Youth beyond borders: Methodological challenges in youth information interaction

Abstract

The pace of technological change is rapid and the impact of this acceleration on the information behavior of youth from diverse backgrounds is multifaceted. Most young people have online access in some form, but the uses and quality of access vary tremendously (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi & Gasser, 2013). With the growth and variation of information behaviors among youth in social media and the mobile Web, keeping pace with research methods used to capture these behaviors and phenomena continues to be a discussion among scholars. Adding to the complications of research in this area, youth are increasingly using information and communications technologies (ICT) across platforms for a variety of information behaviors, including academic and social reasons (Agosto & Abbas, 2010). It is often not enough to solely examine a young person's Twitter feed -we need to see how that conversation carries from Twitter, to direct messages, to texting, to a Facebook post and so on. This variation suggests a need for greater nuance in research (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi & Gasser, 2013;Gasser, Cortesi, Malik & Lee, 2012). This panel will bring together several researchers experienced in studying youth information practices to discuss their methodologies and strategies in dealing with these intricate issues. This panel will be conducted in a roundtable styleencouraging deep conversation between the researchers and the audience. This will be followed by a small group discussions with the audience and conclude by sharing back best practices uncovered through the group discussions. Through attending this panel, attendees will engage with current developments in diverse youth, ICT and research methodologies, and identify priorities and approaches for future work in these areas.

Policy and Practice for Multilingual Educational Settings

“…However, the use of photographs accompanied with an elicitation interview when collecting data led to a better balance between the participants and the researcher (cf. Waugh et al, 2014) and this turned out to be a successful way of engaging students to give more versatile information on their LRs. The adolescent students were highly motivated to take photographs and to describe their language use even outside the situations in the photos.…”

“…Conducting research with adolescents has been found to be challenging when it comes to motivating participants to provide information, capturing their lives and overcoming the power imbalance between young participants and adult researchers (e.g. Waugh et al, 2014). By drawing on the experience of two projects carried out in diff erent times and contexts, in this chapter we seek to illustrate a path to describing LRs that goes beyond enumerating linguistic resources.…”

7 Researching Adolescents’ Linguistic Repertoires in Multilingual Areas: Case Studies from South Tyrol and Finland

“…Conducting research with adolescents has been found to be challenging when it comes to motivating participants to provide information, capturing their lives and overcoming the power imbalance between young participants and adult researchers (e.g. Waugh et al, 2014). By drawing on the experience of two projects carried out in different times and contexts, in this chapter we seek to illustrate a path to describing LRs that goes beyond enumerating linguistic resources.…”