YPAR in the Classroom: A Study of Teachers' Understanding of Youth Participatory Action Research

• In Event: Use of Collaborative Action Research to Create Change

Abstract

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an epistemological stance that positions youth as researchers and is designed to create social change. Many university-based researchers have written about implementing YPAR projects, but we know little about how public school teachers understand YPAR when implementing it with students in classrooms. This paper draws on interviews with 28 teachers across the U.S. to show how their epistemological understandings of YPAR converge with and diverge from each other as well as university-based researchers who have implemented YPAR. Key findings include teachers providing students with far more choice, autonomy, and control in the research process than many university-based researchers. This paper provides insight to adults engaging youth in YPAR inside and outside of classroom settings.

Author

• Christopher John Buttimer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology