Exploring Food Insecurity: Engaging Alternative School Students in Youth Participatory Action Research

• In Event: Education Research Service Project Invited Poster Session

Abstract

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) engages students as researchers as they problematize and generate actions to address sociopolitical issues (McIntyre, 2000). Students who engage in YPAR projects may experience positive academic outcomes, such as increased test scores, graduation rates, and school engagement (Cabrera et al., 2014), and these projects may support thedevelopment of students’ community-based intergenerational networks (Mitra, 2005), networks among diverse groups (Flores, 2007), and professional networks (Rubin & Jones, 2007). The objective for this service project is to support the OGrows partnership, comprised of Opelika City Schools, the city of Opelika, and Auburn University as we extend the implementation of YPAR at an alternative school in Opelika, Alabama. Students will choose topics and conduct research around food insecurity, to include problematizing and investigating the effects of food scarcity and hunger, access to food and transportation, and the 'impact' of local and regional resources on the community’s food security.

Authors

• Hannah Carson Baggett, Auburn University

• Sean Forbes, Auburn University