After the presentations from Thalia Assan and Dr James Duggan, attendees were invited to join a discussion with a smaller group in break out rooms to reflect on the presentations and discuss their own use of creative methods. Attendees were invited to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of creative methods both online and offline.
Thoughtful and critical reflections were shared when feeding back to the whole group. Attendees reflected on practical issues concerning how to frame creative methodologies in funding bids, especially when such bids are restrictive. Other practical and ethical considerations were discussed in regards to online research – whilst they may offer new opportunities for using creative methods with young people, practical issues remain.
One key area of reflection was the ethics of using creative methods; attendees acknowledged the importance of recognising that young people themselves may not want to use creative methods, challenging our own assumptions about creative methods and how being reactive to what young people themselves wish to engage in offers possibilities and challenges. These suggestions were also open questions for the group to continue to engage with once they had left the session, illustrating the need for ongoing reflections amongst academics and researchers using creative methods with young people.