Youth leading youth: a PALAR approach to enabling action for sustainable social change

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article demonstrates how community-based action research can be conducted in democratic and democratizing ways to enable young people to take action to improve their own circumstances. By means of a case study, I show how Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR) can enable sustainable learning and development. Findings reveal that the youth participants benefitted from their participation in the PALAR research project in terms of increasedself-esteem and sense of purpose, enhanced self-awareness, and improved communication and technical skills, all of which developed their capacity for contributing to their communities and exercising leadership. However, the process of action learning was challenging for both the youth participants of the community and the university research partner. The findings corroborate that action learning takes time to learn, but unless it becomes an integral part of the action research process, the ability of community participants to sustain change is compromised. These findings are significant for enabling research that contributes to social justice through enhancing individual and community capacity to be critically reflective action learners and action leaders.