Youth Participatory Action Research Groups as School Counseling Interventions

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) projects offer young people the opportunity to increase their sociocultural awareness, critical thinking abilities, and sense of agency within a collaborative group experience. Thus far, however, such projects have been primarily the province of educators and social psychologists, and not substantively explored as a basis for school counseling interventions. This article suggests the initiation of such exploration within the framework of existing ecological and social justice models for school counseling practice, and presents an overview of a year-long, school-based YPAR project to exemplify this idea.