1 Children and Youth on the Move! Students Redefining School Space and Research Methods in a Canadian Study Dr.

Diane Farmer Gail Prasad Abstract: The research presented was conducted with children and youth in two Canadian schools characterized by highly diversified and mobile student populations and was preceded by a pilot study. Using reflexive drawing (Molini, 2009; Auger, 2010) and photography as biographical approaches, students discuss and co-construct in interaction with peers, teachers and researchers, the multiple meanings associated with mobility. This paper highlights how the research design enabled students to progressively embrace their role as co-researchers and it further explores how ethnographic praxis may serve as an educational process. We approach childhood as a social structure, and children/youth as groups of influence which provide insight on societies (Mayall, 2002; James, 2007; James, Jenk & Prout, 1998; Qvortrup, 2005; de Certeau, 1990; Sirota, 2006; Corsaro; Blanger & Farmer, 2004; Davis, Watson & Cunningham-Burley, 2000): they constitute a legitimate entry point amongst many in capturing the complexities of social life. Our research uses the paradigm of new mobilities to examine how social practices are shaped by the experience of globalization and how mobility informs and is informed by social inequalities (Fass, 2007; Portes, 1999; Urry, 2000; Sheller & Urry, 2006; Klein, Ortar & Pochet, 2007). We are interested in applying such notions to childrens experience of schooling in exploring spatial, linguistic and social mobility (Thamin, 2007). The methodological framework uses a multi-site and intra-site approach (Miles & Hubermann, 2003) involving schools from different socio-economic backgrounds and research activities at school, at home and in the community. It combines class observations, arts-informed methods (Butler-Kisber, 2010; Knowles & Cole, 2008) and group discussions. Arts-informed techniques allow students to engage in research on many levels narrative, expressive, emotional, conflicting, consensual and reflexive, for example. They serve to elicit the plurality of meanings embedded in social representations (Leavy, 2009; Moore, 2006; Castellotti & Moore, 2009; Busch et al. 2006; Busch, 2010). Data was gathered in 2010 and 2011 in four classes. We have collected 65 language portraits of students and hundreds of photographs. We conducted group interviews where some 60 students elaborated on their portrait and photos. The analysis illustrates the distinct levels on which students engaged in giving voice to their experiences of spatial and linguistic mobility more specifically. By considering students entry into the ethnographic site and how the research activities unfolded in subsequent visits, it also illustrates how children and youth gradually became active participants in the research process/agenda and how our role as researchers was transformed. Finally, through this ethnographic inquiry with children, we were confronted with the need to rethink the traditional presentation and dissemination of research findings.

2 Accordingly, we co-produced multimodal identity texts with students, as part and product of the collaborative research process (Cummins, 2006; Cummins & Early, 2011). Overall, this initiative provided an opportunity to better envision ethnographic praxis as an educational process in which preconceptions (ours, the teachers and students) were challenged and where children are given space to reflect and (re)imagine themselves in their pathways of mobility. Introduction The discussion presented in this paper is part of an on-going ethnographic research project conducted with children and youth in French language schools in the province of Ontario, Canada. The project began in the Fall of 2009 and site visits are scheduled until 2012. It received funding from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (Farmer, P.I. 2009-2012). It also received funding from the University of Toronto Connaught Scholarship (Farmer, 2008-2009) and SSHRC Small Scale Grant for the initial phase of the project, which included a pilot study where arts-informed methods were explored in relation to the research question. Along with the pilot study, the project was conducted in four other classes in two schools thus far. Two additional schools are scheduled to participate in the study. The research uses the paradigm of new mobilities to examine how social practices are shaped by the experience of globalization and how mobility informs and is informed by social inequalities. We are interested in applying such notions to children and youths experience of schooling in exploring spatial, linguistic and social mobility. More specifically, we are asking how do students make sense of their diverse pathways at the heart of an expanding culture of mobility? How is mobility being transformed into a capital, and more broadly, into imagined sets of possibilities embodied into ones habitus? We approach childhood as a social structure, and children/youth as groups of influence, which provide insight on societies (Mayall, 2002; James, 2007; James, Jenk & Prout, 1998; Qvortrup, 2005; de Certeau, 1990; Sirota, 2006; Corsaro, 1999; Blanger & Farmer, 2004; Davis, Watson & Cunningham-Burley, 2000): they constitute a legitimate entry point amongst many in capturing the complexities of social life. The research presented was conducted with children and youth in schools characterized by highly diversified and mobile student populations. Using reflexive drawing (Molini, 2009; Auger, 2010) and photography as biographical approaches, students discuss and co-construct in interaction with peers, teachers and researchers, the multiple meanings associated with mobility. This paper highlights how the research design enabled students to progressively embrace their role as co-researchers and it further explores how ethnographic praxis may serve as an educational process. We will start by presenting the key concepts and recent developments in the literature supporting arts-informed methods in ethnography, and in particular the use of language portraits and photography. We will elaborate on how these tools were further adapted and refined in the context of our study. We then briefly present the data gathered in this investigation and illustrate through discussion and interpretation of salient research findings how children and youth participating in this project took ownership of the research and engaged on many levels. Overall, this initiative provided an opportunity to better envision ethnographic praxis as

3 an educational process in which preconceptions (ours, the teachers and students) were challenged. This constitutes the last section of our analysis. Adopting alter(n)ative arts-informed methods to engage children and youth as coresearchers This study incorporated traditional ethnographic techniques including prolonged observation, individual interviews and small group, the study of documents, as well as alter(n)ative arts-informed research methods including drawing and photography. Inspired by the new social studies of childhood, we sought to engage with children and youth in research about their own experiences of mobility rather than to conduct research about children and youth. (Albanese, 2009; Blanger & Farmer, 2004; Christensen & James, 2008; Freeman & Mathison, 2009) The term alter(n)ative is purposefully constructed to highlight simultaneously how the inclusion of artistic techniques provide an alternative but legitimate way of building knowledge through non-traditional modes of expression and respresentation, as well as, the alter-ative, empowering interactions produced as participants engage creatively and reflexively in the co-construction of knowledge and meaning through the research process. (Prasad, 2009) Artistic techniques scaffold the participation of children and youth in research as their ability to contribute is not contingent on their school language proficiency: il leur permet de sexprimer sur un mode quils matrisent au moins aussi bien (souvent mieux, mme) que leurs interlocuteurs et qui leur attribue demble une voix dautorit et un statut lgitime. Ils sont, en effet, en position dauteurs, qui se rapproprient leur dessin et vont proposer des cls pour en construire, en interaction, une interprtation (Castoletti & Moore, 2009, p. 45-46). [English gloss: It allows them to express themselves in a mode in which they are as competent and often even more than adults and that offers them voices of authority and legitimacy. They are positioned as authors who appropriate their drawing and provide insights in interaction on how they make sense of their work.] Auger (2010) further advocates for the inclusion of a broad range of artistic practices in research, particularly with culturally and linguistically diverse students: Elles [les approches cratives] favorisent la subjectivit de llve (donc la prise en charge de ses apprentissages), la motivation, la co-construction des connaissances tout en valorisant les connaissances antrieures (sur les expriences langagires et culturelles). La perspective culturelle permet, de plus, de faire interagir dans des rapports complexes le corps, la parole, les textes, au gr des langues et des pratiques des lves. (p. 113) [English gloss: Creative approaches encourage the subjectivity of students (the ownership of the learning process), motivation, co-construction of knowledge while building on prior knowledge (on linguistic and cultural experiences). A cultural perspective incorporates the interaction of the body, speech, writing, while acknowledging students diverse languages and practices. ] Our focus in this section is on our use of two arts-informed techniques to provide insight into students mobilities: first, participants creation of cultural and linguistic self-portraits as a portal to understanding students life trajectories; and

4 second, students use of digital photography to document their mobilities in their daily lives and life stories. Cultural and Linguistic Self-portraits We had originally been introduced to the concept of language portraits based on the work of Brigitta Busch (2006) with teachers in South Africa through the Project for Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA). As a way of unpacking their language biographies, Busch (2006) asked teachers to map their language experiences onto a body silhouette using a different colour for each language. Participants made an association between their relationship to a language and a part of their body and the body-language metaphors facilitated the sharing of rich language biographies. From the field of visual sociology, Gauntlet and Holwarth (2006) elaborate that visual creative methods challenge the traditional notion that the social world can be explored fully through language. Visual creative methods such as creating self-portraits function as an enabling methodology -- it assumes that people have something interesting to communicate and that they can so do creatively... by inviting participants to create things as part of the research process, its a different way into a research question... and engages the brain in a different way (p. 84). For this inquiry, we sought to extend Buschs (2006, 2010) body template language portrayals by developing an arts-informed self-portrait form that would allow students to express more creatively their individuality and that would allow students in situ to represent their own perspectives and beliefs in expressive media. Knowles and Cole (2008) explain that arts-informed research is influenced by the arts while not being based in the arts. That is, arts-informed methodologies draw on processes and forms of literary, visual and performing arts to deepen academic inquiry and advance knowledge. (ButlerKisber, 2010; Knowles & Cole, 2008, Leavy, 2009) Our design for individualized artsinformed linguistic self-portraits was to engage participants reflexively in creating identity texts that would reveal students life trajectories through their cultural and linguistic identifications. Cummins (2006) has defined identity texts as creative works carried out within the pedagogical space of the classroom that when held up function as mirrors that reflect back students identities in a positive light. Guided by our commitment to ethnography as educational praxis, we chose to develop our self-portrait tool as two-dimensional tool that can be implemented practically within the classroom as both a pedagogical tool to promote critical language and cultural awareness, as well as for the purposes generating representational research artifacts. In the pilot study for this multi-site project (2009-2010), we introduced the concept of cultural and linguistic identities to elementary students by reading aloud a series of books concerning the inclusion of immigrant children, as well as stories that introduced concepts of how a variety of colours could be used to represent different emotions and feelings. [e.g. Choi, 2003; Frame, 2008; Godwin, 2000] Instead of using a standard body silhouette as the base for students individual self-portrait, the classroom teacher took a digital picture of each student and generated a coloring book image using a specific option with her camera software. Students were given their individual black and white outlines to use as a base on which to map their cultural and linguistic associations. (Prasad & Dykstra, 2011) Upon reflecting about the in-class creation of self-portraits, the

5 teacher commented the kids were delighted to see themselves on paper... where they could complete the picture. I think they loved that... It gave them a sense of this is personal, this is really about me, this is not just any old body(Interview transcript 291210, p. 9). To facilitate students affective connection with the process of creating their own cultural linguistic self-portraits in this broader study, we also began by taking a digital photo of each individual student participant. Students each chose where to have their photos taken, as well as their poses. These choices were critical to having students consciously take ownership of the research process: their choice of place within their school and positioning are all a purposeful part of their individual processes of self-representation. As Gibson (2005) notes, how persons present themselves for the research camera is in itself data that provide a resource for analysis (p. 36) Once participants photos had been taken, members of the research team used artistic filters in Photoshop - photo editing software, to generate a black and white print of the individual photos that were subsequently used by students as a body map on which to represent their linguistic and cultural experiences. Students were asked to use different colours to create a legend including the various languages and/or cultures that they identified as being part of their lives; then, they were advised to use their self-designated colours to map the languages and cultures onto their photos. Once students had completed their portraits, they discussed their self-representation in the context of a small group interview with a research team member. Mobility Mapping through digital photography The use of photography as a data collection tool has been referred to as photo-elicitation interviewing (Capello, 2005) participatory photo interviewing (Jorgenson & Sullivan, 2010), auto-photography (Clark, 1999). Such methods invite participants to take photographs of various aspects of their lives; the photos are subsequently used in the context of an interview to unpack the subjective meanings of the images. For this inquiry, we asked students to photograph their mobilities - spatial, geographic, virtual - using digital cameras over a period of three days. Specifically, students were asked to take photographs in response to the following questions: How do I move? What moves me? Who moves (with) me? We were drawn to use digital photography to have students visually map their mobilities because students photographs would allow us to see students representations of mobility without limiting them to describing their ideas in words. Whereas auditory data in traditional interviews is linear, visual data generated through student photography allows for more holistic engagement. (Noland, 2006) Students photographs provide a visual entry point into accessing their representations of their diverse mobilities. Berger (1972) explains, Every image embodies a way of seeing. Even a photograph. For photographs are not, as often assumed, a mechanical record. Every time we look at a photograph, we are aware, however slightly, of the photographer selecting that sight from an

6 infinity of other possible sights... The photographers way of seeing is reflected in his choice of subject. (pp. 9-10) Students exercised choice in what and how much they photographed. Because only they knew their motivations for taking each photo, children and youth participants became positioned as experts as they lead their interviewer through their photos and provided their unique interpretations. In the context of the interview after the photos had been developed, students were further asked to categorize their photos into themes of different forms of mobility. In so doing, students themselves engaged in performing the initial analysis and ensured that their ways of seeing and thinking about mobility guided our own understanding of children and youths mobilities. One of the affordances of using arts-informed techniques to collect data with children and youth is that their creative visual productions can than be used in the reporting process. (Cook & Hess, 2007) From the outset of this inquiry we sought to engage students as coresearchers and ethnographers of their own mobilities; accordingly, it was also critical that the final report not only be accessible to students but also that they were involved in its production. (Cook & Hess, 2007). Students portraits, photographs and creative visual representations were ultimately braided together with excerpts from their interviews to produce collective identity texts for each participating school. Presentation of Data The methodological framework for the project involved a combination of several techniques of data collection including language portraits and photographs as discussed above, group and individual interviews with students and teachers, individual interviews with school principals and parents, as well as extended periods of observations. Children were interviewed two to three times over the period of the project. There were also numerous occasions during our visits in schools where students engaged conversation spontaneously with research team members. The project was initially launched in 20092010 with a pilot study conducted in a Grade 3 class in the region of Kitchener, Canada, as mentioned already. Twenty-three participants took part in the pilot: 20 students and three adults including two professional artists and one teacher. The teacher and a member of the research team were extensively involved in every aspect of the project to the extent that the teacher took on the role of a researcher, as she became more and more engaged in the research design and the latter, a participant, as she experienced along with students, the ongoing process which lead to the production of an original collective artistic identity quilt mural. Our research uses a multi-site ethnographic approach. By multi-site we include both the idea of conducting activities within the school, at home and in the local community and a study undertaken in more than one school sites. Such sites are differentiated in terms of the socio-economic demographic composition of families and neighbourhoods. They share contexts of high geographic mobility/movement, a multilingual population and, with the exception of the pilot study, are French-language school establishments located in communities where Canadian Francophones constitute a linguistic and culturally diversified minority. In 2009-2010, we visited a private school in the Toronto area offering a program from JK to Grade 12. Two classes took part in the study, a Grade 4

7 class and a Grade 11 class. Twenty-nine students (11 children and 18 adolescents), 10 teachers, 2 principals and 7 parents chose to participate in our research for a total of 48 participants. In 2010-2011, we conducted an ethnographic study in an elementary school in the Windsor area, Canada, which also involved two classes, a Grade 4/5 and a Grade 5/6. Overall, 19 students from each class participated to the project, along with 6 teachers, the principal and 7 parents (52 participants). A total of 100 individuals have taken part in our study thus far (excluding the 23 from the pilot), the majority of whom were children (67). We have collected 64 language portraits of students (15 adolescents and the remaining, students between the ages of 9 and 12) and 16 language portraits of teachers. Furthermore, students were asked to take photographs pertaining to their experience of mobility. This topic was discussed in class and a period of questions and discussions followed. They were given the following instruction in a bilingual format: I take photographs of people, places and things that connect me/ Je prends en photo des personnes, des endroits et des objets qui me branchent. High school students were also given the option to produce a short (one to two minutes) video although no participant chose that option. Hundreds of pictures were taken in school, at home and in the community. Some students came back with five to ten shots while others collected over one hundred pictures. Most participants opted to take 30 - 40 photographs. We started our site visits by spending time conducting classroom and school observations. This period gave us the opportunity to get to know the students and teachers and for students, to ease into the project. During visits, two members of the team were always present together. We visited the school in the Toronto area once to twice a week, every week, for full days during a period of two and a half months (10 days). We went three times to visit the school in the Windsor area for periods of three days spread over four months (9 days). Between our site visits, especially in Windsor, on-going activities (scheduling and sharing of digital camera amongst students) took place under the supervision of the classroom teacher. Students and teachers anticipated our visits with excitement, asking when we would be returning and what fun activities we had planned next. Students would be asking: Are we doing something special today? Will you be interviewing us? When are you coming back? (Observations notes, 03082011-1). As it turned out, the more engaged the participants became, the less it became possible for us to conduct quiet observations. Given the level of participation in each of the classroom (most parents consenting to their childs participation to the project) and time spent in class discussions, small group interviews and arts-informed research activities, as researchers, we were constantly interacting with participants. Still, observations notes provided us with valuable information on the mood and tone of a days work in school, its rhythm and everyday life, and assisted us in reflecting on our own position as ethnographers in the on-going research process. Discussion and Interpretation We believe the methodological framework developed in this study enabled children and youth to become active participants in the research process. In terms of knowledge building, the use of arts-infused research methods allowed them to engage in research at

8 many levels. Also, because it is an ethnographic study, by definition, this meant taking risks in terms of the process and outcome of the study. It meant, in fact, developing methodological tools with children and youth as the study evolved and issues emerged from an epistemological view. In order to illustrate such impact, we will examine how students took ownership of the(ir) language portraits and use of photography as unique mobility maps. We will provide illustrations of the many levels in which students engaged throughout the research. Finally, we will explore how identity texts have become part of the research process in the context of this on-going ethnographic study. Taking ownership In order for students to take ownership of the language portraits and photography, and ultimately to embrace their role as researchers, a dialogue in situ was carried out with participants and members of the research team. As with the pilot, the tools designed for this investigation were evolving in specific contexts and this research was envisioned as a process in which the various techniques and sequences of activities were closely connected. To illustrate this, we will review how the use of arts-informed methods and reporting of the data changed over time. We will conclude this section by discussing how we set up conditions that favored active participation and increasing participant responsibility. As with the pilot experience, using ones own body to draw ones language portrait was experienced as highly personal. Students responded enthusiastically upon receiving their body map. Initially, a member of the research team took students photographs (in the pilot and in the Grade 4 class in the Toronto area). When it came to the Grade 11 class, we encouraged youth to take one anothers pictures and they eagerly embraced the task. Upon seeing the photographs, we noticed like Gibson, (2005) that students had chosen particular locations in the school which were set up as their own spaces and in some instances, felt free to adopt unconventional poses for their portraits. For example, the picture represented here was taken in the student lounge.

In the subsequent school in Windsor, we decided to let children take each others picture and documented the process in our notetaking. Students worked together in group sof five plus one researcher. Interestingly, although only a few days in the research project, the act of presenting oneself in front of the camera was the object of intense discussions amongst peers as to how best (re)present themselves in relation to the theme of mobility.

9 The children in the images below chose to present their bodies in motion, in a performance and still.

Each language portrait presented multiple traces of languages and cultures on ones body. The drawings were done in class. In preparation to the activity, students participated in a brainstorming session where they listed languages and cultures found within the classroom. The fourth graders in the Toronto area site indicated the following references: French, English, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian and Japanese. A class discussion revealed that languages listed were either spoken by students families or taught at school (Spanish and Mandarin in particular). While retrieving the language portraits, we noticed a greater diversity of languages and cultures represented including Creole, Sign Language, Arabic, Latin and more. (Observation notes, 04152010-1). Looking at the peer dynamic within the classroom setting, it became apparent that predominant languages listed belonged to class leaders. Students then used the language portraits as an alternative space to express themselves. In the Grade 5/6 in Windsor region, the list included the following: Arabic, English, French, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, German, African, Italian, Romanian, Chinese, Portuguese, Greek, Canadian and references to Brazil, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Pakistan and France. Students had family connections to the places and languages listed with the exception of Brazil which was praised for its soccer team and Latin in reference to a presentation made by the school principal years ago which had left its imprint (Observation notes, 03082011-1). The activity reiterated students awareness of the cultural diversity largely imbedded in the school identity. Two activities were set up using photographs: pictures taken in small groups in school and pictures taken individually at home. We explored two alternatives for students to report on their data (photographs). With the Grade 11 in the Toronto area site, we asked that students organize pictures taken in school and at home into self constructed categories; they elaborate on the choice of categories and preferred pictures. Again, students were asked: How do I move, where do I move, who moves with me? Pictures taken at school were discussed in groups (using the same group of participants) while pictures taken at home were discussed individually. They were also asked at the end of the interview to imagine themselves taking an additional picture: What would it be? This

10 question served to trigger their reflexive understanding of the research. It proved to be a worthwhile approach particularly with adolescents. Simultaneously, for the younger group in the school, we decided to explore students photography by having them create collages. Students worked with their initial groups to organize pictures on a large poster. The group presented the results to the class afterwards. Given that the students often held group discussions in that particular class, it seemed like the natural outcome to share the groups ideas. Afterwards, the collage was posted outside the classroom, an initiative taken by the students and their teacher once we had left. Negotiating what to include and what to leave out of the collage illustrated the power relations within the working group. Power relations are always present in research with children and youth and need to be acknowledged but, in this case, the collage gave a sense of permanency to the classification, and therefore to which voices were included and which ones were not. Furthermore, although we anticipated that students presentations of their collages would take the shape of an informal discussion, they turned out to be much more formal, making use of the academic language valued by the school (a standardized French). Although the classroom context supports the use of formal French, with respect to students taking ownership of the research, this posed additional limitations to students who are not as comfortable with such academic practices. (Their voices were further excluded in the sharing process). We decided not to pursue collages in future sites and opted instead for the first option and adapted it to younger students. Hence, to alleviate the power relations between adults and children as much as possible, and to provide space for children to become research inquirers, we conducted interviews in groups of four (two sets of pairs). Students used this opportunity to collectively organize the pictures taken at school and negotiate categories of findings. They also presented their language portraits to their partner. Subsequently, the pictures taken at home and organized into self-categories. Along with a research team members, students posed questions to one another to probe deeper understanding of each others perspectives and meanings. In setting the conditions for participation, extensive consideration was given to providing students with space for (unscripted) discussion and time to learn what it means to become a researcher. With respect to interviews, our intention has never been to directly interpret the language portraits or photographs taken per se but rather to provide a process and opportunities for students to share their thoughts, (co)construct their knowledge and reflect on how they make sense of their pathways of mobility and experience of schooling. In terms of the research process, students at the elementary and secondary levels were encouraged to develop their own categories of thinking and ways of organizing the world. As students became more at ease with the interview process, having repeated the experience at least twice, and being familiar with the research team, they took an active part in the group discussions and formulated new questions that expanded the scope of the interview guide. We will illustrate, in the next section, how, as these young people embraced their role as researchers, they ended up sharing their experience at a much deeper level. Also, having the opportunity to take photographs initially in school served as one of the various ways in which students were trained in research. They then had the opportunity to test their new skills at home while reflecting

11 on a similar research objective and methodological instructions, transposed to a different setting. Through their in school practice with photography, they were actively trained to become ethnographers of their own lives. This process was initiated early on as it was students (and not adults) who gave us our initial tour of the school. Being trained in research also required building trust with members of the research team. Therefore, we found it of the utmost importance to ensure continuity in the visits and with members of the team dedicated to the specific school sites over the school year. Students developed numerous strategies to take ownership of research: in posing for their digital body silhouette; in taking one anothers picture; in producing their visual biography and telling their story; in conceptualizing categories of new mobilities; and in becoming interviewers. Engaging in research Arts-informed techniques allow students to engage in research on many levels narrative, emotional, expressive, consensual, conflicting and reflexive, for example. They serve to elicit the plurality of meanings embedded in social representations (Leavy, 2009; Moore, 2006; Castellotti & Moore, 2009; Busch et al. 2006; Busch, 2010). This section provides illustrations of how, by interacting in the research activities, children and youth (co)construct and share knowledge and expertise on many levels. We have focused on the narrative, expressive and reflexive levels in particular in the discussion that follows. Presentation of Sophisticated Narratives To start, discussions about language portraits enabled students to produce sophisticated narratives on their own and familys stories of mobility. The following examples present stories of intergenerational and recent family migrations in their singularity, as experienced by Christopher and Hafez (pseudonyms). Christopher (9 years old, 2010)

First narrative: Christopher is in Grade 4. He attends a French language private school in the Toronto area. In describing his portrait, he indicates that he has been to France and French is a language he likes to speak, a language that is not complicated to speak. He has been to

12 England and has similar dispositions towards English such that he considers it the same as French. He then introduces his knowledge of words spoken in India and indicates that his grandfather is originally from India and teaches him words (1_1ee1dd_L, 2010, p. 1). We learn that his grandfather left India at 20 for England, then France, and eventually, Canada. He is still living in Canada (1_1ee1dd_L, 2010, p. 3). As the discussion progesses, Christophers reveals that his mother held positions in various parts of the world and that he was born in Australia (which he explains in reference to being exposed to aboriginal languages), while his older brother was born in Singapore and his younger brother in France. He concludes in saying that he has not been living in Canada for very long pas longtemps (1_1ee1dd_L, 2010, p. 4). Christopher is soft spoken and quiet. He does not intervene often in class and prefers to see himself as a listener. As he tells his story, little by little, he is reflecting on the complexity of his life experience and knowledge of the family history. Hafez (10 years old, 2011)

Second narrative: Hafez is in Grade 4/5 and is attending a French-language public school in the Windsor area, which is categorized as an inner-city school. He indicates that he drew the flag of Lebanon on his face because it is his country of birth and he had lived there for nine years. He follows with references to Kurdistan and the Russian language which he acquired a little as he moved from Lebanon to Kurdistan. Green represents Arabic, his mother tongue, and blue, French, as he attended a French school always in Lebanon. He concludes with red for English, in reference to the Canadian flag. I know English a little. (2_2f2h2m2t_L, 2011, p. 3). Further along, he indicates he has been in Canada for seven months (2_2f2h2m2t_L, 2011, p. 4). As the interview progressed, children started to add to one anothers stories. When the interviewer asked a student if s/he had traveled to other countries, the student responded that s/he was born in Lebanon and moved to Canada five years ago during summer. S/he had been to Brazil and was back now. When the interviewer invited comments from Hafez on his experience in travelling he responded the following: I was in Lebanon. But

13 when Lebanon and Israel had a war, when I was there, and after the war in the summer, we went to Kurdistan, and when the war ended, we came back to Lebanon, and after we came to Canada, because in Lebanon, there is a lot of war (2_2f2h2m2t_L, 2011, p. 4). When we observed Hafezs class, we noticed he seldom spoke. He is new to the school. The group discussion provides him an opportunity to tell his story in its singularity which he adds to the repertoire of stories being expressed. He reveals, in his self-presentation, a life experience in which he has been exposed to global conflicts and endured, first hand, some of the consequences. Engaging Research on an Expressive Level: Mobility Through the Lens of Action Figures The use of arts-informed research methods, as previously discussed, opens up the range of resources that children and adolescents may mobilize and build upon in order to become ethnographers of their own lives (Prasad). This capacity was illustrated in our study by how students set new parameters in approaching the notion of mobility. Some students photographed political arts projects, namely from artists within their family to express their views on the world and the particular political context which structures their current possibilities of spatial mobility. In an attempt at (re)defining the field (in a bourdieusian sense) in which arts-informed research activities took place, or at the very least, the parameters of the conversation we engaged in with particular students participating in this study, a group of young boys developed an elaborate scenario using action figures to express their ideas on mobility. They invited the research team on a terrain in which they had set the rules and boundaries and where members of the research team had limited competency or control over how this game was to be played. The use of photography was instrumental in providing material from which to imagine research from an alternative context, the world of fantasies, as well as to document and report findings to the(ir) research group.

The first photograph illustrates the beginning of the game which the student classified as the exploration of the abandoned castle. The second picture is taken from a stack of shots describing a combat (2qq_M_1; 2qq_M_20). During the interview, the other students became actively involved also in describing the game for our benefit, the various pieces which could be added to the collection, along with where (at ones parent house or the other, for example) and with whom they liked to play (friends, cousins, etc) (2_2v2x2dd2qq_M.WMA). The group did articulate the discussion with the research

14 theme of mobility. Yet, through this exercise, they chose to share what they felt were important features in their lives. Research and Reflexivity During interviews, we invited students to present their photographs and categories in which they had classified their pictures. Furthermore, we also invited them to become active inquires and ask questions to their classmates. Some students took on this task actively and showed great curiosity and imagination in questions being raised. The pictures presented produced very interesting research outcomes.

In one of the groups of Grade 4/5 in the Windsor region, discussions started with the presentation of a photograph of a wheelchair. After explaining why this picture was important in terms of mobility, another student asked her colleague if she had ever used a wheelchair. The answer was yes. The colleague continued in stating that she had as well and both students ended up sharing their experience. This commonality gave the tone to discussions and as other members presented their photographs, participants formulated many questions and provided advice on issues raised in situ which went far beyond the interview guide set up by our team. In this moment that we were fortunate to witness, these students were attuning their skills as inquirers. More importantly, the process served as to facilitate a reflective and reflexive process in which students made connections with questions that really mattered in their lives. Through discussions on the love and support of the extended family, the worries in periods of prolonged absence of a parent in transnational families, the political tensions in regions of the world, and experience of disability revealed a deeper engagement in research and knowledge building (2_2b2m2o2p_M.WMA). Identity Texts in Research: ethnographic praxis as education process / praxis The production of identity texts has been largely been discussed as a pedagogic tool to promote equity in the classroom by affirming the resources that culturally and linguistically diverse children bring to their learning. (Cummins et al, 2005) We extend Cummins and Earlys (2011) notion of identity texts herein to describe our process of collaboratively creating multimodal research representations that holistically reflect ethnographic praxis as an educational process. The following photographs provide a sampling of pages from the multimodal research reports from Toronto and Windsor based schools.

15

The overarching aim of this research was to access students perspectives on their mobilities and how they are (re)defining school spaces. Our research identity texts showcase students voices by interweaving creative works through self-portraits and photography with excerpts from their interviews, as well as creative visual representations of salient themes that emerged throughout our inquiry in each school. At the conclusion of our time in each school, participating students, teachers and administrators received individual copies of the multimodal research texts. In each case, the schools independently arranged for an official presentation of the books to their students. Teachers and administrators conveyed via e-mails to the research team how powerfully the books resonated with project participants. For example, one administrator

16 wrote, Ce livre dmontre en images et en photos notre ralit; tiss partout, on voit le bonheur et entend les rires des lves. (E-mail communication from 2D1, 08/07/11) [English gloss: This book illustrates in drawings and photos our reality; woven everywhere, we see happiness and hear the students laughs.] In addition, students voluntarily offered their reflections on their engagement in the research. One student, in particular, highlighted a maide parler, je pense que cest bon parce que je peux parler quelquun, de ce que je pense vraiment, et puis, oui je trouve que cest un bon programme et que tu devrais faire a des autres classes. (1_1hh1kk, p.7) [English gloss: it helps me to talk, I think that its good because I can talk to someone about what I truly think, and well, yes I think its a good project and that you should do it with other classes.] For him, participating in this project allowed him to share his perspective such that he felt that he was free to express himself in the way he desired and that his voice was heard. In previous discussion, he had relayed that he speaks differently with his friends than with his teacher, thus it is significant that he emphasizes that he felt he could express what he thinks as part of this research. Moreover, it underlines the importance of shifting research about children from adult perspectives and through adult filters towards research with children as collaborators. Using artistic techniques to engage children and youth as inquirers allows them to contribute at all stages of research from the data collection, its analyses and its final representation. Another student further reflected that the act of taking pictures was not only fun, but more critically, challenged her davoir la responsabilit des choses quon avait, les appareils photos, et tout. (1_1kk1hh, p.8) [English gloss: to take responsibility for the things that we had, the cameras and all.] Although we had hoped that artistic techniques would engage students as ethnographers of their own lives, we had not anticipated that they would appropriate these tools to the extent that they took responsibility for the research process itself. Through the course of our inquiry, we decided to represent the research through the alter(n)ative format of multimodal identity texts to acknowledge and to respond to the multi-literacies particularly of our young participants. Furthermore, this reporting generated alter(-)ative and transformative moments of resonance in which the participants both saw themselves reflected in the research and allowed them to reflect upon their contribution as co-researchers. Conclusion This paper presented the methodological framework developed and experimented with throughout an on-going ethnographic study conducted with elementary and high school students in Canada. Inspired by childhood and youth studies and by the paradigm of new mobilities, the research project looks at students experience of geographic, linguistic and social mobility. More specifically, we are interested in better understanding how students make sense of their diverse pathways at the heart of an expanding culture of mobility and how mobility may be transformed into a resource, and more broadly, into imagined sets of possibilities? Participants to this study are multilingual and highly mobile. Working with children on the elicitation of social representations required that significant considerations be given to the methodology. The project uses a variety of techniques to

17 capture the complexity of school and family contexts including prolonged observations, individual and group interviews and a combination of two arts-informed techniques: the use of cultural and linguistic portraits as a biography tool and the use of photography as mobility maps. The paper presented the conceptual foundations and influence of key scholars using arts informed research methods in social sciences. It discussed how such tools were adapted and transformed in the process of establishing the methodological framework for this study. It also documented the transformations occurring with the design of the tools, as the research unfolded in interaction with children and youth. More importantly, results from our study informed us on three critical dimensions in students experience with research: taking ownership, engaging in research on many levels and looking at ethnographic praxis as an educational process. Students took ownership of the project through several strategies: in posing for their digital body silhouette, in taking one anothers pictures, in producing their visual biography, in conceptualizing categories of mobilities, and in questioning one another. They engaged on many levels which was illustrated in this paper by providing examples of sophisticated narratives being constructed in interaction (during interviews), of how it became possible to change the parameters of the discussions using photographs to transport the research team into the world of castles and battles where children became the experts and adults the learners, and of discussions triggered by the presentation of photographs and sustained through the active discussions which enabled these young people to share their experience at a much deeper level. Visual creative methods function as an enabling methodology (Gauntlet & Holworth, 2006: 84). The books co-produced in each of the schools are a testimony (tmoignage) of how students in this project embraced their role as researchers. In designing the research project, we valued children and youth voices and advocated they constitute a legitimate entry point amongst many in capturing the complexities of social life. We sought to provide opportunities to engage in reflexive practices, prompting students views on an additional photo they could take, for example. Two years into this ethnography we have come to envision our research as a praxis in which students became increasingly engaged yet also increasingly independent from the research parameters. This project also reiterates the idea that doing ethnography involves taking risks. In taking such risks, students have shared with us what mattered to them, as well as their dreams and concerns.

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