Supporting Our Postgraduate Researchers in their Participatory Research Endeavours

By Ankita Mishra, Lauren White and Kirsty Liddiard

Participatory research strives to be an ethical, collaborative and community-engaged form of inquiry (see Guta and Voronka 2020). However, participatory research often comes into conflict with postgraduate study and the individualised doctoral process (Barry and Corcoran 2022). As active members of the Participatory Research Network (PRN) at the University of Sheffield, we became aware of the challenges faced by postgraduate researchers (PGRs) striving to embark on more participatory ways of doing research. 

To tackle this, we undertook a series of creative and participatory workshops in close collaboration with postgraduate researchers (hereby PGRs) who all, in diverse ways, had some affiliation to participatory modes of inquiry. To explore the hopes, aspirations and challenges in PGRs' doctoral research, we ran three participatory workshops with 20 PGRs, led by Ankita Misha (co-author) as a fellow PGR.

To support the philosophies and practices of participatory research with and for doctoral students, we have recently launched two animations that consolidate PGR experiences. These animations were developed in collaboration with Nifty Fox Creative. These are designed for postgraduates interested in participatory research at doctoral level and for those who institutionally support this kind of research, such as faculty directors of research, finance and copyright teams and so on. Our hope is that these too can be embedded and integrated into the research methods teaching, training and doctoral supervision for students and researchers at Sheffield and beyond. 

Our first animation works towards finding ways of enabling participatory research with and for PGRs, including those who are starting out their research journey with an interest or a commitment to participatory approaches. Our animation which explores matters such as community, time and resources can be integrated in the curriculum to critically reflect on these aspects. To watch and listen to the animation, please follow this link. 

Our second animation documents the ways in which those in research leadership, management and/or research administration positions can support PGRs in implementing participatory research. The animation covers key areas such as supervisory support, community networks and financial support. This animation takes a ‘looking up’ approach to those in positions of leadership that can positively influence research cultures with PGRs’ commitment to participatory research in mind. To watch and listen to the animation, please follow this link.

Given the collaborative and community efforts that symbolise participatory research, we show the findings and suggestions for the future in both animations via the metaphor of a community allotment. This works to demonstrate community, collaboration and nurturing our environments for growth. We invite educators, supervisors and facilitators to embed these resources to create more inclusive and participatory learning environments.

Our hope from this is that these animations, together with our accompanying co-developed resources, serve to support doctoral researcher journeys and act as information and guidance for those who work with and facilitate such endeavours. 

To find out more about this project, please visit The Participatory Research Network.

Acknowledgments: Thank you to our brilliant PGRs who made this project possible, and to Research England for the funding to undertake this work. We’d also like to thank Hannah Raine and Bryony Vince for their initial framing of this project and to Nifty Fox for their work in creating our animations.