Metanoia and the Challenges of Change-Making in Youth Participatory Action Research Classrooms

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Metanoia in Youth Participatory Action Research: Transforming Ourselves, Transforming Our Communities

Abstract

We explore some of the continuing challenges to supporting youth in making authentic change in the communities they are a part of. Utilizing entries from teacher journals and excerpts from recorded discussions, the two will synthesize some of the broader continuing themes that have emerged in the work, namely the concept of metanoia, a transformative episteme which engages youth in “real learning” (Senge, 2013).  In youth reflections over five years, we have explored the ways in which youth recreate themselves, renegotiate their academic identities, re-perceive their relationship to the world, and gain the ability to do something they previously thought impossible.
Ultimately, we grapple with how to work with youth to broaden and reconceptualize their role in society and how to best effect change. Theoretically, we speak within tradition of practitioner inquiry (Lytle & Cochran Smith, 2011) and community research (Campano, Ghiso & Welch, 2016). In additional to our pedagogical records, we coded Year 5 curricular artifacts, student reflections, and artifacts of student work to compare to interviews collected in Year 5 (which are discussed in more depth in Presentation 2).

Authors

• Tiffany A. DeJaynes, Lehman College

• Christopher Curmi, New York City Department of Education