This brief presents Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a transformative exploratory tool for critical and curious educators. YPAR has been defined as a collaborative method of youth, with the support of caring adults, participating in research to explore social issues that impact them, with the end goal of taking action to improve the…

The North Carolina General Assembly, in 2013, mandated that the state use test scores, academic growth measures, and other outcome-based measures to create an A-to-F performance grading system for all public schools in North Carolina. The annual results are published via the North Carolina School Report Card, which indicates specific school,…

This dissertation-in-practice is a reflective self-study exploring the lived experience of the current researcher as a leader of Lesson Study (LS) over 2 years. Drawing on the concepts of perspective and engagement articulated by Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2016) in their "Learning in Landscapes of Practice" conceptual framework,…

In this paper, we suggest that when undergraduate students are engaged as full teaching partners with professors in the college classroom, more liberatory and transformative educational spaces can be created. This paper is based on findings from a qualitative participatory study led by a team of six undergraduate students and one professor who…

The first part of the paper positions the action research movement in the context of other research and development concepts and describes its rationale and some basic quality criteria. Action research is regarded as an umbrella term defined by two generic characteristics: substantial practitioner control of both the practice situation…

In this article, we pose two questions. What is the process of valuing in the structure of human knowing? And, how might individual values become collective values in the context of educational action research? For our answer we explore how first-, second- and third-person practices form the foundation in values-based ethics in action research.…

Purpose: How can people with lived experiences of marginalisation actively participate in contesting their marginalisation? This article aims to review the literature on PAR as a research approach. It will first describe what PAR means and consider this approach's particular features. The paper will go on to explore the advantages, limitations and…

This article explores the relationship between teachers and policymaking, and in particular a contradiction at its center: Teachers are needed to "people" policy, yet are conventionally named as its objects. As part of a two-year participatory study, fourteen teachers in three schools, including the author, sought to investigate policy…

The latest trends in Professional Development (PD) support grounding teacher development activities in the school context. This shift carries remarkable implications for school leadership through the realization that school leaders have a major role to play in PD of teachers. On this basis, action research was undertaken in a higher secondary…

We examine findings from an ongoing, arts-based youth participatory action research (YPAR) project that aims to make space for diverse high school students to express their experiences within structures of injustice, as played out through schooling practices. Over the past two years, our collective has gathered and collaboratively analyzed…

This paper reports a small-scale action research project aimed at helping a school whose teachers were concerned about the behaviour and achievement of their Year 8 group. Two focus group was used to identify any worries or concerns of pupils in Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9; aged 11-14). These concerns were further explored using a ranking exercise…

Critical scholarship in sport for development (SfD) advocates transformative research to disrupt the historical colonising view of sport as a vehicle to acculturate people into the values and norms of dominant Western culture. Youth participatory action research (YPAR) involves youth throughout the research process and consequently has the…

This study aimed to investigating the impact of project-based learning strategy on action research skills of Jordanian basic school students in light of some variables while teaching the unite of "Water". Semi-experimental design was used on a sample of 9th grade female students distributed in experimental group of (40) and a control…

Authorizing student voice to examine what facilitates motivation, interests, and learning has shown potential for supporting students in taking ownership of their educational contexts. This study was conducted as participatory action research to co-construct an after-school middle school dance club in a southwest border town. The purpose of this…

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the processes of a Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) citizenship education project by examining a 2-year intervention that involved 43 Italian high school students. We collected qualitative data (focus groups with students and interviews with teachers) to capture participants'…