Youth Participatory Action Research in a School Counseling Space: Working Toward Liberation in a Neoliberal System

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-18 - Adolescent Relationships as the Basis for Problem Solving and Civic Engagement

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) has become a popular approach to “studying up;” researchers partner with youth to investigate and reform oppressive power structures. Evidence suggests that YPAR improves outcomes for individual youth and the organizations/settings that they act upon; however, the extent to which YPAR should be used in institutions that reproduce dominant cultural power dynamics remains a subject of much debate. Using ethnographic data from an investigation of barriers to on-time graduation, this paper explores the possibilities and dangers of YPAR in a school setting. Specifically, we weigh the individual-level benefits of YPAR for youth at-risk of dropping out with the possibility that first-order changes may be enabling harmful educational practices to continue.

Authors

• Gretchen A. Brion-Meisels, Harvard University

• Zanny Alter, Bryn Mawr College