Intergenerational Reflection and Collaboration: Youth Organizers and a Teacher Educator Engaging in Community-Based Action Research

• In Event: By Us, for Us, and With Us: Minoritized Youth Leveraging Participatory Action Research to Reimagine Educational and Racial Justice

Abstract

Objectives
Youth Liberation Army (YLA) is a grassroots organization established and run by marginalized youth to advocate for the abolition of schooling and address the issues most concerning young people. YLA facilitates trainings for educators to invite potential adult allies to work with them in solidarity for youth-centered and place-conscious education. This paper provides findings from a community-based action research (CBAR) project which examines the process of YLA designing, implementing, and analyzing an adult ally training for teacher candidates (TCs) enrolled in a teacher education program (TEP). Through CBAR, this paper shares critical reflections on intergenerational collaboration from the perspectives of the authors: a participant-researcher-teacher educator and a participant-youth organizer.

Theoretical Framework
This paper is grounded in community-based pedagogy, which connects the places, people, and ecosystems that surround students to the classroom. Through this dynamic practice, the identities of students and communities are (re)centered in the learning environment (González et al., 2005; Yosso, 2005). Community-based pedagogy cultivates a sense of belonging for students in order to bridge the classroom and home (Boggs, 1998). When situated in youth resistance theories of change (Tuck & Yang, 2014), community-based pedagogy becomes a praxis for teachers and students to respond to the socio-cultural, political, and environmental needs of a local place (Love, 2019; Shalaby, 2017).

Data Sources and Methods
This is a critical qualitative CBAR project (Bang et al, 2015; Tuck & McKenzie, 2015; Tuhiwai-Smith, 2012; Ulmer, 2017). Critical qualitative data sources (semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflective journals, pedagogical and curricular artifacts, and planning meetings) document the process of youth organizers, adult allies, and a participant-researcher designing and enacting an adult ally training within a community-based methods course. CBAR purposefully invites critical reflexive processes between researcher-participants and participants.

Findings
This paper provides critical reflections on intergenerational collaboration from the perspectives of two participants: a cis-gender white woman who is a researcher-teacher educator and a cis-gender Black woman who is a youth organizer. For context, the participants collaborated to design an adult ally training for TCs in a community-based methods course, which centered around local environmental justice issues in connection to education. YLA facilitated a panel presentation, question and answer session, small group discussion following the close-read of thought-provoking texts, and role play scenarios featuring a do’s/don’ts list for community-based classrooms. Data sources from the CBAR project examined the effectiveness of the adult ally training to inform YLA’s ongoing community organizing endeavors and the development of community-based pedagogy within TEPs. One of the main data sources included semi-structured interviews to engage in critical reflection and collaborative dialogue about the adult ally training. The findings thus share and examine the interview between participants as they discussed the impact of the adult ally training.

Scholarly Significance
Through intergenerational reflection and collaboration, the findings provide implications for teacher educators who intend to foster partnerships with youth-centered grassroots organizations. In this way, teacher educators may curate community-based pedagogical and methodological practices that are informed by and benefit local young people directly.

Author

• Kaitlin E. Popielarz, The University of Texas-San Antonio