"Where Y'all at, Tho?" Collaborative Power in Youth Research and Activism

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: The Youth of Social Justice Spaces

Abstract

This paper documents and begins to theorize a year-long collaboration between two collectives of youth engaged in critical participatory action research (yPAR). The authors draw from their own anecdotal data, pedagogy, and experiences with the youth researchers to explore how intersectional collaboration across race, ethnicity, language, and geographic space among yPAR collectives can inform their work from an epistemological and practical standpoint. The paper describes these collaborations as “macro participatory endeavors” and pushes yPAR practitioners, scholars, and educational activists to be more intentional about youth collaboration and knowledge production. Key findings explore this collaboration across the dimensions of the personal, practical, collaborative, and political dimensions of youth research.

Authors

• Brian Lozenski, Macalester College

• Jenna Cushing-Leubner, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Erin Lee Dyke, University of Minnesota