Visual and Video Analysis with the Youth Research Council

• In Event: Community, Creativity, Curiosity: An Interactive Demonstration and Workshop Exploring Participatory, Arts-Based Methods Across Diverse Contexts

Abstract

The Youth Research Council (YRC), founded in 2021, convenes 30-40 racially and ethnically diverse youth as co-researchers alongside adult researchers from universities in the mid-Atlantic region. We conduct research on issues important to youth research fellows and share findings and recommendations with local decision makers with the goal of social change. The YRC follows a 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).
From 2021-2023, YRC Fellows designed and carried out a multimethod study, using rapid research methods such as hallway interviews (n=70), online questionnaires (n=732), testimonials, arts-based methods, and social media strategies to gather and analyze qualitative and quantitative data about the prevalence and effects of racial microaggressions on high school students in Northern Virginia (Authors, 2024). In 2023, we expanded our study to examine the ways racial and other forms of discrimination, including gender-based discriminatory practices, create feelings of unsafety, particularly among students of Color who identify as women or transgender. In our fourth year of operations, we are engaging in visual, arts-based strategies to make meaning of (analyze) and share the data we have collected to date. In this session we will share some of the visual arts-based methods the YRC has used and how those methods have offered new and unique opportunities for Fellows to express themselves, generate new knowledge, and share their ideas and calls for change. We will specifically demonstrate artistic data visualization, video production and documentary filmmaking, and intersectionality drawings. We share an interactive video during this session, featuring our youth co-researchers.
The significance of this work is multifaceted. First, it is significant that youth who are most affected by discriminatory practices and policies are the ones who not only designed the study but also carried it out. A second point of significance is the sharing of arts-based methods that are not typically used in educational research but are shown through the work of the YRC to be extraordinarily powerful in engaging young people, educators, and policy makers in the work of social change.

Authors

• Meagan Call-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University

• Bethany Monea, University of the District of Columbia

• Courtney Bell, George Mason University