Engaging Youth as Change Agents of Their Own Lived Experiences: YPAR as Critical Qualitative Methodology

• In Event: Critical Participatory Action Research for Us, by Us in U.S. Postsecondary Education

Abstract

This paper addresses the necessity of employing youth participatory action research (YPAR) as a critical qualitative methodology to support and shape youth’s access to higher education. Youth are acknowledged as the knowledge holders and experts of their own experiences. Youth are the change agents of their own lives and communities. This study employed YPAR in the context of the rural South to shape Black students’ access to higher education. Lessons learned are offered for scholars and audience members wishing to engage in the practice of YPAR through non-extractive and genuinely intentional community-driven approaches. Specifically, employing YPAR among rural Black youth allowed the opportunity for this student population to be introduced to a methodology that potentially shaped their access to higher education with them being actively involved in all research processes (Cammarota & Fine, 2008).

Photovoice is a powerful tool to engage in while employing YPAR that captures the lived experiences which directly impact the lives of the youth engaged in the study as student co-collaborators and is that which can be used to shift and change the power held in their narratives (Wang & Burris, 1997). Such a research method is critical in allowing youth to be the experts and change agents of their own lived experiences. Photovoice is instrumental in supporting youth as the change agents of their own lived experiences, specifically pertaining to shaping their access to higher education. Employing photovoice among the rural Black youth in our study helped them capture their own lived experiences through photography, which supported the discussion and implementation of the action plan of their choice. Further photovoice, supported them in providing language to their lived experiences during our discussions of the photos. The photos generated conversation allowing the student co-collaborators to see and understand how the prompts they addressed impacted their daily lives in accessing higher education. Further, photovoice among the youth revealed to them a new research method that extends beyond written research, which was often voiced by the research team. Hence, photovoice was instrumental in supporting and expanding the youth’s concept of community as it pertains to their access to higher education as well as increasing their knowledge of what research can entail, which for YPAR extends beyond words to include photography (Wang, 1999).

As a researcher, it is vital to acknowledge your positionality in relation to the research and relationship to the community of individuals you are engaged in the research with (Milner IV, 2007). Within our study, shared power was constant as rural Black youth remained the experts and knowledge holders of their lived experiences through guiding conversations in our research team meetings and developing the action plan of their choice, inclusive of back up plans. To ensure that shared power was consistent throughout the study, I employed peer review (Watt, 2007), with one peer reviewer being a Sista Scholar who is a PAR expert and a second peer reviewer who is my thought partner in academia. This and other lessons learned will be shared in this paper presentation.

Author

• Jenay Willis, University of Mississippi