Aligning Intent and Impact: Lessons From a Multiyear Youth Participatory Action Research Project

• In Event: Paradigm Shifts: Youth Participatory Action Research and the Disruption of Hegemonic Structures

Abstract

Building on prior theoretical work that articulates tensions of participation, purpose and process in school-based YPAR projects, this paper shares process-level findings from a multiyear youth participatory action research project at a comprehensive urban high school. Focusing on data related to adult decision-making around purpose and participation, we argue that there is often a gap between intent and impact in school-based YPAR projects. Reducing this gap requires adults to act as both broker and buffer, creating space for youth to critically examine school-based inequities while simultaneously working to buffer the effects of school-enacted structural violence on individual and collective wellbeing. As such, adults must be ready to sacrifice concrete aspects of their own privilege for their students’ collective wellbeing.

Authors

• Gretchen A. Brion-Meisels, Harvard University

• Zanny June Alter, Harvard Graduate School of Edu