Co-productive research in a primary school environment: unearthing the past of Keig

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how involving schoolchildren in active inquiry and sharing in responsibility for research can challenge the ‘content-driven model of learning’ in school. It considers a contextualised case study of work carried out in a small rural primary school in North-East Scotland. This work saw a community-based landscape researcher's commitment to the full engagement of non-experts in the planning, investigation, and dissemination of landscape research being taken up by a head teacher, her staff, and pupils at Keig Primary School. Participants recognised and valued the strength of putting children in charge of shaping what and how they learn. Indeed, from the perspective of the landscape researcher and head teacher, the Keig project was designed to evaluate the practicality of using the principles of co-productive archaeological research to support children in leading their own historical investigation.