Doing Critical Participatory Action Research with 3rd-5th Grade Children in the United States

Critical Participatory Action Research is a form of research where community members and researchers collaborate to plan and carry out a research project on an issue they identify together (Cammarota & Fine, 2008; Mirra, Garcia & Morrell, 2016). While most CPAR projects engage adolescents, an emerging body of research focuses on CPAR with children. Notable gaps exist in our understanding of 1) how to scaffold the CPAR process for children 2) parts of CPAR that may be particularly difficult for children; and 3) how to address those challenges. This dissertation begins to address this gap through three papers guided by the overarching question of how to do CPAR with children. Paper 1 dives into this question through practice and arts-based self study. In this paper, I focus on my, and my co-researchers' reflections as educators striving to achieve and uphold the commitments of CPAR in a virtual context. I narrow in on one skill that is especially important in CPAR, but that proved to be challenging to scaffold: power analysis, or the ability to engage with power and how it shapes our lives and societies (Brion-Meisels & Alter, 2018). Paper 2 co-authored with my collaborator, Anna Lucia Kirby, builds from here to share a methodological and pedagogical tool we developed to introduce children to power analysis in the context of CPAR: The Power Rainbow. This paper discusses the creation of The Power Rainbow, how it was used, and the self-study that helped us understand both its strengths and limitations. The Power Rainbow was a useful tool, but we were still left with questions about how other out-of-school-time educators explore power with 3rd-5th graders, and how they link power and identity. Paper 3 explores these questions through an interview study with out-of-school time educators across the United States, and offers insights into how adults can support upper elementary aged children in power analysis. The findings of my research identify power analysis as a foundational skill to doing CPAR with children, and provide methodological and practical examples of how out-of-school time educators can engage in power analysis with this age group in CPAR and beyond. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]