The inclusion of community voices in research is important. Over the years, research training programs have continued to emphasize that engagement with communities at the focus of research can promote thoughtful, sensitive designs ( Rivera et al., 2004 ). In this paper, we discuss a method for youth participation in the research process. In an attempt to move beyond “staged and superficial” participation in gathering youth perspectives, we advocate for including co-researchers in the development and modification of fundamental aspects of the research process, from data analysis to the development of additional research questions and collection methods ( Guishard & Tuck, 2013 ). In the course of a study designed to enroll middle school students in participatory co-design sessions ( Cahill, 2007 ) to aid in the development of educational technologies, it became apparent that our youth participants, as co-researchers, could also aid in the development, analysis, and coding of anonymized interview transcripts; development of themes; and creation of models for behaviors found in the transcripts ( Docan-Morgan, 2010 ; Luchtenberg et al., 2020 ). Thus, this paper presents a practical example of a co-research process that includes youth participants, with an emphasis on training in qualitative coding and the fundamentals of research design.

Inspired by work/think/play in qualitative research, we centered the idea of “play” in a qualitative research project to explore what proceeding from the idea of work/think/play might look like and accomplish. We pursued play in an experimental qualitative inquiry over dinner one night at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Our article centers on one work/think/play inquiry three of us conducted. Through a playful account of how play unfolded in our work/think/play inquiry that evening, we explore research play as generative, deadly, and censored in the context of neoliberalism and other terrors. We reflect on what (good) play does in qualitative research, what our work/think/play/birth/death/terror/qualitative/research accomplished, if anything. Maybe research play is vital, what keeps us fit to do critical qualitative research. Yet research play moves (well) beyond normative rules of much qualitative research. Is it worth the risk? Can we know? Even after?

No abstract

This article underscores the urgency of protecting the most vulnerable citizens in the United States during the time of political distress brought forth by the Trump administration. More specifically, in this piece we draw attention to social factors affecting the nation's immigrants and their children. We ask readers to consider immigrants' struggles and think about our society, its citizens, and the meaning of citizenry, broadly, while at the same time acknowledging immigrants' numerous contributions. We point to schools, which often carry core values of our communities, and stress the need for support and assistance for those who often find themselves on the front lines in this climate of distress and anxiety: the nation's educators. Further, as we discuss the struggles enabled by the political discourse of hatred and intolerance, we attempt to unpack the current xenophobic climate as well as highlight the devastating impact of xenophobia, particularly on the nation's schools and its children, who habitually find themselves under siege due to their heritage and/or citizenship status.

No abstract