Co-Writing Our Roles: Exploring Intergenerational Dynamics on the Write4Change Team

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Applications of Participartory Action Methods in Education Research: Literacy, Needs Assessment, Intergenerational Dynamics, and School Mental Health (Table 7)

Abstract

This study explores the way in which an intergenerational Participatory Design Research team negotiates the roles of "youth" and "adult researcher." In the Write4Change project, nineteen researchers partner to co-design a youth-centered digital writing community on Discord. Drawing on youth participatory methodologies, I am partnering with a youth researcher to conduct Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) on digital artifacts collected from the project. Preliminary findings indicate that the roles "youth" and "adult researchers" intersect meaningfully with other forms of expertise across the team, such as prior knowledge of the server or research experience. Further analysis will illuminate how researchers perceive and shape age-related dynamics. Such findings will clarify how age-related labels can be equitably co-defined by intergenerational research teams.

Author

• Clara Abbott, University of Pennsylvania