Community-Based Research as Civic Engagement: An Example From the Youth Research Council

• In Event: Youth-Led Research on the Effects of Racial Microaggressions in U.S. High Schools: Processes and Findings

Abstract

Youth are often criticized as being apathetic, uninterested, and unengaged in political processes and civic life. Yet, we join with Critical Youth Studies (CYS) theorists and critical pedagogy scholars like Paulo Freire (1970) to argue that young people are – and should be seen as – holders of valuable experiential knowledge who are active in building coalitions to shape their worlds and transform inequitable realities (Kelly & Kamp, 2015; Quijada Cerecer et al., 2013).

Purpose & Theoretical Framework: The purpose of this paper is to highlight multiple youth-written narratives of their own experiences of civic engagement in the context of youth-led research in the Youth Research Council (YRC). The YRC follows a youth participatory action research (YPAR) model, in that we begin from the view that students’ lived experiences and local, context-based practitioner knowledge (e.g., teachers, policymakers), when analyzed using systematic methods and analyses, constitute strong research evidence that can be utilized for decision making (Brion-Meisels & Alter, 2018; Cammarota & Fine, 2008).

Methods and Data Sources: The goal of the YRC was not to conduct research on a particular topic or using particular methods; rather, the goal was to center the experiences and expertise of diverse youth with the aim of effecting evidence-based social change at the community and school levels. While our larger study focuses on the effects of racial microaggressions on high school students, this paper takes a collaborative narrative approach to understanding how the act of research itself is a form of civic engagement. Seven YRC Fellows contributed their individual narratives of research as civic engagement and then we collaborated to create a collective narrative for the discussion and conclusion as we weaved our individual narratives together.

Conclusions and Significance: In our efforts to center the voices and expertise of youth co-researchers in not only the research itself but also in the framing of findings, recommendations, and significance, we offer their words here as they suggest youth-led research can be powerful in making social change:
Manuela Kodwo: A lot of older people say, it's your generation’s duty to fix everything. It's your generation’s duty to fix racism, environmental issues, climate change, the prison system…You guys have to do all of this. But our generation isn't given the opportunities and the respect to actually fix these issues.
Sara Berhe-Abraha: I think you made a really good point with people being in Congress, and in all these big positions of power where they could be making big change. But when it comes to ground level work where they could be doing research and actually implementing different things, they're not showing up. And I think it's really interesting who gets the power and who's actually doing stuff with the amount of power that they have.
Oaklen Kalinichenko: Exactly. I think that’s a great point. It’s like, our research is giving our communities and our peers a voice. And the research we’re doing is our opportunity to make change with the power we have.

Authors

• Meagan Call-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University

• Amy Best, George Mason University

• Liz Rotherham, Youth Research Council

• Oaklen Kalinichenko, Youth Research Council

• Manuela Kodwo, Youth Research Council

• Sara Berhe-Abraha, Pomona College

• Widad Khalid, Youth Research Council

• Natale Gray, Youth Research Council

• Sara Martah, Youth Research Council