Youth-Led Participatory Action Research: Contexts for Learning, Leadership, Voice, and Agency

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Youth Participatory Action Research: Empowering Students as Knowledge Producers

Abstract

Research has identified important features of effective youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) and positive youth development (PYD) programs. However, few studies have analyzed specific program strategies. This study examines an urban YPAR project’s strategies and its contexts that resulted in significant gains in youth leadership development. The study investigates the program’s organized activities, context and how these ethnically diverse adolescents experience their program participation. The analysis draws on ethnographic observations, focus groups, and interviews with both adult program facilitators and all of the youth program participants. Study findings reveal that youth voice and agency were developed through active participation in collaborative leadership roles and that leadership developed in relation to others. The discussion considers implications for future research and practice.

Author

• Dana E. Wright, Connecticut College