Latinx Youth as Researchers and Researched: What Only We Can Bring

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Latinx Youth at Work: Negotiating Identity, Agency, and Communication in Professional, Community, and Academic Spaces

Abstract

As qualitative, participatory, and design-based research methods evolve, so do the range of roles and identities engaged by those involved in the research, with consequences for the scholarly knowledge produced. The Integrating Literacies Project began as a traditional qualitative study. We gathered data at field sites with ethnographic fieldnotes and audiorecordings, interviewed youth participants formally and informally, and administered whole-school surveys with open-ended questions to help define constructs, inform ongoing research design, and understand how representative our focal youth were of the larger school populations of Latinx youth. As reciprocity to the school site and work–study organizations, we also designed and facilitated several professional development sessions for teachers and work-study supervisors based on emergent findings from the study.

Over time, involvement and participation shifted for some youth. They helped to design and facilitate professional development for their supervisors. They became members of the research team as the project became their official work-study site. One participant graduated from high school and was hired as an undergraduate research assistant the next year. Another young person from outside the study (but with similar personal history and demographic background as participants) was hired onto the team as an undergraduate assistant by learning with team members in a First Year Seminar that focused on project constructs-- a seminar that was initially designed by the research team with youth involvement.

We are the four Latinx youth/young adult members of the research team bringing lived expertise to the Integrating Literacies Project. In this presentation, we describe our expert and apprentice roles as members of the Integrating Literacies research team, and the consequences of these roles, by responding to the questions: (1) What were our roles and identities related to the ILP study, and what conditions supported those roles and identities? (2) How did our presence as team members and participants contribute uniquely to the knowledge generated by the study? (3) How did we learn and grow from these experiences, individually and as a group? (4) What was challenging or troubling about navigating these roles and identities, and what might help in the future?

Several sources of data inform our paper. At every research team meeting, we kept track of our activities, ideas, and contributions in a team googledoc that also has links to any other documents we produced. Sometimes, we audiorecorded our meetings and transcribed our discussions. As part of the first year seminar, and as part of our research contributions, we responded to many journal prompts about our personal histories, experiences, and understandings of research constructs. We also were interviewed about our experiences just like other ILP participants. Finally, we have become a community that IS the project, so we carry each other and the project with us all the time, leading us to new ideas and understandings. We look forward to sharing our contributions and experiences with educators and researchers.

Authors

• Dominic Garcia, University of California - Davis

• Yadira Lopez, University of California - Davis

• Jessica Avila, University of California, Davis

• Jennifer Lainez, University of California - Davis