At the conference titeld "Decolonizing Epistemologies, Methodologies and Ethics: Postcolonial-Feminist Interventions" organized by the Frankfurt Research Center for Postcolonial Studies at the Cluster of Excellence „The Formation of Normative Orders“ Doris Arztmann, Teresa Windersteller and Veronika Woehrer will talk about the messiness and failures we researchers encounter while doing participatory action research with children and young people. By amalyzing a failed research moment, the presentation discusses normative understandings of how to articulate knowledge within academic contexts. Drawing on Dagmar Lorenz-Meyer's concept of "politics of location" (2004) we reflect on the psychosocial dimensions and the epistemological manoeuvers that prevented us from listening.