Peripheral Participants: What Youth Learn From Black and Indigenous Movements on Selfsame Land

• In Event: Research for the Next Generations: Doctoral Education for Black and Indigenous Communities

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper is based on a four year participatory action research project that invited Black and Indigenous youth living in Toronto to study contemporary Black and Indigenous-led social movements through a variety of research activities. We outline what young people learn from social movements and how this shapes their post-secondary decisions. We focus on young people who are peripheral participants, which refers to participants who are not directly involved with organizing but are in proximity to these movements.

Perspective(s) and theoretical framework:
The guiding theoretical framework for the study was Youth Participatory Action Research (yPAR), a praxis that “provides young people with opportunities to study social problems affecting their lives and determine actions to rectify these problems” (Cammarota & Fine, 2008). This method positions young people as experts of their lived experiences. Therefore, the paper treats the questions, thoughts, and work produced by the youth co-researchers as theory/ies.

We also employ a critical place inquiry (Tuck & McKenzie, 2014), which understands the centrality of place in qualitative research. Attending to place in deliberate and complicated ways allows us to theorize Black and Indigenous movements as happening on selfsame land (Tuck, Guess and Sultan, 2014).

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry:
The paper shares data co-created with youth researchers through visual and non-visual methods. The research study primarily used photovoice, a qualitative research methodology that aims to enable participants to document, to promote critical dialogue, and to reach policymakers (Wang & Burris, 1997). Young people were also trained in interviewing techniques, designing and conducting peer-to-peer semi-structured life world interviews (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015). Furthermore, they participated in focus groups facilitated by the program facilitators and researchers.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials:
The paper draws on interviews conducted by youth participants with one another about the impact Black and Indigenous social movements have on their lives and futures. The paper also discusses data from focus groups about two prominent social movements, Black Lives Matter and Idle No More (separate from one another).

Results substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view:
The paper describes seven ideas that young people learn from social movements. Youth learn, 1) that school curriculum is insufficient in discussions of race, class, sexism, and social relations; 2) theories of change beyond meritocracy; 3) the importance of political analysis; 4) what participation and collaboration can feel like; 5) to consider the specificity of their cities; and 6) these social movements are fallible and imperfect. Further, the paper outlines what is learned by specific discussions about Black and Indigenous social movements together.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work:
Literature on youth and activism tends to focus on youth participation in social movements and what is learned through direct participation. Our paper contributes to literature on youth and activism that pertains to indirect or peripheral participation in these movements. Additionally, our paper thinks about Indigenous and Black social movements alongside one another, looking at the overlaps and divergences between these projects.

Authors

• Sefanit Habtom, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Jade Toneshia Nixon, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author