Embracing problems, processes, and contact zones: Using youth participatory action research to challenge adultism

Bettencourt, Genia M.

doi:10.1177/1476750318789475

Cited by 84 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Many young people felt that their participation could only be limited to the formal system. Most importantly, it seemed that within Cuba's system young people were not being recognised as sources of innovation and new ideas: we found very deep ‘adultism', the marginalisation of youth knowledge because of age (Bettencourt, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Yet, if I were to replicate the process, I would integrate a more robust intergenerational component to the research. Youth participatory action research can be an instrument for transcending adultism (Bettencourt, 2018). More generative listening across generations could allow for the presencing needed to prepare the ground for prototyping collaboratively with gatekeepers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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You defend what you feel: ‘Presencing’ nature as ‘experiential knowing’

Gioacchino

2019

Action Research

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This article reflects on a youth-led action research process on climate change adaptation carried out in Cuba between 2013 and 2015. The research explored the question: 'How are Cuban youth engaging with climate change adaptation challenges and what can we learn from it?'. The objectives of the research were to understand young people's attitudes towards climate change and environmental work while connecting a youth network in Cuba and encourage collaboration. This article contributes to PAR with a rich description of a research process in which the group of co-researchers was able to collectively shift their awareness of and personal relationship with nature. Proposing a conversation between Heron and Reason's extended epistemology (1997) and Scharmer's TheoryU (2016, 2018), I argue that experiential knowledge in climate change and environmental work looks like entering an intimate state of co-presencing with the aliveness of the earth. Second of all, the research contributes to the literature on youth participation highlighting that in Cuba there is a gap between the political will and attention towards climate change adaptation, which is remarkable, and young people's ability to meaningfully take leadership in such efforts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

You defend what you feel: ‘Presencing’ nature as ‘experiential knowing’

Gioacchino

2019

Action Research

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“…Researchers can create clear advantages for participants through collective action and work guided by an equity partnership that encourages youth to engage in their own research to create innovative solutions to improve their experiences, lives, and schools (Carl & Ravitch, 2018;Schiller et al, 2018). This kind of approach encourages researchers to face power dynamics headon for the benefit of all participants (Bettencourt, 2018). The authors in this themed issue offer robust insights and descriptions of how participants and researchers challenged themselves and others to step forward in less-familiar leadership capacities and negotiate roles during the research process.…”

Section: Democratizing Power and Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…That is, researchers must resist an overfocus on the product of research and instead spotlighting the process of transforming engagement with youth participants. Similarly, adult researchers can focus on processes and relationships in youth participatory action research settings to disrupt the youth-adult binary, directly challenge research norms that privilege hierarchy and adultism, and outlines strategies for youth-centered approaches that view collaboration as the product versus simply a means to a definitive product (Bettencourt, 2018). Authors in this themed issue embrace the risk of negotiation and sharing of power, of being vulnerable, of opening oneself up for critical feedback.…”

Section: Prioritizing Reflexivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alam (2018) takes an honest look at challenges and expectations in working with teachers in rural Bangladesh, addresses the discomfort participants faced with the role of researcher as facilitator, and offered new learnings related to its rewards. They draw our attention to the tensions as they embrace the "I don't knows" and use them to teach us all a bit more about our work as action researchers (Bettencourt, 2018;Call-Cummings et al, 2019).…”

Section: Illuminating Transparencymentioning

confidence: 99%

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A charge to educational action researchers

2020

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We conceive of education broadly and see it occurring in a diverse set of places and spaces, in classrooms and communities. We want to challenge our educational researcher colleagues to leverage the power of action research to better effect change within their schools and communities. We will point to constructive steps for this new way of working in the papers of the special issue we introduce. We call on action researchers to engage in reflexive practice, to critically assess their intentions about creating opportunities to yield power to co-participants, and to share the messy details of their often imperfect learning process so that others may see themselves in the processes. We therefore invite practicing and emergent action researchers to continue what the authors in this themed issue have begun. In the following papers you see action researchers engaging in democratization of power and knowledge, welcoming risk, redefining spaces for learning, prioritizing reflexivity, and illuminating their practice through publishing. We want and need to see more of this. In other words, we invite and incite education action researchers to learn from one another as we reimagine and redesign the learning spaces we create with students. We acknowledge the challenging barriers to conducting research in schools. Working with youth in ways that go beyond a structured or required curriculum is a challenge. Teachers, teacher researchers, youth, youth researchers and communities can, however, leverage the power of action research to transform educational spaces within and outside of schools to breathe new life into education by transforming relationships. From that basis the transformation of curriculum, assessment, ways of being, learning can grow. Ours is a call for a shift in education research to empower youth, educators, researchers, and community members so that collectively our efforts can support a sustainable relationship with the systems that support teaching and learning in all settings, all communities, and for all populations. This includes our beautiful planet. As we think about the transformational potential of action research, sometimes referred to as participatory action research, we urge action researchers to consider how to operate within the curriculum and influence hierarchy and power in a school research site. In the sections that follow, we outline our vision for transforming education with youth and educators through action research.

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Participatory Research Approaches with Youth: Ethics, Engagement, and Meaningful Action

Teixeira

Augsberger

Richards‐Schuster

et al. 2021

American J of Comm Psychol

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In this manuscript, we explore the promise and challenges of youth participatory action research (YPAR), paying particular attention to ethical issues and power dynamics that emerge in the context of research partnerships between youth and adults. We begin by reviewing the key tenets of YPAR and then go on to discuss how these tenets are often at odds with dominant approaches to research. We describe the tension between the values of YPAR and the systems and structures embedded in the academy. Further, we elucidate how adultism and the capitalist nature of the academy intersect with white supremacy culture, posing significant barriers to meaningful youth participation in community research partnerships. We then describe ways in which participatory scholars can disrupt these systems as well as larger paradigm shifts in the culture of academia that will be required to elevate youth voices and to amplify their efforts for equity.

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Embracing problems, processes, and contact zones: Using youth participatory action research to challenge adultism

Cited by 84 publications

References 25 publications

You defend what you feel: ‘Presencing’ nature as ‘experiential knowing’

You defend what you feel: ‘Presencing’ nature as ‘experiential knowing’

A charge to educational action researchers

Participatory Research Approaches with Youth: Ethics, Engagement, and Meaningful Action

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