For social justice to emerge, society must re-focus on whose voices are heard. If you are a researcher who does not belong to the marginalised group you are working with, it can be challenging to ensure voices emerge in a way that recognises the complexity of lived experiences. Children are one such marginalised group, within which, intersectionality and the kaleidoscope of socio, cultural, political and economic experiences collide.

How do you ask children about sensitive issues?

Racialised experiences can be sensitive in nature, difficult to talk about and share. As researchers we need to develop and use appropriate methods that support and enable children to feel valued. We need to find ways of working that enable their voices to matter. Through the work we have been doing with 9-to-11-year-olds we have developed a body mapping activity (Gorell Barnes et al., 2024). This has been successful in beginning conversations about racialised experiences and may be equally useful in other areas of work where participants are asked to reflect on sensitive and/or controversial issues.

How do you create a body map?

Our body mapping activity is informed by Luci Gorell Barnes’s socially engaged art practice (Gorell Barnes, 2014, 2018, 2022), Freire’s (1972) concept of infusing dia-logue with love, and expands Watkins’s (2015) idea of accompaniment to embrace ideas of commonality (bell hooks, 2003).

Creating a body map involves each participant having a large (body-sized) sheet of paper, felt pens and Post-it notes. Participants (who, in our case were children) draw around each other’s bodies. These outlines do not need to be perfect but are a representation of the individual; a container through which topics and themes can be explored. Once the outline is completed, each participant works on their own body map. Our work asked children to think about their racialised experiences. We explored how experiences (external to the body) impacted the individual (internal to the body). Children were invited to move between different modes of expression – using a combination of drawing, writing and narration to explore the relationship between external and internal experiences. Some children used symbols and colours, while others used words to create their maps. Allowing participants to move between modes of expression was a way for them to maintain a sense of control in the process.

‘Allowing participants to move between modes of expression was a way for them to maintain a sense of control in the process.’

How do you start a conversation?

Once the body maps have been completed, they can be used to support participants in sharing experiences and ideas. As researchers, we could use the body maps as a piece of standalone ‘data’. However, without the participant having the opportunity to unpack and make sense of their maps in their own terms, the data can be reduced to the researcher’s assumptions.

Starting a conversation about racism and speaking out in a group can be hard. We used the body map activity as a way for young people to have a conversation with themselves, before considering what they might wish to share with a wider group. This sharing was, at points, difficult. Emotions ran high and tears were shed as memories of how the children and their families and friends with black and brown skin had and continued to be treated in their everyday worlds: at school, in the park, when out shopping, on holiday. When reflecting on witnessing these emotions in focus groups the children did not recount any upset they felt or witnessed within themselves or others as negative. Instead, there was a general acceptance among the group that this upset was to be expected and accepted. Talking and sharing racialised experiences had, for these children, allowed their worlds to be acknowledged. As one child commented:

‘I enjoyed coming and knowing that we’re going to be talking about racism … And it’s been noticed.’

Body maps can be a useful tool in the researchers’ kit, increasing ethical affordances with particular focus on the invisible, overlooked and marginalised groups with whom we work to represent.

Our research was funded by UKRI’s Emerging Minds Network.

For a step a step-by-step account of how we have developed the body-mapping method, the full BERA article can be found at https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3980 

To read more about the research participants’ views, there is a free e-book co-developed by 17 children from the project.

References

Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin Books

Gorell Barnes, L. (2014). Writing from the margins of myself. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 13,237–254. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691401300111

Gorell Barnes, L. (2018). This long river. In E. Roberts & K. Phillips (Eds.), Water, meaning and creativity: Understanding human–water relationships (pp. 36–53). Routledge.

Gorell Barnes, L. (2022). The welcome banner: Cultural exchange through creative collaboration. In J. Andrews & M. Almohammad (Eds.), Creating welcoming learning environments: Using creative arts methods in lan-guage classrooms (pp. 125–134). Multilingual Matters.

Gorell Barnes, L., Podpadec, T., Jones, V., Vafadari, J., Pawson, C., Whitehouse, S., & Richards, R. (2024) Where do you feel it most? Using body mapping to explore the lived experiences of racism with 10- and 11-year-olds. British Educational Research Journal, 50(3), 1556–1575. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3980

bell hooks. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge.

Watkins, M. (2015). Psychosocial accompaniment. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 324–341. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.103