Engaging Youth in a Participatory Evidence Synthesis

• In Event: Innovative Methods and Tools for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Abstract

Education policy has long been plagued by a knowledge-to-action gap. Researchers have minimized this gap by engaging individuals who are directly affected by policy, like youth, in primary research studies using participatory research methods (PRM). PRM emphasize academic researchers ceding space in the construction of research and knowledge, allowing for individuals with relevant lived experience to co-shape the research. PRM results in a more authentic understanding of education policy and opens paths to effect change through community-driven implementation. Using PRM to support evidence syntheses seems wise, given that syntheses are also tools for bridging the knowledge-to-action gap. In this paper, the authors examine the methodological challenges and opportunities of conducting a participatory evidence synthesis with high-school students and college freshmen.

Authors

• Sarah Peko-Spicer, American Institutes for Research
  Presenting Author

• Joshua R. Polanin, American Institutes for Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dorothy L. Espelage, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Luz Robinson, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author