From Learners to Leaders: Youth with Refugee Backgrounds’ Reflections of Engaging in Storytelling Participatory Action Research

• In Event: Refugee education: Balancing challenges and assets

Proposal

While the importance of conducting participatory, refugee-led research has received significant attention in the field of education in emergencies, there are limited studies that actively engage youth or young adults with refugee backgrounds in a research project. Employing a community-based participatory research with four youth with refugee backgrounds in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States, Clarkston, Georgia, this study aims to share the experiences of four young adults with refugee backgrounds who were actively involved in the participatory action research that encompasses partaking in the following activities: 1) a two-day intensive storytelling workshop, 2) virtual, participant-lead storytelling sessions, 3) presentation/story sharing at an academic institution, 4) curriculum/lesson planning sessions and 5) five-day storytelling summer camp. In this study, we answer the following questions: How do youth with refugee backgrounds in Clarkston, Georgia, make sense of storytelling over time? What are their perceptions of taking active roles in implementing a storytelling project with children from their communities? How do these yearlong participatory experiences influence their sense of identity and belonging?

Modeled after the McIntyre’s (2000) principles, we perceive PAR as the collective investigation of a problem, the reliance on indigenous knowledge to better understand that problem, and the desire to take individual and/or collective action to deal with the stated problem. Our approach is premised on the belief that the youth with refugee backgrounds being investigated are best positioned to identify issues pertaining to their communities (Gilhooly & Lee, 2017). The use of autobiography not only allows the opportunity for refugee youth to reconstruct memories but also extends an invitation to others to do so (Rosen, 1998). We advocate for a community-based participatory approach that highlights participation as integral to “disrupting dynamics of oppression and exclusion and for promoting the voices of those the research is meant to benefit” (Fisher, Sonn, & Evans, 2007; Sonn & Green, 2006, as cited in Sonn et al., 2013, p.98). The consultative and participatory process also enabled implementation of a contextually-relevant and appropriate intervention.

This presentation will reflect on the yearlong project, particularly focusing on the summer camp that was designed and implemented by the PAR participants for the 1.5 generation and second generation youths with refugee backgrounds in Clarkston, Georgia, to express their emotions and experiences through multi-modal storytelling. Based on the youth narratives and interviews, we will present how the youth navigate their storytelling journey from a learner to a leader of their communities. We will also share their experiences of being part of the decision-making and mutual ownership in this participatory research project. This work highlights the role of deeper participatory work and the use of displaced learners' own stories to challenge deficit frameworks, and the importance of actively creating spaces for children and youth from refugee backgrounds to feel belonging and navigate identity through storytelling.

Authors

• Jihae Cha, The George Washington University

• Minkyung Choi, Montclair State University