Using Youth Participatory Action Research to Bring Student and Teacher Voices to the Science Education Reform Discussion

• In Event: Rethinking Schools Through Youth Participatory Action Research in an Era of Education Reform: Lessons From Professional Development and Curriculum and Instruction

Abstract

During an era of increased emphasis on improving STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education and reframing standards to help guide these efforts (e.g., the Next Generation Science Standards), teachers and students are often positioned as ‘the problem’ to achieving desired outcomes (Long, 2013). Additionally, student and teacher voices are often overpowered by the cacophony of political rhetoric surrounding education reform and standards debates, yet these are the people whose decisions will be most impacted by reforms.

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) offers one approach to education reform (Kane, 2001; La Belle, 1987; Wanderley et al., 1993) that privileges student and teacher voices. When conducted about school-related issues, YPAR positions teachers and students as key stakeholders (Cammarota & Fine, 2008) and agentive participants in schools. It additionally brings youth and adults together in partnership, working collaboratively toward a common goal (Cammarota & Fine; Nygreen, Kwon, & Sánchez, 2006). While YPAR projects have examined issues of educational disparities, such as racial segregation (Romero et al, 2008) and differential funding across schools, they less often examine the ways teaching practices and curriculum materials work to further marginalize students’ educational experiences. Even less common is taking up this type of examination in the context of science classrooms.

This paper presents findings from a 6-week summer YPAR program, in which high school students investigated ways to improve science education and presented their findings to pre-service teachers at a local university. The students in the program took up the broad question: How do we improve science education? More specific research questions included: 1) How do students characterize positive and negative science learning experiences? 2) What role do teaching practices play in student engagement in science? 3) How do school resources affect science-learning experiences? and 4) What practices in science education lead to student feelings of marginalization? Interns interviewed current science teachers about their own teaching practice and ways to improve science learning contexts; interviewed current high school students about their experiences in science classrooms and their advice to teachers; developed personal narratives based on their experiences in science classes; and surveyed roughly 140 respondents (ages 10-50+) about their experiences in science classes.

Findings suggest that both teachers and students desired similar changes for improved science learning, which included a classroom environment in which students felt safe, valued, and recognized. Students expressed a desire for more hands-on, project-based learning; and teachers expressed a desire to have more time and freedom to organize their lessons around what they describe as “more authentic” science learning. Additionally, negative experiences in science classrooms were also similar for teachers and students. Both felt “frustrated” by student apathy, disengagement, and underpreparedness. And students’ negative experiences almost always were tied to feelings of disconnection from their teacher and instances of being “overlooked” or “ignored”. Despite these similar desires, students and teachers seem to lack tools and/or spaces for communicating in ways that ‘get through’ to each other, a finding that speaks to the importance of this type of collaborative rethinking of learning spaces.

Authors

• Carrie D. Allen, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Erik Padilla, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Josie Valadez, University of Colorado - Boulder