Date of Award
Summer 9-1-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
Department
Education: Curriculum and Teaching
First Advisor
Jody Polleck, PhD
Second Advisor
Jennifer Flores Samson, PhD
Third Advisor
Madeline Fox, PhD
Academic Program Adviser
Jody Polleck, PhD
Abstract
Urban middle schools often grapple with how to create spaces that affirm students’ identities and foster authentic engagement within a broader landscape shaped by standardized testing and accountability pressures. This dissertation examines Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and advisory as two relationally grounded practices that can address these challenges. Grounded in critical hope (Zembylas, 2013), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017), and community responsive education (Duncan-Andrade, 2022), the study explores the experiences of 12 middle school students who spent seven months investigating their school’s advisory program as student-researchers, as well as the findings that emerged about advisory. Data sources include field notes, analytic memos, student artifacts, and exit interviews with student-researchers and staff. Chapter 1 introduces the problem of practice, theoretical frameworks, research questions, and methodology. Chapter 2 identifies three interconnected dimensions of students’ YPAR experience: praxis, as students developed research skills and identities through action; solidarity, as they built interdependence and collective courage; and care, as it flowed between students and adults, including upward from students to educators. Chapter 3 examines advisory as a culturally sustaining space, highlighting community- responsive planning, content that sustains students’ identities and communities, and advisory’s role as a healing and humanizing space for students and staff alike. Chapter 4 offers a practitioner-facing guide to implementing YPAR, drawing on the seven-month project to translate theory into practice. Finally, Chapter 5 synthesizes the study’s findings and argues that YPAR and culturally sustaining advisory can make schools more humanizing for students and adults alike.
Recommended Citation
Hull, Seth, "“VOICES OF TOMORROW”: A YOUTH PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH STUDY OF A MIDDLE SCHOOL ADVISORY IN AN URBAN PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/1570
