The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
~ Audre Lord, Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist
Review of Researching and Resisting: Democratic Policy Research by and for Youth
This article focuses on the political angle of participatory action research, grounding the methodology in the struggle of marginalized peoples against the dominant culture’s control of the creation and dissemination of knowledge. The authors suggest that PAR is a form of participation in governance, which is suppressed within the United States:
We construct this chapter to articulate the “how” of such participation by youth in policy and research and development amid the neo-liberal assault on poor and working class youth in the United States … there must be adequate opportunity for adults and youth to help design, reflect upon and challenge (as necessary) social policies of intimate impact.
The value of this article is that it demonstrates clearly the possible different use of PAR with youth than with children. As many, such as Hart, have stated, the goal of participation is not to politicize children, who can become manipulated or duped into adults politics. Yet, for youth, there is a need to address the growing capacity and desire to engage in politics. Torre et al give a framework, albeit radical, for the use of PAR to facilitate youth’s involvement in this arena through the creation of knowledge for hte purpose of advocating for their perspective.
Following this line of thought, one of the final paragraphs outlines what I believe is key to working with PAR and marginalized communities – the role of adults to prepare youth for resistance and sometimes anger and dismissiveness.
As adults we bring a longer history of struggle to the table. We bring a familiarity with certain forms of resistance to particular lines of antagonistic critique. By preparing youth beforehand of a possibility, or processing a hostile response after the fact, we can add layers of understanding, create analytical tools and future to the justified anger felt when justice research by youth is dismissed.
What i would disagree with – and thus somewhat agree with Hart – that in this in this article is the seeming unexpressed adult agenda being the need to recruit people to the cause through accessing youth’s latent anger. I think it is important not to dull the anger nor stop it, but, in the long run it is as well important to realize that not every young person is going to be in the vanguard of the struggle, and many may want to just get ahead in what they are doing. This requires the PAR practitioner to give positive options, paths in which youth can affect change. My experience is that the “system” often can be made to listen, and though a struggle, is not immutable.
So, to wrap it up, PAR can be used as a tool for marginalized youth to empower themselves and address and advocate against inequities in the system. This is different than what PAR is most often used for in regards to children – which is often more of a development approach – allowing children to grow and discover their community, without usually going to head to head with the “system” in any confrontational way. This is not to say children don’t, but it is in a much more nuanced way, most often with adults assuring that no harm will come to the children in the process. Yet, I agree in spirit with Hart and others that there is fine line between empowering youth and recruiting them for a predefined agenda. This actually gets me thinking about my paper that I wrote with Claire Wilkinson – Growing Up With Expectations. Better Understanding The Expectations Of Community Partners In Participatory Action Research Projects – but that’s for another post …
Citation:
Ragan, D., & Wilkinson, C. (2009). Growing up with expectations: Better understanding the expectations of community partners in participatory action research projects. Les Ateliers De l’éthique, 4(1), 67-164.
Torre, M., & Fine, M. (2006). Researching and resisting: Democratic policy research by and for youth. In S. Ginwright, P. Noguera & J. Cammarota (Eds.), Beyond resistance! youth activism and community change (pp. 269). New York: Routledge.
