Race Radical Youth Participatory Action Research

• In Event: 66.015 - "With and For" Not "On" or "About": Engaging the Limits of Education Research for Movement-Building

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to map practical dimensions and consider affective impacts of what I describe as race radical, youth participatory action research (YPAR). I will begin by defining race radicalism and describing ways in which YPAR can function as a form of race radicalism. To concretize this argument I turn to the Education in our Barrios Project, #BarrioEdPro. #BarrioEdProj, is a YPAR collaborative that focuses on working with and for Latinx youth in examining the social and educational conditions that they are situated in as a means to inciting social change. This presentation specifically reflects on the work being accomplished in the city of Philadelphia as a demonstration of how YPAR provides an opportunity to both race radical scholarship and activism.

Melamed (2011) uses race radicalism as a descriptor for antiracist thinking, struggle, and politics that reckons with the material and cultural violences perpetrated by a social system based on racism and global capitalism. The framework is greatly informed by the Black Radical Tradition (BRT) and braids a number of intellectual traditions, including cultural political economy, critical pedagogy, critical Latinx theories and Native theories in order to map social dominance and survivance.

The work of #BarrioEdProj is directed toward linking race radicalism to forms of participatory action research (PAR). PAR is both ontological and epistemological in that it is “rooted in notions of democracy and social justice . . . and ….engages research design, methods, analyses, and products through a lens of democratic participation” (Torre, Fine, Soudt, & Fox, 2012, p. 171). YPAR, as an evolving strand of PAR, is committed to the notion that young people are important holders and producers of knowledge, and as such they are engaged in research and activism as legitimate co-participants.

This presentation will focus on observations, interviews, and an analysis of written responses collected as the collaborative created and implemented a Latinx Youth Voces (voices) survey. Data include analyses of video recorded of interviews, participant observations, and an analysis of written reflections and comments. Project meetings had written minutes and, on some occasions, were audio recorded.

Findings suggest that creating opportunities to work with and for Latinx youth that is focused on cultivating a race radical approach encourages youth co-researchers to develop their critical inquiry skills. This process has, thus far, enabled youth to be involved in a project in a way that humanizes them as they further develop themselves, and encourages them to think reflexively about the interconnections between cultural politics of race and neoliberalism in contemporary cities. In doing so, co-researchers are findings ways to communicate their message to a larger public.
By engaging in race radical, youth participatory action research (YPAR) the research collaborative contends that our work will have a direct impact on education policy and the broader social conditions that many Latinx youth continue to struggle with. It will also offer a replicable approach for other scholars and PAR projects to learn from.

Author

• Edwin Mayorga, Swarthmore College