Statewide University-School Partnerships in YPAR: Contradiction Analysis Through the Use of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Liberatory Research Approaches With Young People: YPAR and Youth Resistance

Abstract

Wisconsin StoryBridges is a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study where youth examined issues pertaining to their lived experiences, schools, and/or communities through research and dissemination of knowledge through digital storytelling. The project intended to advance asset-based learning ecologies by promoting students’ meaning-making and critical thinking abilities through awareness of their social and civic identities based on sense of belonging and relational understandings across diversity. However, the collective nature of YPAR involving youth and adults came with complications and challenges that are worth examining through the lens of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). This study focuses on the tensions and the constraints found in the YPAR implementation to contribute to the knowledge of evolving and shifting practices of YPAR.

Authors

• Joan J Hong, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Stacey J Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison