North East England were experiencing the pandemic. It was ambitious in its range of research methods (drawings, writing, focus groups and comics). We set out to co-produce all aspects of the research across the two organizations, and to find ways to work in partnership with children and young people. Universities have not always been successful in researching with NGOs as equal partners. The cross-agency University-NGO team surmounted methodological difficulties in the unprecedented social upheaval of the pandemic to talk to almost 2000 children. This paper analyses team actions and practices that enabled effective partnership despite the uncertainties. Research questions considered: 1) What team actions helped the project to go well; 2) What were difficulties in how the research team worked together? Were they overcome and if so how? Data included meeting notes and research team interviews. Analysis found a number of elements that characterized the effective ways that the team worked together including: trust building, being listened to, transparency in decision-making and creating a space together. Difficulties included recruiting schools and youth organizations during Covid-19, research team staffing problems, and adapting research methods to Covid-19 restrictions the team. Using ideas from socio-cultural historical activity theory we explore the development of common knowledge and relational agency between team members and to analyze how relational expertise enabled problem solving and expansive learning so that we had agile responses to the challenges.