What do you want your teachers to know? Using intergenerational reflections in education research

Abstract

The Intergenerational Reflections technique was developed to bring together the voices of connected stakeholders of different ages and positions—in this case, students and teachers—to create recommendations that build on both groups’ perspectives. This article describes its use and results as piloted in the Time to Teach about Gender-Based Violence in Canada project. The project gathered 11 teacher participants in a participatory workshop to mobilize teachers’ reflections on student-produced cellphilms responding to the prompt: “What do you want your teachers to know when teaching about gender-based violence?” Framed using hooks’ engaged pedagogy, analysis describes teachers’ identification of potential pedagogical adaptations responding to student recommendations, demonstrating Intergenerational Reflections’ value in getting teachers to actively listen to student messages in educational research and practice. Results identify the need to involve other educational stakeholders in Intergenerational Reflections, particularly in addressing a lack of multi-level institutional support to enhance pedagogy about gender-based violence.