Growing Together: Sustaining Identities, Literacies, and Epistemologies of Intergenerationality

• In Event: Toward Transformative Intergenerational Collaboration: Identities, Literacies, and Contexts for Participatory Research With Youth

Abstract

In our highly polarized sociopolitical climate, youth and educators must cultivate the kinds of engaged practices that foster agency and critical hope for democracy and justice. As Cochran-Smith and Lytle argued, the knowledge base for teaching, informed by conventional research, has led to discontinuities between teacher preparation and educators’ experiences in-practice, lacking “a truly emic perspective” (1992, p. 300). While various social science fields are exploring intergenerationality, they usually refer to experiences among family members and in communities (Perez-Encinas et al., 2021; Pinto et al., 2009). Paper 1 offers a conceptual framework that bridges these areas of research by considering the possibilities of intergenerationality in participatory action research with youth, or YPAR (Caraballo et al., 2017; Morrell, 2008).

Conceptual Framework
Grounded in practice theories, this paper builds on two key assumptions: that identities and literacies are multiple and contextual, always being negotiated in particular cultural worlds, or figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998); and that intergenerational work can disrupt hierarchies between learners and educators (Filipiak et al., 2021). Building on Caraballo and Soleimany’s (2018) conceptualization of transformative pedagogies grounded in critical autoethnography (Camangian, 2010), examining the self-in-context (see Figure 1) in a figured world of YPAR centers youth and adult allies’ multiple selves literacies in order to expose and disrupt structures and hierarchies that inhibit dialogue and collaboration.

Modes of Inquiry and Data Sources
[Program Name] invites youth to: 1) explore what matters to them; 2) question what counts as research and data; and 3) use multiple multimodal literacies, such as hip hop, spoken word, movement, and digital visual media to nurture healing, creativity, and hope via collaboration and community-building.

As part of a partnership between a major research university, a city-wide public dual enrollment program for high school youth, and an afterschool youth research program, youth and educators who were engaged in independent action research inquiries came together in a series of joint research sessions to share their projects and findings, provide and solicit feedback, and engage in dialogue about recommendations and implications for their work.

Findings and Significance
Youth and educators’ experiences in the joint research sessions disrupt some of the divisions between various "roles" (student, educator, institution), as well as hierarchies of power and knowledge in/beyond institutions. Emerging themes indicate that youth, educators, and researchers experienced critical epistemologies (Caraballo et al. 2017) and literacies of resistance (Stornaiuolo & Thomas, 2018) in the intergenerational sessions as an empowering context that sustained their identities as researchers and agents of change. These experiences led to generative dialogue about the roles and purposes of curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher preparation.

Beyond introducing youth and educators to participatory action theories and methods, supporting the development of critical, culturally sustaining perspectives, the figured world of YPAR sustains intergenerational conversation about topics that are typically debated only by educational scholars. This line of scholarship illuminates frequently overlooked complexities at the intersection of classroom instruction, social justice, and schooling, and offers educators a model for intergenerational collaboration and the possibilities of critical research.

Author

• Limarys Caraballo, Teachers College, Columbia University