Journal Article

YPAR and Critical Epistemologies: Rethinking Education Research

Lozenski, Brian D., Lyiscott, Jamila J., Morrell, Ernest, Caraballo, Limarys

2017

Overview

Knowledges from academic and professional research-based institutions have long been valued over the organic intellectualism of those who are most affected by educational and social inequities. In contrast, participatory action research (PAR)projects are collective investigatio that rely on indigenous knowledge, combined with the desire to take individual and/or collective action. PAR with youth (YPAR) engages in rigorous research inquines and represe a radical effort in education research to value the inquiry-based knowledge production of the youth who directly experience the educational contexts that scholars endeavor to understand. In this chapter, we outline thefoundations of YPAR and examine the distinct epistemobgical, methodological, and pedagogical contributions of an interdisciplinary corpus of YPAR studie and scholarship. We outline the origins and disciplines of YPAR and make a case for its role in education research, discuss its contnbutions to thefield and the tensions and possibilities YPAR across disciplines, and close by proposing a YPAR cntical-epistemological framewo that centers youth and their communities, abngside practitioners, schokrs, and researchers, a knowledge producers and change agents for socialjustice.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Subject: Action Research / Citizen Participation / Critical Theory / Curriculum Development / Educational Change / Educational Research / Epistemology / Equal Education / Interdisciplinary Approach / Participatory Research / Qualitative Research / Research Methodology / Research Needs / Scholarship / Social Action / Social Justice / Teacher Education / Youth Agencies / Youth Leaders / Youth Programs