A Participatory Approach to Research-Practice Partnerships: Equity in Youth-Researcher Collaborations

• In Event: Strategies for Promoting and Studying Equity in Design-Oriented Research-Practice Partnerships

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the Pathways Project: From Connected Learning to Sustainable Futures, a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project that aimed at understanding and supporting practices in connected learning programs. While research-practice partnerships (RPPs) have typically been collaborations between researchers and practitioners in universities and school districts, or other educational organizations, we argue that partnering with young people surfaces issues of voice and equity that directly connect to the kinds of practices RPPs hope to improve. In addition, a close look at the principles central to the project of shared power and mutualism, from YPAR and RPP respectively, provides insight into developing more equitable processes and in research collaborations.

Participatory action research (PAR) draws from critical/critical race, and feminist theories, to set up a collaboration process between researchers and communities that attempts to disrupt the traditional power dynamics of research (Nygreen, 2009). These collaborations with youth in research typically focus on training young people to identify, research, and engage with problems of major concern to them and their communities (Cammarota & Fine, 2008; Ozer et al,2010). Youth voice and empowerment are of central importance to this process. In RPPs, developing trust and maintaining mutualism are crucial challenges; (Y)PAR addresses mutualism as an issue of shared power. Recognizing and addressing the imbalance of power between adults and young people is particularly important in YPAR in terms of supporting the latter’s sense of agency and equity in the process.

The Pathways Project engaged 16 youth from four Connected Learning programs in a digitally mediated, collaborative research process to examine post-secondary pathways into college, careers, or the workforce, with the objective of making design recommendations to program staff for developing additional supports. Youth collected and analyzed data throughout the summer and fall of 2014, meeting with the University of Colorado Boulder team virtually via Google Hangouts on a weekly basis. After the completion of the project, two of the youth continued partnering with the team to develop and present a workshop at a national conference.

The geographically distributed and digitally mediated nature of the collaboration required significant attention to coordinating and maintaining partnerships across multiple levels: between researchers and youth; researchers and program staff; program staff and youth. Shifts in organizational structures, the project itself, and youth participation deeply affected these relationships.

Although the existence of the “digital divide” (Watkins, 2011) highlights the ongoing challenges of equitable access to technology, the negotiation of our digital collaboration throughout the year proved to be a key factor in developing trust and relationships. Digitally structuring the process drew explicit attention to the ways in which power was shared across settings and between adults and youth.

Authors

• Josie Chang-Order, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Michael D. Harris, Colorado University - Boulder

• Katie Van Horne, University of Colorado - Boulder