Building an Infrastructure for Knowledge Democracy Through a Multidistrict Youth Participatory Action Research Approach to Student Leadership K–8

• In Event: 34.061 - Participatory Action Research: Creating More Democratic, Participatory Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Through a unique public school, university, and local business partnership, a dozen teachers from public schools within four school districts of an eastern Pennsylvania community utilized a participatory action research approach in a year-long study of student leadership in their respective public elementary and middle schools (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Ozer & Wright, 2012; McNiff, 2017). Teacher researchers developed findings through their discourse analysis (Rymes, 2016), figurative language analysis (Saban, 2006), qualitative coding (Saldaña, 2016), and exploration of emerging themes with young people themselves (Fine, 2018). As part of a 2017 Global Assembly for Knowledge Democracy pre-conference workshop, teachers developed and refined a set of ten recommendations to replace traditional standardized test-based school accountability structures with more democratic, participatory approaches.

Author

• Joseph M. Shosh, Moravian College