Youth ReACT for Social Change: A Method for Youth Participatory Action Research

TLDR

Participatory action research increasingly involves youth, yet few projects engage them in all phases, especially data analysis, which can enhance critical awareness and effectiveness of subsequent stages, though many struggle to match methods to developmental needs. This paper introduces the ReACT Method, a PAR approach aimed at fostering local knowledge production and critical consciousness by involving youth in problem identification, data analysis, and feedback. The authors detail methods for engaging youth in problem identification and qualitative data analysis, addressing gaps in the literature on youth participation in these processes.

Abstract

Abstract Although participatory action research has become an increasingly popular method with youth, involving them in problem identification, analysis, intervention, and/or feedback, few PAR projects tend to involve youth in all of these phases—particularly the data analysis phase. Yet involvement in the data analysis phase of a research effort can help to promote critical awareness of the targeted issues, potentially increasing the effectiveness of subsequent PAR stages. In addition, although many YPAR projects aim to promote the critical consciousness of their youth participants, some projects struggle to promote this awareness, often because the methods used are not well matched to the developmental needs of their participants. In this paper we present the ReACT Method, a PAR approach specifically designed to promote local knowledge production and critical consciousness by engaging youth in the problem identification, data analysis, and feedback stages of research. Given the lack of attention in the literature to the methods used for engaging youth in these processes, we provide detailed descriptions of the methods we developed to engage youth in problem identification and qualitative data analysis.