Introduction

Led by Professor Kate Pahl and Steve Pool, What Happens at the Edges explores ideas about oddness and difference through storytelling and filmmaking.

Kate and Steve worked with the same year group of children for over three years to understand the children’s lived experiences through co-produced research.

They drew on the idea of ‘research-creation’ from Manning and Massumi (2014) to explore the children’s work as researchers, which allowed improvisation and the unfolding of knowledge.  An ethical stance was entwined in their work with the children.

research Methods

Kate and Steve devised forms with the children that reflected their understanding of ‘research conferences’ and articles.

Once the children realised what these might be, it was possible to decide whether to say yes or no to these things.

Kate and Steve encouraged presentations at conferences to help create a shared understanding of what the practice of doing research was. This then influenced what they did with the children.

Conclusion

Kate and Steve are currently writing an article that explores the children’s films-as-research, and what they tell us about the experience of school, and of the idea of Odd.

In response to her experiences during the Odd Project and to the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’, Kate has written an opinion piece about the importance of day-dreaming, messing about and unstructured play, inspired by the children’s comments.

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