Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Bettencourt, Genia; Manly, Catherine A.; Kimball, Ezekiel; and Wells, Ryan, "STEM degree completion and first-generation college students. A cumulative disadvantage approach to the outcomes gap" (2020). Review of Higher Education. 35.

In the United States, adultism creates dynamics in which youth are oppressed and their experiences dismissed. Youth participatory action research (YPAR), a research method and theoretical construct, provides one forum through which to challenge adultism by providing youth with voice and input. Such an approach contrasts with traditional banking models of education to focus on the assets youth possess. In this article, I argue that YPAR can serve as a tool for liberation when approached as a contact zone, problem-posing education, and a process rather than a product. I then advocate for key considerations of YPAR work to include the need to challenge research norms, encourage reflexivity, and promote youth-centered approaches. These considerations span individual, collective, and institutional measures to support equitable and just applications of YPAR work.

In 2014, an online student activist movement-"I, Too, Am"-exposed everyday racism Black collegians experience. The movement began at Harvard University and spread to universities throughout the U.S. and abroad. Student activism maintains a strong social media presence, but there is little empirical scholarship on the subject. This study mitigates the literature gap by investigating the "I, Too, Am Harvard" and "I, Too, Am Oxford" campaigns. While in a broad sense Black college enrollment grows in the United States and the England, these students face multiple forms of oppression including negative campus racial climate and microaggressions (Kimura, 2014;Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000). We use critical discourse analysis as well as counterspaces as a theoretical framework to examine the "I, Too, Am" campaigns. Counterspaces provide a way for Students of Color to counter the institutional hegemony and racism they experience on their campuses by coming together to affirm and validate their racial identity and racialized experiences (Carter, 2007;Solórzano et al., 2000). Findings discuss (a) how British and American Students of Color are narrating and navigating their experiences with campus racism through social media, (b) I, Too Am as an avenue for exposing the transnational pervasiveness of institutionalized campus racism, and (c) social media as a means of promoting solidarity and counterspace among Students of Color across the Atlantic.

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