Standing on one foot: Creative steps in research engagement (music and dance): Sharing Practices with Children & Families across Europe: child protection and the child's voice

Deciding to undertake ‘child trafficking’ research with young people directly affected by trafficking brought a number of challenges in the research process. Not least was the difficulty in this kind of research not having been done before, requiring my research to be flexible and exploratory in what might work with this group of people.

I offer reflections on fieldwork and qualitative methods in accessing and engaging young people, focusing on creative arts-based methods. Not just celebrating what works, I look at what didn’t work and changes required in the field. The use of improvised dance is reflected upon as a specific method that built trust in the research relationship, strengthened social bonding between young people and facilitated research engagement in a very difficult and sensitive subject area. Creative methods assisted with accessing and listening to children and young people’s voice about being trafficked and how they experienced frontline services.

The presentation provides the context of my research, and how creative methods were used with children and young people. The focus is on key method of improvised dance and beats, as successful for engagement, building trust, fostering openness and self-expression. The presentation makes theoretical links between art and social science, the embodiment of sharing music and dance as enriching the research process and data. Highlighted as a novel method for communicating epistemology, supporting self-assertion and creativity. Methodology also attended to ethical considerations of power and cultural issues.