After Incarceration and Engagement in Learning: A Participatory Action Research Project

• In Event: Qualitative Research With Adult Education (With a Focus on Immigrant Populations)

Abstract

This paper describes a community college participatory action research (PAR) project that uses archival, autoethnographic, and interview data to collaboratively explore student engagement in GED and early college participation following incarceration. The co-researchers include four African American young men, along with one faculty member, who co-created the research design, are currently implementing the design together, and will ultimately take action to publish and disseminate findings. As an undergraduate (UR) project it is unique in that the research questions, design, data collection and analysis, and dissemination are grounded in a participatory action model. The theoretical framework is Critical Race Theory (CRT).

Author

• Joni Marie Schwartz, City University of New York - LaGuardia