Psychology researchers celebrated in OU Research Excellence Awards 2024

Professor Sarah Crafter and Dr Nelli Stavropoulou from the School of Psychology & Counselling have won this year’s 2024 Open University Research Excellence Award (REA) for ‘Outstanding Open Research’. The REAs recognise the outstanding research practice and achievements of staff and postgraduate research students, across the OU's dynamic research community. They share this award and honour with their UK team member and collaborator, Professor Guida de Abreu from Oxford Brookes University. The award celebrates and recognises their work as part of the Networking the Educational World: Across Boundaries for Community-building (NEW ABC).

It means a great deal to us to win the Outstanding Open Research award because the fundamental aim of the project was to work co-reactively and collaboratively, particularly with groups of young people in vulnerable and challenging situations. It’s well known that these young people are often some of the most excluded from research.

Professor Sarah Crafter

The NEW ABC project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation programme. It is led by Professor Rachele Antonini from the University of Bologna. It draws together 13 partners across 9 European countries with the aim of working collaboratively with children and young people with migratory experiences as well as teachers, families, communities, practitioners, and other partners, to develop 9 interventions, focused on supporting the wellbeing and inclusion of children and young people from a migrant and refugee background in education.  

Underpinned by participatory action research, co-creation and care and compassion conceptual and methodological frameworks, the NEW ABC interventions involved the co-creation of participatory interventions engaging children and young people with migratory experiences, using arts-based approaches such as digital film, photography, drawing and poetry, to explore their experiences and co-create resources aimed at raising awareness and facilitating change.

The UK team, led by Crafter, De Abreu and Stavropoulou, led on the package of work to deliver all those 9 pilot actions across the European countries, but also developed their own intervention in the UK, engaging children and young people who act as translators for peers and family as well as co-created resources that support their social and emotional wellbeing.

Undertaking participatory and co-creative activities with groups of children and young people experiencing precarity holds many practical and ethical considerations. We wanted to create a forum space for consortium partners to be able to freely share their concerns, challenges and good practices whilst working in the field.

Dr Nelli Stavropoulou