Oral Presentation Session
Reviewed by: Council on Anthropology and Education
Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Teachers of Anthropology in Community Colleges, Students, Those Involved in Mentoring Activities
Primary Theme: Teaching
Secondary Theme: Identity and Equity
This panel explores the relationships between student learning and identity when using participatory action research (PAR) as not only a research method, but also a pedagogical approach (Kahne and Sporte 2008; Levinson 2005; Whitman 2007). Each of the papers begins with the premise that PAR must fundamentally engage in research with students, rather than solely conducting research about students or for students (Paris and Winn 2014). Thus, a second aim of this panel is to add to a growing body of research theorizing the pedagogical implications of using PAR with minoritized youth, including an analysis of the politics of representation (Tuck and Yang 2017). Guided by this year’s theme, this panel of researchers considers how PAR can best provide young people opportunities to analyze and engage with inequitable distributions of power and resources (Cammarota and Fine 2008; Clements 2005). Moreover, this panel will look at how PAR fosters the collective imagining of different possible futures vital for community and social change (Ginwright 2008). Ultimately, the panel seeks to advance PAR as a way of of engaging with students to reshape a more just and equitable world.
Liu’s paper will explore an afterschool program and consider how students use science to reimagine their schools and communities. The focus will be on analyzing how students think about the academic communities they will inhabit as future scientists. Tokunaga’s paper reflects on the development of an afterschool program at a part-time high school in Tokyo, which aims to empower immigrant youth and co-create ibasho (places where one feels comfortable, safe, and accepted) with young people. Tokunaga explores the possibilities and challenges of community engagement and collaboration among high school, NPO, and university participants. Evan’s paper is based on a critical literacy picture book analysis conducted with a group of six diverse teenage girls. Through their analysis, the girls found personal and community insights, galvanizing them to undertake a further examination of representation in popular culture. Abad’s paper focuses on how Latinx and Vietnamese youth and youth workers engage with the notion of “college and career readiness.” Specifically, Abad interrogates how the interlocutors come to understand, grapple with, and resist notions of respectability politics as they engage with practices associated with college and career readiness. Lucko’s paper considers the possibilities and challenges of using PAR with Latinx youth as a pedagogical approach to promote civic engagement with middle school students in schools. In her paper, Lucko considers the intertwined demands teachers face as they grapple with the complexity of teaching academic content standards while also striving to prepare students to become democratically engaged citizens. Vasudevan’s paper examines how the co-creation of youth-led spaces shifted youths’ positioning within an urban public high school and gave rise to opportunities for student leadership. In doing so, Vasudevan explores how youths’ relationships with peers, educators, and the school community shifted. Together, these papers will examine how both students and panel members make sense of their worlds thorough PAR as we work together to reinvent places of learning.
Tomoko Tokunaga
Lecturer
Gunma Prefectural Women's University
Miguel Abad
PhD Student
University of California, Irvine
Jennifer Lucko
Associate Professor
Dominican University of California
Veena Vasudevan
Postdoctoral Fellow, Children and Family Learning
American Museum of Natural History
Sarah Evans
Assistant Professor
Texas Woman's University
David Liu
PhD Student
University of California, Irvine
David Liu
PhD Student
University of California, Irvine
David Liu
PhD Student
University of California, Irvine
Andrea Dyrness
Associate Professor
University of Colorado, Boulder