Youth Participatory Action Research: Positive Youth Development with the Power to Ignite Change
Reflections on Implementation of a Youth Action Research Fellowship in California’s Central Valley, Los Angeles County, and Oakland Unified School District
The John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities (Gardner Center) is a community-engaged research center within the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Our work is informed by positive youth development principles and a commitment to building the capacity of community partners through research partnerships that seek to advance policies and practices that support positive and equitable youth outcomes. In our more than 20 years of work, we have engaged youth deeply as research partners and participants, including the development of our Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning (YELL) curriculum. In recent years, the Gardner Center has developed a new approach for young people to engage in research with our Youth Action Research Fellowship (the Fellowship). This brief shares our experiences implementing the Fellowship in three California communities.