School-based YPAR: negotiating productive tensions of participation and possibility

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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 participation looks like in the context of YPAR that is enacted in school settings. Building on this recent work, this paper drills down on the concept of participation as the authors examine the tensions around adult and youth participation that we faced as we engaged with youth and teachers in different participatory studies in urban Ireland, urban USA, and suburban USA. We conclude that, while those who engage in YPAR should seek collective action throughout the process, more often than not YPAR is a dance of intra-action, always shifting and flowing to respond to and take up the evolving and entangled needs, knowledges, and understandings of those involved.