Researching the everyday educational lives of low-income families: the importance of researcher and participant contexts

Wainwright, Emma; Hoskins, Kate; Arabaci, Refika; Zhai, Junqing; Gao, Jie; Xu, Yuwei

Abstract

This paper highlights the importance of considering both researcher and participant contexts when exploring everyday educational lives. It emerges during a period of increasing and sustained social inequality in England, and against a backdrop of increasingly tight research timeframes and resources in higher education. Drawing on a project engaging low-income families in Greater London, the paper takes the everyday as its conceptual focus and questions how we can be critically attentive to everyday educational lives if we struggle to access and develop research relationships with particular social groups. We offer empirical insight into the hesitancies towards, and avoidances of, research participation that centre around knowledge, fear, and trust, and which are heightened concerns where aspects of family life, parenting, and children come to the fore. The paper considers how these can be mitigated in an academic environment where limited time and resourcing shape possibilities of research engagements and offers practical moves linked to research relationships, relevance and presence for how researchers can address these challenges to enable research to be more inclusive.

Citation

Wainwright, E., Hoskins, K., Arabaci, R., Zhai, J., Gao, J., & Xu, Y. (2024). Researching the everyday educational lives of low-income families: the importance of researcher and participant contexts. British Journal of Educational Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2024.2378053

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 23, 2024
• Publication Date: Jul 23, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 5, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 24, 2026
• Journal: British Journal of Educational Studies
• Print ISSN: 0007-1005
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8527
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2024.2378053
• Keywords: inclusive research, research engagement, low-income families, research participation, parents, funding context
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/36875189
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rbje20; Published: 2024-07-23