Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a methodological approach to research that engages youth as co-researchers to investigate problems directly affecting them and provide the solutions to those problems (Bettencourt, 2020). It has been used in schools to promote policies and practices that further equity, improve student-teacher relationships, and foster dialogue across lines of race, class, age, and gender (Richards-Schuster et al., 2021). YPAR has been shown to be an effective method to gain insights from young people that they might not otherwise share with adults, both outside of school and within school environments (Richards-Schuster et al. 2011), including with young adolescents in middle school (Ozer, Ritterman, & Wanis, 2010; Renick & Reich, 2023). By positioning young people as researchers, YPAR empowers young people to take agency over their lives and demand a voice in decisions that impact them and their communities. By leveraging YPAR as an implementation driver, we can bring youth voices into the system change conversation to join the preexisting teacher- and administrator-focused elements of our trauma-informed schools intervention.
The Coalition for Compassionate Schools believes that YPAR presents one potentially fruitful route to drive the effective implementation of trauma-informed schools. This is true not only because it collects the perspectives of young people on how their schools could better meet their needs but, most critically, because the students then use those findings to push for change. Best practices in research with marginalized groups require that the concept “nothing about us without us” is placed front and center. This is aligned with the trauma-informed principles of Empowerment, Voice & Choice (SAMSHA, 2022) and the core human needs of dignity and agency (Briner & McGlynn-Wright, 2021).
For more information about implementing YPAR, check out these free online curricula that we like and utilize.
YPAR With Us and Our Partners
Many of our Coalition members and the NOLA YPAR Collaborative also do Youth Participatory Action research across different age ranges and targeted audiences and topics. Check out some of their work by visiting their websites below.
Beloved Community
Children’s Youth & Planning Board
Enrichment 2 Empowerment
Twisted Garden
If you are interested in help, advice or to collaborate on YPAR with your class, school or program, reach out to Dr. Jesse Chanin.