AI in Action Research: Muzzle or Megaphone? Voice, Power, and Pedagogy in Youth-Led Inquiry

• In Event: AI and Action Research: Coding Robots, Literacy, Youth-led, Assessment, Tensions and Possibilities

Abstract

As AI becomes more accessible, young researchers are beginning to incorporate it into participatory action research. With this integration comes new tensions around voice, authorship, agency, and power. This session explores how youth and undergraduate researchers are using generative AI as part of their AR projects for civic education, drawing on case studies from a high school civic engagement program and an undergraduate AR course. Together, we ask: Does AI amplify student voice or flatten it? Can AI serve as a co-thinker, or does it risk reproducing hegemonic patterns? How might critical pedagogy evolve to address this new technological co-presence? Through storytelling, reflection, and student artifacts, we invite dialogue on what it means to teach, learn, and resist alongside AI.

Authors

• Dane Stickney, University of Colorado - Denver

• Allison JoAnn Lester, Arizona State University