Active Learning: Teaching Sociopolitical Analysis Skills

• In Event: 72.064 - Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: 72.064-7 - Reimagining: Youth Translating Theory With Action

Abstract

This study examines the curriculum and teaching approaches in a youth-led participatory action research (PAR) project over a seven-month period. The PAR project’s goal was for youth participants to develop a proposal for productive change in their local community and present it to community decision-makers. The study explores the ways in which the curriculum and pedagogy supported gains in a form of critical thinking, which the study terms sociopolitical analysis skills. The discussion finds that key components that increased analytical skills included learning that tapped young people’s funds of knowledge, situated learning in their lived experiences and an applied learning approach that connected the research project to an action plan for community change.

Author

• Dana E. Wright, Connecticut College