Shifting Student and Teacher Roles: The Effects of Youth-Led Participatory Action Research in Two Urban High Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 86
  In Roundtable Session: School Engagement

Abstract

Low student motivation and engagement in secondary school may be due to a “developmental mismatch” between students’ emerging desire for autonomy and the few decision-making roles available to influence the school environment (Eccles et al., 1993). Investigating two youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) projects in two urban schools, this qualitative study examines the extent to which YPAR promotes setting-level changes to make public secondary schools more developmentally appropriate. This study found a major departure in typical student and teacher roles, characterized by more collegial interactions in which teachers viewed marginalized students as experts. The discussion considers the process by which students gained the capacity and access to weigh in on core educational issues such as classroom instruction and educational equity.

Author

• Dana E. Wright, Connecticut College