The purpose of this paper is to present a conversation about how impact has been seen and felt by youth and adult co-researchers in a long-term, school-based youth participatory action research (YPAR) project, "Courageous Conversations." To stay true to the epistemological commitments of YPAR, and in an effort to speak back to…

Practitioners and scholars have argued that youth participatory action research (YPAR) challenges systemic injustice in education, as youth and adults research mechanisms of oppression and propose recommendations. However, oftentimes YPAR does not lead to new policies, as institutional decision-makers ignore youth's moral pleas and empirical…

YPAR seeks to position youth as experts on their worlds, investigating issues that affect their lives and then taking action to create solutions. As such, one of the key epistemological principles underpinning YPAR is the robust participation of youth throughout the knowledge creation process. A growing body of literature examines what youth…

This paper proposes dovetailing the concept of youth-adult partnership with youth participatory action research to generate a methodology of youth-adult participatory action research. Within contemporary education, deficit-oriented discourses of hopelessness and demoralisation among 'at risk' young people and their teachers, particularly those in…

In light of the increasing global population of young people, practitioners and policy makers face formidable challenges in promoting positive youth development and the successful transition to adulthood. Youth participatory research is one promising and rapidly growing approach for generating evidence to inform policy and intervention strategies…

In this article, we illustrate and address how anti-Blackness and adultism work together in an interlocking form of oppression we call anti-Black adultism. Situated in Amina's (youth author) lived experiences of school, we offer counter-stories that show the ways that educators employed anti-Black adultism to render Amina's civic life incompatible…

In this paper, Joseph Riina-Ferrie reflects on his experiences as a youth media educator entering Cyphers for Justice (CFJ). He discusses how experiences with youth media education informed his practice at CFJ, and he focuses on how youth media practice can shift the affective space of a research-oriented program. He draws on affect theory, which…

The SEL Innovations series aims to help the field imagine new, more expansive and equitable approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL) and wellness to ensure that all children, adolescents, and adults feel safe, supported, and seen so that they can thrive. This is the second report in a series exploring innovations in SEL. The purpose of…

In this article, we conceptualize youth-led antiracism research in developmental science. First, we discuss how Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) principles converge with critical race epistemological approaches to knowledge production. Second, we propose that youth-led antiracism research requires a commitment to multiple ways of…

Dramatically increased accessibility to recording technologies and participatory nature of today's information environment certainly have emancipatory potentials. Perhaps, we live in an era that Dziga Vertov once dreamed of: mass authorship of filmmaking reveals the injustice and inequality of the world. However, in reality, we are witnessing…

Participatory action research (PAR) with youth holds potential to spur social justice-oriented change due to its explicit orientation to transform systemic inequity. Whereas youth in PAR projects embody agency in their actions, they hold less institutional power than adults in positions of authority. In addition, youth who have been marginalized…

This article reflects on how participatory processes inspired by action research hold a genuine potential for developing social educational work in a more democratic way. We present our concept of 'Upturned Participation', which is built upon the methodological framework of Critical Utopian Action Research. First Critical Utopian Action Research…

In this essay, I explore my experiences as a practitioner researcher collaborating with my students on a participatory action research project aimed at institutional change. I take up two areas: blurring the boundaries of professionalism in working toward authentic collaborations with students, and secondly, incorporating perspectives of…

Photovoice, a Participatory Action Research method developed by Wang and Burris, has gained popularity as a pedagogical tool to engage youth with environmental, sustainability, and conservation issues. Influenced by Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy, feminist theory, and documentary photography, photovoice supports reflection about place, critical…

The authors trace the connections between multigenerational participatory action research and relational approaches to shared leadership, illustrating how the collective production of knowledge through research builds youth leadership capacity.