Exploring a Justice-Centered Approach to an App Development Club: A Middle School YPAR (Youth Participatory Action Research) Project

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Education as Empowerment: Participatory Action Research and Pedagogy (Table 11)

Abstract

As younger learners increasingly engage with computers, the need for informed and critical preparation of computing literacy rises. This qualitative study explores a 10-week after-school program for middle schoolers to design apps in a product design research cycle grounded in ethics. Students discussed topics including accessibility, privacy concerns, and radical empathy. The richness of discussion is demonstrated through a Stakeholder Activity where groups act out the role of stakeholders in a potential bias of a Snapchat filter. Results indicate that students are already engaging with impacts of computing and related ethical concerns. Providing these justice-centered spaces for students to exercise their agency could lead to more critical citizens dedicated to local change and thus, a more just education system.

Author

• Kristin Tenney, San Diego State U. & UC San Diego