The application of emancipatory pedagogical methods such as youth participatory action research may serve as a valuable practice for addressing educational inequity. This article presents educational leaders, teachers, researchers, and youth advocates with a description of applicable pedagogical methods that comprised the implementation of a youth participatory action research seminar at the middle school level. The authors describe a seminar that incorporated tenets of critical pedagogy and radical healing to maximize student engagement and enhance the impact of student voice in a project to expand school equity. Also provided is a course outline highlighting topics covered and activities implemented throughout the 12-week seminar. Important considerations and lessons learned are also discussed.
AdamsM.BellL. A.GriffinP. (Eds.). (2016). Teaching for diversity and social justice (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
2.
Blake, J. J., Lund, E. M., Zhou, Q., Kwok, O., & Benz, M. R. (2012). National prevalence rates of bully victimization among students with disabilities in the United States. School Psychology Quarterly27(4): 210--222. DOI: 10.1037/spq0000008
3.
Bryant-Davis, T., & Ocampo, C. (2005). The trauma of racism: Implications for counseling, research, and education. The Counseling Psychologist, 33(4), 574--578. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000005276581
4.
CammarotaJ.Berta-AvilaM.AyalaJ.RiveraM.RodriguezL. (2016). PAR entremundos. In ValenzuelaA. (Ed.), Growing critically conscious teachers: A social justice curriculum for educators of Latino/a youth (pp. 67–89). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
5.
CammarotaJ.FineM. (Eds.). (2008). Revolutionizing education: Youth participatory action research in motion. New York, NY: Routledge.
6.
CreswellJ. W.PothC. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches(4th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
7.
DeansT. (1999). Service-learning in two keys: Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy in relation to john Dewey’s pragmatism. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 6(1), 15–29.
8.
DolanT.ChristensB. D.LinC. (2015). Combining youth organizing and youth participatory action research to strengthen student voice in education reform. Teachers College Record, 117(13), 153–170.
9.
FreireP. (1970/2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.
10.
GinwrightS. A. (2016). Hope and healing in urban education: How urban activists and teachers are reclaiming matters of the heart. New York, NY: Routledge.
11.
GirouxH. A. (2014). When schools become dead zones of the imagination: A critical pedagogy manifesto. Policy Futures in Education, 12(4), 491–499.
12.
HavilandV. S. (2008). “Things get glossed over”: Rearticulating the silencing power of whiteness in education. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(1), 40–54. doi:10.1177/0022487107310751
13.
KajnerT.ChovanecD.UnderwoodM.MianA. (2013). Critical community service learning: Combining critical classroom pedagogy with activist community placements. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 19(2), 36–49. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3239521.0019.203
14.
KohfeldtD.LanghoutR. D. (2012). The Five Whys method: A tool for developing problem definitions in collaboration with children. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 22(4), 316–329. doi:10.1002/casp.1114
15.
KornbluhM.OzerE. J.AllenC. D.KirshnerB. (2015). Youth participatory action research as an approach to sociopolitical development and the new academic standards: Considerations for educators. The Urban Review, 47(5), 868–892. doi:10.1007/s11256-015-0337-6
16.
Kosciw, J. G., Greytak, E. A., Giga, N. M., Villenas, C., & Danischewski, D. J. (2016). The 2015 national school climate survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation's schools. New York: GLSEN.
17.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35, 3–12.
18.
McLarenP. (2015). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. New York, NY: Routledge.
19.
MidgleyG. (2000). Systemic intervention: Philosophy, methodology, and practice. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
20.
MirraN.GarciaA.MorrellE. (2016). Doing youth participatory action research: Transforming inquiry with researchers, educators, and students. New York, NY and London, UK: Routledge.
21.
NouriA.SajjadiS. M. (2014). Emancipatory pedagogy in practice: Aims, principles and curriculum orientation. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 5(2). Retrieved from http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/228
22.
OldfieldB. J.TinneyB. J.DodingtonJ. M. (2018). Partnering with youth in community-based participatory research to address violence prevention. Pediatric Research, 84(2), 155–156. doi: 10.1038/s41390-018-0074-0
23.
OzerE. J. (2016). Youth-led participatory action research. In L. A. Jason & D. S. Glenwick (Eds.), Handbook of methodological approaches to community-based research: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods (pp. 263–272). Oxford: University Press.
24.
OzerE. J.RittermanM. L.WanisM. G. (2010). Participatory action research (PAR) in middle school: Opportunities, constraints, and key processes. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46(1–2), 152–166. doi:10.1007/s10464-010-9335-8
25.
PollackS.FusoniM. (2005). Moving beyond icebreakers: An innovative approach to group facilitation, learning, and action. Boston, MA: Center for Teen Empowerment.
26.
RodríguezL. F.BrownT. M. (2009). From voice to agency: Guiding principles for participatory action research with youth. New Directions for Youth Development, 123, 19–34. doi:10.1002/yd.312
27.
RossenE. A.HullR. (Eds.). (2013). Supporting and educating traumatized students: A guide for school-based professionals. Oxford, UK and New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
28.
SavageG. (2008). Silencing the everyday experiences of youth? Deconstructing issues of subjectivity and popular/corporate culture in the English classroom. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 29(1), 51–68. doi:10.1080/01596300701801344
29.
ShinR. Q.EzeoforI.SmithL. C.WelchJ.GoodrichK. M. (2016). The development and validation of the critical consciousness scale. The Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63, 210–223. doi:10.1037/cou0000137
30.
SmithL.DavisK.BhowmikM. (2010). Youth participatory action research groups as school counseling interventions. Professional School Counseling, 14(2), 174–182.
31.
SolomonM. F.SiegelD. J. (Eds.). (2003). Healing trauma: Attachment, mind, body, and brain (1st ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
32.
YossoT. J. (2006). Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano educational pipeline. New York, NY: Routledge.
