Crossing under the highway: youth-centered research as resistance to structural inequality

Abstract

This article tells the story of two exploratory youth-centered participatory action research (PAR) projects to consider how youth-centered research can resist inequality. In this paper, I focus on the findings and process of two PAR projects that took place within one geographically isolated neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The studies focused on neighborhood experiences of educational inequality and everyday experiences of crossing the street in and out of the neighborhood. The process and findings of the research identified tensions and connections around the lived experiences of inequality. Ultimately we found the process of conducting research collaboratively and across generation was itself a form of resistance.