Interrupting the Internalization of Inequality

• In Event: Pro Bono Education Research Service Projects (ERSPs): AERA's ERSP Initiative

Abstract

This proposal supports a participatory evaluation process of two social location spaces in Providence, Rhode Island, and Pittsfield, New Hampshire. The social location space is a pedagogical tool for disrupting the internalization of social inequality in youth populations. Through images, quotes, and statistics, the social location space prioritizes a structural and intersectional analysis of social injustices that young people may experience in their communities. The social location space makes plain the structural underpinnings of inequality by providing an alternative reading of the world that accounts for historical and political legacies that create present-day inequalities. Both organizations have begun using participatory approaches to evaluate their work, but additional support is needed to systematically investigate the spaces’ assets and areas for improvement. The researchers will coach and support young people with creating their own evaluation. Through this evaluation, youth researchers from both sites will be coached in answering: what components of the social location space are essential for an intersectional analysis of structural inequality, and what components can be altered to meet a community’s needs? Concomitantly, how do they make meaning across these similarities and differences?

Authors

• Leigh Patel, University of California - Riverside

• Molly Messenger, Pittsfield Listens