YPAR for the Classroom: A Guide for the Critical and Curious Educator. Equity by Design

This brief presents Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a transformative exploratory tool for critical and curious educators. YPAR has been defined as a collaborative method of youth, with the support of caring adults, participating in research to explore social issues that impact them, with the end goal of taking action to improve the social condition. The authors introduce a YPAR framework that can function as a flexible path forward to piloting YPAR in the classroom. Along with the framework, the authors introduce three principles and tensions that need to be considered as educators launch YPAR: (1) Power Differences in Adult-Young People Relationships; (2) Young People as Knowledge Creators; and (3) A Shared Commitment to Social Change.