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Beyond School Spirit: The Effects of Youth‐Led Participatory Action Research in Two Urban High Schools
Author(s) -
Ozer Emily J.,
Wright Dana
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00780.x
Subject(s) - participatory action research , autonomy , psychology , action research , pedagogy , citizen journalism , diversification (marketing strategy) , intervention (counseling) , professionalization , sociology , political science , social science , marketing , psychiatry , anthropology , law , business
Prior research highlights the mismatch between adolescents' growing capacities for autonomy and the limited opportunities for influence in U.S. secondary schools. Youth‐led participatory research ( YPAR ), an approach in which young people research and advocate for change on problems of concern to them, could increase students' autonomy in secondary schools. This qualitative study of YPAR examined whether and how the intervention meaningfully affected the interactions and roles of students and adults in two distinctive urban high school settings, identifying concepts for further empirical investigation. Results suggested that YPAR enabled processes of student professionalization that led to novel student‐adult “collegial” interactions, expansion of domains of student influence, and diversification of students with opportunities to influence policies and practices across these two schools.