International research: challenges, limitations and conditions for success. Reflections on a participatory international project with children

Abstract

International research is common practice in many fields of science and a variety of international projects from the most diverse fields of research can be found through the major academic search engines. However, expanding the search in the direction of metaperspectival reflection on international participatory research might be unsuccessful, as there is scarce literature on the topic. This article is based on experiences with children in the international participatory research project called “Learning Together, Living Diversity”, which was carried out using the photovoice method to involve the children in the process as co-researchers. As international research differs considerably from national research, many challenges may be encountered, especially in field research and mainly in regards to getting in touch and interacting with the foreign country, its people and culture. The aim of this paper is to put into writing the reflexive processing of the cross-border research experience of the two cooperation partners Guillermina Chabrillon (Argentina) and Corinne Butschi (Switzerland), who planned and organised the field work in two Argentinian kindergartens together. The challenges which they faced and the role of both language and cultural background will be described in a practical way. It will be shown that reliable and good cooperation partnerships become even more important when the logistics of international research projects is not only complicated by distance, but also by language and cultural barriers. Examples of the major challenges and the role of culture and other contextual factors in project planning and logistics when crossing linguistic and cross-cultural boundaries will be included, with the purpose of contributing to stimulating further research and a greater number of successful international cooperation partnerships.