Research With Rather Than on Youth: Centering Youth in Student-Teacher Relationship Research

• In Event: Pedagogies of Agency, Justice, and Liberation

Abstract

Student-teacher relationships (STRs) are mutually constituted, reciprocal exchanges in which youth and adults form and sustain connections. As research increasingly links STRs to positive student outcomes, instruments to measure STRs have proliferated. Yet, most neglect student agency and the ways that youth with different intersectional identities operationalize strong STRs. Adapting principles of cognitive interviewing and youth participatory action research (YPAR), a team of adult and youth researchers engaged youth participants (ages 12-18) in qualitative research data generation and preliminary, collaborative analysis, using multiple youth voice elicitation techniques. Our findings offer insights into the use of youth-led and youth-informed qualitative research that stands to improve the efficacy of the conduct and products of empirical research across methodologies.

Authors

• Kate L. Phillippo, Loyola University Chicago

• Jerusha Osberg Conner, Villanova University

• Denise C. Pope, Stanford University

• Shannon Davidson, NPC Research

• Michal Goldstein, Harvard University