Data Warriors: A Youth Participatory Action Research Project at an Urban High School

• In Event: Social Justice and Community Engagement in Math Education: Four Examples From New York and Utah

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Paradigms

Data Warriors is an after-school club bringing together high school students, mathematics teachers, and faculty and graduate students at a local University to explore the intersection of environmental justice, mathematics, and geography. Truth Seekers engages youth as committed members of a multi-generational research team to create a space of community, collaboration, and learning.

Drawing from Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) praxis (Caraballo et al., 2017; McIntyre, 2000), youth participants in Data Warriors are positioned as competent researchers and experts in their own experience. In addition to opening a research space for youth to investigate and address social problems, YPAR carries pedagogical commitments. In YPAR, teaching and learning are a collaborative process, with youth taking an active, central role in their learning (Caraballo & Lyiscott, 2020). Also inspired by Gholdy Muhammad’s (2020) Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy framework, we sought to foster students’ criticality through place-based inquiry that centers the role of geography in the lived experiences of youth (Butler & Sinclair, 2020) by layering several texts such as articles, websites, and maps.

Mode of inquiry and Evidence

During the 2022-2023 school year, Data Warriors participants researched lead poisoning in their city through engagement with community organizations, mapping of lead poisoning rates, and modeling of the half-life decay of lead in the body. While research was focused on environmental justice utilizing various mathematical, cartographic, and qualitative techniques, adult members of the research team investigated the program as a pedagogical tool. A budget for weekly pizza was fundamental as a “draw” for getting students to participate in the after school setting.

Building community and trust was crucial to facilitating this space of shared inquiry. Supported by the adult researchers, youth participants were the primary drivers of the environmental justice research project and framed as valid producers of knowledge and competent community researchers. During the pilot year of the program, youth reflected regularly on their experiences and presented their research findings to community members (see Figure 4). Youth experiences, reflections, and research outputs are purposely centered in program evaluation.

[Figure 4]

Results

Throughout the program, youth grew more comfortable with their roles as researchers. Caitlin Cahill describes YPAR as a form of raising critical consciousness first for participants and then for others through a process that takes seriously the contributions of youth (Cahill, 2004). Through Data Warriors, students took the approach to first educate themselves, and then educate others at the close of the program. Many students discussed positive outcomes from having this collaborative research space outside of the typical school day.

Scholarly Significance

Data Warriors pilots a space of engaged, interdisciplinary learning and research for youth. As this work grows, we hope to build the leadership capacity of student researchers and facilitate spaces of further collaboration for and with students in mathematics and geography. Engaging students in action research not only engages underutilized perspectives, but also empowers students to take a more active role in their learning and to share what they have learned with others.

Authors

• Lauren Ashby, Syracuse University

• Stephen Lewis Caviness, Syracuse University

• Nicole L. Fonger, Syracuse University

• Ken Hisamatsu Keech, Syracuse City School District