Youth Co-research Toolkit for Researchers
A toolkit for researchers who wish to meaningfully engage young people as co-researchers to explore and solve real world problems, together.
This toolkit offers guidance, advice, tips and practical tools to support collaborative co-research partnerships between researchers and young people. The information in this toolkit mainly draws on the experiences and learnings of researchers working in the fields of social and cultural youth studies. However, you can apply the resources in diverse research settings. We hope it inspires positive, sustained change in how young people are involved in research and provides the tools needed to put ideas into action. The resources help researchers to:
- understand more about co-research and the benefits of working with young people as ‘youth researchers’
- navigate challenges, like addressing power imbalances and defining roles and responsibilities
- work with young people safely and ethically
- answer questions about payment and remuneration
- communicate with youth researchers to work together effectively.
It is a work in progress. It will be refined, refreshed and added to over time, and supplemented with resources tailored for specific groups of young people and areas of research.
How to use these resources
Start by reading the Introduction to youth co-research guide. It outlines what co-research is in theory and practice, and how it can benefit the research process, outcomes and individuals involved. From there, the Getting started with youth co-research guide gives you all you need to know about planning and preparing for co-research. The Implementation of youth co-research guide provides information, tips and advice for navigating the co-research process. Each guide contains case studies, tools and templates, tips, considerations and further resources.
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We have developed a complementary toolkit to support and guide youth researchers in the early stages of their co-research journey, with a focus on social research. That toolkit offers information, advice, training materials and practical tools to build young people’s confidence and skills as researchers. Access the youth researcher toolkit here >
Accompanying Resources
Templates
Tools
- Recommended Reading List
- Self-Assessment Tool
- Mapping Abilities and Roles Tool
- Positionality Question Cards
- Self-reflection Journal
- Conversation Starters
- Impact mapping tool
Event recording - Youth Co-research Masterclass
In 2023 we hosted three Youth Co-research Masterclasses across Sydney (Parramatta) and Melbourne (Southbank), as well as online via Zoom, to provide high-level overview of this Youth Co-research toolkit.
Attendees enjoyed:
- Presentations on the work of Y&R and CMY including background information on our collaborations, and case studies from both an academic researcher and a youth co-researcher perspective,
- Networking and Q&A opportunities through breakout discussions, collaborative activities, and lunchtime conversations, and
- Guided activities and scenarios that leverage tools from within the new toolkit including the Youth co-research readiness self-assessment tool as well as existing resources such as the Package of Thanks, Value and Remuneration guide which is taken from the Wellbeing, Health & Youth publication - Youth Engagement in Health Research Guidebook.
View the recording here:
How was this toolkit developed?
The resources in this toolkit were developed by researchers (including youth researchers) at the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth. The toolkit resources were informed by the collective learnings of:
- researchers who have worked with youth researchers in co-research projects at the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies;
- youth practitioners (Jess Case, Edmee Kenny, Willow Kellock and Soo-Lin Quek) at the Centre for Multicultural Youth; and
- young people involved in the Centre for Multicultural Youth’s Explore program. We also drew on the current literature and existing youth participation and engagement guides, including the Wellbeing Health & Youth Guidebook for Youth Engagement in Health Research.
The project team would like to thank Professor Anita Harris, Professor Amanda Tattersall, Dr Helen Berents and Varsha Yajman for sharing their experiences in interviews that shaped the case studies in this toolkit. We would also like to thank the support of Dr Pavithra Rajan, Betty Nguyen and Lilly Tatam. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Dr Kim Lam, Dr Vivian Gerrand, Maia Giordano, and Dr Ben Hanckel for providing their advice, review and feedback on the toolkit.
