The Potential of Youth Participatory Action Research to Reposition Students of Color as Social Justice Educational Leaders

• In Event: Inverting the Leadership Paradigm: Voices of Youth and Parent Leaders for Social Justice

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper explores the ways in which youth participatory action research (YPAR)—collective research and activism—may serve to reposition Students of Color as social justice educational leaders. These students, who are often framed through a deficit lens as a problem (Valencia, 2010), hold special insights into systemic inequalities in education. This paper examines the processes through which participation in YPAR may change how student members position themselves and are positioned.

Context, Methods, and Data:
The paper presents findings from a study of a semester-long YPAR program involving about 15 middle school students at a K-8 school—the majority of whom identified as students of color, specifically Black and Latina/o—and three university researchers of varying racial and ethnic backgrounds. The students, with adult guidance, learned research methods, read fiction and nonfiction texts, and conducted research of the their choosing, specifically focusing on bullying generally and bullying related to race or LGBTQ identification. At the end of the semester, the students presented their research to all school staff and the 5th- and 6th-graders at the school.

The YPAR program took place during the Spring 2015 semester, and data collection occurred throughout this period. We wrote fieldnotes and video recorded all group activities and presentations. In addition, we interviewed 15 students and 12 school staff of varying racial/ethnic backgrounds. We employed a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2003) and qualitative methods to analyze the data, entailing two coding cycles and an analysis of implicit and explicit discursive meanings.

Theoretical Framework:
Guiding this study is Cultural Historical Activity Theory, which points to the potential of reorganizing school environments to promote collective learning and change (Engeström, 1999, 2001; Gutiérrez, Morales, & Martinez, 2009). Within reorganized environments, there is the potential for the creation of “third spaces,” in which “alternative and competing discourses and positionings transform conflict and difference into rich zones of collaboration and learning” (Gutiérrez et al., 1999, pp. 286-287). Though unscripted, these spaces are moments that can arise through the manipulation of an environment.

Results:
We found that the YPAR project served as a catalyst for third spaces, which, in turn, influenced the ways that some students positioned themselves and were positioned by adults. While some of this change transpired throughout the semester, much of it revolved around the presentation to school staff. Many students reported that, after the presentation, they considered themselves researchers and willing and able to take the lead to address the issues of bullying uncovered in their research. Some adults reported that they began to see some students in a new light and expressed the desire to include students in school decision making. However, these shifts were limited in scope and not all students repositioned themselves in the same way or were viewed differently by teachers.

Significance:
This study is significant in that it illustrates how YPAR may be used as a mechanism by which Students of Color can reposition themselves and be repositioned as social justice educational leaders, rather than problems to be solved.

Author

• Melanie Bertrand, Arizona State University