Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR)

在规定的、以考试为重点的课程和缺乏积极公民意识发展机会的背景下，迫切需要一个空间，让青年赋权、合作和积极公民意识能够在英国学校蓬勃发展。这项研究假设，青年主导的参与性行动研究(YPAR)提供了一个有前景的潜在解决方案，该研究训练学生对他们关心的社会问题进行批判性研究并倡导变革。学者们已经证明，在美国，以学校为基础的YPAR有许多好处。这项研究试图确定在英国城市中学的背景下，YPAR如何以及是否能够促进积极的公民身份和青年赋权。通过对青年主导的积极公民身份发展框架进行理论分析，该研究将公民身份教育重新构建为一个参与性过程，通过这个过程，学生可以实现有意义的社会变革。以批判性和包容性的积极公民身份和赋权方法为重点，这项研究将以现有的奖学金为基础，通过评估基于学校的干预措施对学生的批判性机构和他们对公民和政治参与的看法的影响。在该项目中，我将促进一所学校的关键阶段3学生的YPAR，在那里有相当多的学生获得免费的校餐或将英语作为一种额外语言。我将采用混合方法收集数据，包括人种志方法、问卷调查和学生合作研究人员。该项目将受益于莱利教授和希格姆博士的监督。莱利教授是学生研究人员校本调查的专家，希格姆博士的研究探索了学生的领导力。总体而言，通过揭示学生如何与这些参与性空间建立联系，这项研究将帮助教师、领导者和学生共同创造培养合作和批判性能力的空间。评估积极的公民意识发展将展示YPAR参与如何影响学生对民主制度、公民身份、治理和身份的看法。因此，该项目就ESRC的优先事项“动荡时代的信任和全球治理”提供了一个以儿童为中心的独特视角。

In the context of prescriptive, exam-focused curricula and a dearth of opportunities for active citizenship development, there is a pressing need for spaces where youth empowerment, collaboration and active citizenship can flourish in UK schools. This study hypothesises that Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR), where students are trained to critically research social issues they care about and advocate for change, offers a promising potential solution. Scholars have evidenced numerous benefits of school-based YPAR in the USA. This research seeks to establish how and whether YPAR in a UK urban secondary school context fosters active citizenship and youth empowerment.By theorising a youth-led framework for active citizenship development, this study re-frames citizenship education as a participatory process through which students can effect meaningful social change. Foregrounded by critical and inclusive approaches to active citizenship and empowerment, this study will build on existing scholarship by evaluating the impact of school-based interventions on students' critical agency and perceptions of their civic and political participation.Within the project, I will facilitate YPAR with Key Stage 3 pupils in a school where significant numbers receive Free School Meals or speak English as an Additional Language. I will employ a mixed methods approach to data collection, involving ethnographic methods, questionnaires and student co-researchers. The project will benefit from the supervision of Professor Riley, an expert in school-based inquiries with student-researchers, and Dr Higham, whose research explores student leadership.Overall, by revealing how students relate to these participatory spaces, this study will help teachers, leaders and students to co-create spaces that cultivate collaboration and critical agency. Evaluating active citizenship development will show how YPAR participation affects students' perceptions of democratic systems, citizenship, governance and identity. This project therefore offers a unique child-centred perspective on the ESRC priority 'Trust and global governance in a turbulent age'.