Youth Participatory Action Research Findings as Mirror Material: Implications for Advancing Educational Equity Through Formative Interventions

ABSTRACT

Formative intervention research holds potential as a tool to disrupt systemic racism and advance equity in education. However, one aspect of formative interventions could be an impediment to realizing this potential, specifically the “mirror material”: data collected by outside researchers meant to provide participants a starting point to co-construct an understanding of a problem. Focusing on mirror material, this article draws insights from a youth participatory action research group to question whose knowledge should provide the grounding for formative interventions. Ultimately, we contend that youth of color should be involved in generating mirror material in equity-oriented formative interventions in education.

Acknowledgments

We thank the youth YPAR members for making possible the participatory action research project described in this piece. In addition, we are grateful to several individuals who provided feedback on the ideas and research presented in this article, including Alfredo Artiles, Sarah Diaz, Emeka Ikegwuonu, Iesha Jackson, Keon McGuire, Sarah Salinas, and the anonymous reviewers. Finally, we acknowledge the generous support of the Spencer Foundation for this study.

Notes

^1. Latinx is a gender-neutral term to refer to Latino people.

^2. This is a pseudonym. All names of people are also pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spencer Foundation (201600082).