Engaging Youth to Create a School District's Antiracism Policy

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Challenging White Supremacy in Education in Charlottesville Post-2017

Abstract

Less than one month after the white supremacist rallies that terrorized Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, local students began a new school year. Many educators and students returned to school with a renewed interest in dismantling racism. One local school district decided to ask their students to help develop an antiracism policy. This paper explores the methods used to engage youth in a unique youth participatory action research (YPAR) project aimed at systemic transformation.

YPAR provides youth with opportunities to study social problems affecting their lives and then determine actions to rectify these problems (Cammarota & Fine, 2010). YPAR participants have opportunities to: (a) expand their knowledge and contribute to local knowledge production processes; (b) develop their critical thinking and experience consciousness raising; and (c) inspire/pursue action (Law, Lichty & Aoun, 2010). While YPAR has become a popular method used to involve youth in the research process, few projects have empowered youth to develop policy aimed at transforming school systems. In this paper, we present a YPAR approach specifically designed to promote social justice through student policy creation.

In July 2018, a local school district asked one of the authors to work with a group of students to create an antiracism policy. Eight high school students volunteered to participate in the project (2 Asian, 3 White, 3 Black/biracial Black; 6 girls; representing three of the district’s four high schools). The purpose of the project was to offer students a learning opportunity that centered their perspectives and experiences in developing district policy. The school board adopted the antiracism policy in February 2019. This YPAR approach included a series of iterative phases: (1) problem identification; (2) community dialogues and data analysis; and (3) action/policy development.

Problem Identification
In a series of facilitated group sessions, youth defined and redefined the problems they wanted to address. Students discussed school district data showing racial equity gaps and the meaning of those disparities. As a group, students reflected on their experiences with racism and discrimination in school. Youth devised various ways the policy could address institutional and interpersonal racism.

Community Dialogues and Data Analysis
Students received feedback on policy drafts and ideas from several sources including private group discussions with educators, students, and community members, public presentations to the school board, and responses to an online survey they created. Students worked together to analyze quantitative and qualitative data, which promoted critical thinking and also helped them revise identified problems and potential policy solutions. They used feedback data to revise the policy multiple times.

Action/Policy Development
Each round of dialogues/analysis and problem identification culminated in a new version of the antiracism policy. The final policy included a set of accompanying regulations governing policy communication, educator training, curriculum and instruction, and policy enforcement.

As schools across the nation work to reduce racial disparities, it is our hope that this paper will provide practitioners and researchers with a model to engage youth in YPAR projects designed to transform schools through policy.

Authors

• Kimalee Cottrell Dickerson, University of Virginia

• Joanna Lee Williams, Rutgers University - New Brunswick