Reimagining the High School Experience: The Uses and Limitations of Student-Generated Documents for Understanding the Past and Present

• In Event: The Politics of Educational Research, Past and Present

Abstract

In this essay, we examine the potential uses and limitations of student-generated documents in the history of education in particular and educational research more broadly. By assessing new developments in the field and their methodological implications, we seek to provide a path to expand the stories we tell about the American high school and students. Although we offer no panaceas, we aim to reveal how different sources, and more critical analyses of those sources, will lead to more inclusive and representative scholarship, particularly spotlighting student voices that are regularly silenced by schools and the historical record (Danns, 2020; Franklin, 2021; Ladson-Billings, 2000; Paris & Alim, 2017).

Authors

• Alexander Hyres, University of Utah

• Kyle P. Steele, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh