Indigenous Youth Participatory Action Research: Re-visioning Social Justice for Social Work with Indigenous Youths

Social Work ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 314-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Johnston-Goodstar
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-43
Author(s):  
Amy L. Cook ◽  
Ian Levy ◽  
Anna Whitehouse

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is emerging as a group counseling practice that focuses on topics that are of personal interest to youth and aims to promote social change. Although YPAR has been found to facilitate critical consciousness, assist with youth self-identity development, and promote social change, few researchers have examined its application in counseling. The present study explored six school counselor trainees’ perceptions of YPAR as a therapeutic intervention and its impact on counseling skill development and how it relates to multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. The themes that resulted from the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis for YPAR as a counseling practice were: (1) fun, interactive, youth-centered approach, not like counseling or therapy, (2) implementation of challenges requiring planning, time, and commitment, (3) collaborative supports to step out of comfort zone, overcome initial hesitancy, and welcome new learning experience, (4) development of counseling skills and confidence as a counselor, and (5) understanding differences and increasing self-awareness and advocacy skills. Discussion and implications for school counseling practice are provided.


2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (13) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Heather Coffey ◽  
Meghan Barnes

Background American students represent diverse life experiences, languages, cultures, and community memberships. Given the relatively unchanged demographics of U.S. teachers (primarily middle-class, white females), it is important that teachers engage in culturally proactive pedagogy and design curriculum that both reflects their students’ culture and engages them in developing skills to be participants in a larger society. Purpose This chapter explores how three veteran eighth-grade English language arts teachers in a large middle school in the southeastern United States navigated Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a culturally proactive and socially just pedagogy and encouraged students to examine power, privilege, and oppression in literature, in informational texts, and in their local communities to identify ways they might change inequities. Research Design Findings from this qualitative study suggest that even veteran teachers often struggle to implement social justice and culturally proactive pedagogies. Findings These teachers wobbled with their own uncertainty about the differences between a more traditional pedagogy, where they drive the learning, and a critical pedagogy that places the students in charge of the direction of their learning. Conclusion/Recommendations From the findings, recommendations are made to teachers who grapple with incorporating socially just and culturally proactive pedagogies into their teaching.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 227-238
Author(s):  
Georgiana Vasiloiu ◽  
Julia Smith-Brake ◽  
Simona Eugenia Mihai

Youth participatory action research, child-led research, and child-led activism are being increasingly employed to counter adultism in social work and development contexts, in a way to break down barriers for young people to have their voices heard on issues and decisions about their lives. This commentary comprises 2 open letters from a young researcher and advocate for children’s well-being and rights in Romania. The first letter is addressed to fellow young people and shares the journey of learning about and subsequently researching the issue of sexual violence, as well as a call to young people to stand up and use their voice to bring attention to issues important to them. The fear and anxiety of doing something new, that is usually in an adult space, cedes to empowerment and confidence found through the process. The second letter is addressed to adult researchers and practitioners and shares the methodology and findings of the child-led research project, lessons learned, and recommendations for adults engaging in child-led research. A key recommendation is for adults to support child researchers without manipulating the process, and to give young people more credit in commonly adult-held spaces.


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