Participatory action research in schools: unpacking the lived inequities of high stakes testing

Authors

Tiffany A. DeJaynes, CUNY Lehman CollegeFollow
Tabatha Cortes, New York UniversityFollow
Israt Hoque, Saint John's University, Jamaica New YorkFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to examine a school-based Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project on educational inequity and high stakes testing.

Design/methodology/approach – A former high school teacher (currently a university professor) and two former students (currently research assistants and university students) take up a youth studies framework to collaboratively resee multimodal artifacts from a tenth-grade course in qualitative research.

Findings – Findings illustrate the power of finding allies in peers and educators; the transformative power of deep participation; and the longitudinal nature of social change and action. Thus, this research demonstrates that when students are positioned as researchers, experts and knowledge producers, they can collaborate with one another, teachers and administrators to confront social inequities within their schools and beyond.

Originality/value – This study has value for applying critical, youth-centered pedagogies in secondary English language arts classrooms and schools.

Comments

This article was originally published in English Teaching: Practice & Critique, available at DOI: 10.1108/ETPC-10-2019-0136.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0).