Youth Participatory Action Research as Critical Pedagogy

I first came across IDEA (Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access) at a presentation they made at AERA in 2010. The first thing that struck me about the youth (high school students) was the language they used to describe their project. Words like "agents of change," "critical researchers," and "power structure" seemed odd coming from these young mouths. At first, I thought they were just reading a script that their instructors had written for them, but after a short amount of time I could tell that they had a mature understanding of critical theory for their young ages.

The cohort was comprised of high school students from Los Angeles and undergraduate and graduate students and professors from UCLA. Every summer high school students are selected to participate in an institute (where they gain college credit) that empowers them to become critical researchers through an exploration of critical theory and research methodologies. During the school year these students then engage in participatory action research (PAR) projects where they engage their local community in an effort to systematically research issues in an effort to then address these issues through various means, including lobbying and issue campaigns of local and national decision makers. Check out a description of one of the projects in the link below.

http://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/projects/past-projects/teaching-to-change-la

I see YPAR as a unique form of critical pedagogy that follows a Freirian model in 3 key ways; it is problem-posing, demonstrates praxis, and is a humanizing project for social change.

The curriculum is problem-posing in a truly organic form, where students engage their community in order to discover issues that are relevant and paramount to the needs of the community. The students then identify the projects they would like to take up with regard to their community interests. The combination of critical theory and PAR demonstrates Freire's conception of praxis where students are simultaneously reflecting on their application of critical theory in the issues they take up with an eye toward change through action (Freire, 1970).

At the heart of the projects that the students are engaged with is the idea that they are accessing the power structure in an attempt to negotiate progressive social change. The fact that the students see themselves as "agents of change" demonstrates that they are in the process of becoming the revolutionary leaders that Freire describes as necessary for a more human existence.

The edited volume "Revolutionizing Education: Youth Participatory Action Research In Motion" by Cammarota & Fine documents IDEA and several other groups engaged in YPAR.

Cammarota, J. & Fine, M. (Eds.) (2008). Revolutionizing Education: Youth Participatory Action Research in Motion. New York: Routledge.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc.