ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of Youth Participatory Action Research—YPAR—as a form of critical literacy whereby youth, alongside adult allies, systemically investigate issues most relevant to their lives, particularly related to inequities, in order to bring about social transformation. Situating YPAR within the broader tradition of Participatory Action Research, this chapter demonstrates how YPAR challenges traditional notions of academic research and literacy education. Specifically, this chapter explores each element of the YPAR acronym to reconfigure understandings of who count as researchers (Youth), how research gets conducted (Participatory), why it is carried out (Action), and what counts as research, including both modes of inquiry and dissemination (Research). In examining these topics, this chapter shows how YPAR privileges youth identities and literacies, challenges formal literacy instruction, promotes new possibilities for educating future teachers, and links traditional and critical literacies. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future inquiry, including examination of the role of adults in YPAR, the role of YPAR within schooling systems, and how YPAR extends beyond the walls of academe to effect transformation in the communities and other settings that matter the most to the youth involved in YPAR.
