Fostering Engagement, Reflexivity, and 21st-Century Skills in Middle School: A Pilot Collaborative Action Research on Identity Formation with Adolescent Co-Researchers

Abstract

Identity construction during adolescence constitutes a primary psychosocial developmental task. A growing body of research has addressed the importance of school education in fostering adolescents’ identity formation and the skills they need to thrive. Although several studies aimed at defining the factors contributing to a coherent, stable, and integrated identity formation, none sought to investigate this question from the adolescents’ perspective. This contribution aimed to explore new ways of fostering 21st-century skills among adolescents through action research. Five adolescents aged 13 to 15 participated in the research process, creating a survey to answer a research problem mainly focused on identity construction in adolescence. A reflexive analysis of the co-research process highlighted the interest in involving adolescents as co-researchers to foster their social and emotional skills. The deployment of the resulting survey in a sample of 1210 adolescents from the general population highlighted the importance of gender diversity for constructing various dimensions of identity.

Lab School Paris. An educational living lab

“…Students from EHESS can choose Lab School Paris to do an internship or as a field of research. For instance, in 2019-2020, an EHESS student in sociology did his Master thesis on Lab School Paris's student councils(Duval-Valachs, 2020); in 2021-2022 another EHESS Master student in Gender Studies contributed to a study on Identity formation during adolescence involving middle school students as co-researchers(Haag et al, 2022). Each year, one or two students come to Lab School Paris for an internship or to do research.…”