Search Results (69)

Chemistry teaching in youth and adult education has faced challenges related to students’ disengagement, interrupted educational trajectories, and difficulty in connecting scientific concepts with learners’ everyday and professional experiences. In Brazil, Professional and Technological Secondary Education Integrated with Youth and Adult Education (PROEJA) aims to address its challenges by combining basic education with vocational training. This study investigated how a contextualized pedagogical intervention based on the production of aromatic candles contributed to students’ engagement, contextualized conceptual learning and vocational reflection in a technical administration course offered at the Brazilian Federal Institute (IFMS-CG), Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. A qualitative participatory action research design was adopted, and qualitative data were generated through participatory observations, classroom interactions, students’ written reflections, photographic records, and reflective discussions. Data were interpreted by Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Throughout the intervention, students explored Organic Chemistry concepts related to hydrocarbons, n-paraffins, physicochemical properties, volatility, combustion, formulation and laboratory safety while simultaneously discussing entrepreneurship, branding, product development and income generation. The qualitative findings demonstrated students’ active participation, collaborative teacher–student interactions, contextualized conceptual learning and a broader perception of Chemistry as a socially and professionally relevant discipline connected to everyday life, vocational education and entrepreneurial practice. Students’ written reflections further revealed that scientific knowledge was increasingly associated with technological innovation, product quality, professional opportunities and income generation. These findings suggest that contextualized, interdisciplinary and humanized pedagogical practices may promote meaningful scientific learning while strengthening vocational reflection and reinforcing the relevance of Chemistry within youth and adult professional and technological education. Full article

Indigenous youth are increasingly recognized as important agents of sustainability; however, how environmental learning shapes pro-environmental intentions and behaviors remains insufficiently understood. This exploratory mixed-methods study integrates Experiential Learning Theory (ELT), the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine behavioral transformation among indigenous youth participating in community-based environmental learning activities in northern Thailand. Twenty-five indigenous student participants engaged in a structured environmental learning program developed through Citizen Science, Critical Participatory Action Research, and Living Lab approaches. Quantitative data from 250 activity-level questionnaire responses and qualitative data from 200 reflective responses collected from 25 participants through eight reflection prompts were analyzed using PLS-SEM, mediation analysis, permutation-based MGA, and the Gioia methodology. The model explained 50.0% of the variance in pro-environmental behavioral intention. Communication quality significantly enhanced attention (β = 0.452, p < 0.001), and participation strongly predicted practical experience (β = 0.660, p < 0.001). Practical experience contributed to perceived value of information, which enhanced perceived behavioral control (β = 0.691, p < 0.001), a key mechanism influencing behavioral intention. Peripheral information processing showed a stronger effect than central processing, and MGA revealed differentiated learning pathways across activity categories. Qualitative findings indicated a progression from environmental practices to advocacy and environmental identity, supported by indigenous ecological knowledge and intergenerational learning. This study provides an exploratory framework for understanding culturally grounded environmental learning and offers implications for designing sustainability education programs with indigenous communities. Full article

Background/Objectives: Youth are increasingly engaged in mental health research, but many models remain consultative rather than participatory. We examined the Technology and Adolescent Mental Health Internship (TAMI) as an implementation-focused instrumental case study of a structured youth participatory action research internship for high school students recruited through schools serving Chicago’s West and South Sides. Methods: The case study included an embedded multimethod formative evaluation with participatory interpretation by a post-program youth advisory board (n = 8). In Year 3, 18 participants completed baseline surveys, and 16 provided matched pre–post surveys (matched survey completion = 89%). Measures included a study-developed five-item research-task self-efficacy indicator, post-program attitudes and intentions, and four open-ended items. We conducted one exploratory paired-samples t-test and an inductive descriptive content analysis. Results: In exploratory analyses, mean research-task self-efficacy scores increased from 21.8 (SD = 2.1) at baseline to 23.8 (SD = 1.4) post-program, t(15) = 4.09, p = 0.001, d_z = 1.02. Among the 15 respondents who responded to each of these post-program items, all reported being confident or very confident explaining youth mental health research, and all reported being at least somewhat likely to participate in future research, advocacy, or mental health activities. Participants described learning related to literature review, research design, ethics, data interpretation, and science communication. They recommended a longer program, additional applied practice, and more guest speakers. Conclusions: The TAMI was delivered within one program cycle and was viewed favorably by respondents. This case illustrates how youth-generated questions, adult scaffolding, collaborative interpretation, and youth co-authorship can be incorporated into a structured research internship. Larger, independent evaluations are needed to assess outcomes, sustainability, and transferability. Full article

This study examines how transnational Mayan youth in rural Nebraska preserved and developed their linguistic heritage through the Kematzib’ Project while maintaining digital connections to Guatemala. Using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) methodologies, K’iche’ and Q’anjob’al-speaking adolescents served as co-researchers, creating trilingual educational materials through poetry workshops and digital storytelling. Digital technologies facilitated both language preservation and transnational family connections, as participants utilized the same tools to create educational materials and maintain contact with their relatives in Guatemala. The collaborative creation of digital books that integrated Popol Wuj elements with contemporary transnational experiences helped students overcome linguistic shame, develop cultural pride, and build advocacy skills applicable across U.S. and Guatemalan contexts. This research illustrates how youth can activate transnational funds of knowledge while developing identities encompassing multiple national, cultural, and linguistic affiliations. Full article

Opera Out of Opera 2 (OOO2) is a Creative Europe cooperation project that experiments with digital, participatory strategies to reconnect opera with younger audiences and to reshape professional capacity for conservatory students. Rather than treating opera as a fixed repertoire to be transmitted, the project frames it as a site of co-creation, where youth and emerging professionals share agency in how the art form is presented, mediated and discussed. This article has two related aims. First, it examines how OOO2’s digital-first Audience Engagement Strategy (AES) may contribute to audience development among 18–25-year-olds, focusing on reach, participation patterns and perceived accessibility. Second, it investigates how participation in the project appears to affect conservatory students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and their understanding of their potential social role as musicians. Methodologically, the study combines a participatory action research (PAR) framework with an embedded single-case design. Quantitative data include pre- and post-intervention questionnaires with 132 higher music education students. An audience survey completed by 1256 spectators, complemented by social media and web analytics, is also embedded. Qualitative material derives from semi-structured interviews (n = 30), focus groups with project stakeholders and direct observation of workshops, rehearsals and performances. Results indicate a marked digital reach among younger audience and suggest that shorter formats, informal settings and second-screen mediation can lower perceived barriers to opera attendance for first-time or occasional spectators. Among students, mean scores for entrepreneurial self-efficacy increased from 3.2 (SD = 0.8) to 4.1 (SD = 0.7), corresponding to a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.20, p < 0.01), a pattern broadly consistent with research on self-efficacy and capacity creation in music and arts-based entrepreneurship education. The discussion connects these findings with a bibliometric mapping of audience development in opera, conducted on 147 Scopus-indexed documents, and argues that OOO2 occupies a still under-theorized intersection between youth-centred cultural participation and entrepreneurial capacity-building in higher music education. While the single-case design and the use of self-constructed survey items limit generalizability, the project may offer a useful reference point for institutions seeking to rethink opera’s approach as a digitally mediated, socially engaged and educationally meaningful practice. Full article

Project SCORE (Student-Centered Outcomes Research Experiences) is a community-engaged after school science education program designed to address persistent inequities in health, education, and biomedical career access among Mississippi youth. Grounded in youth participatory action research and leveraging near-peer mentoring (NPM), the program engages teens in public health education, research skill development, and mentored inquiry led by undergraduate and graduate health sciences students. Program components include weekly workshops during the academic year and a one-week residential summer campus experience focused on health literacy, scientific thinking, research communication, and college-readiness. An evaluation assessed implementation and short-term outcomes. Pre/post survey data indicate increases in STEM self-efficacy, career interest in STEM careers, and public health communication skills. Students reported strong engagement, belonging, and program satisfaction, and summer participants described an enhanced interest in college and health science careers. The lessons learned highlight the importance of robust NPM support, flexible program adaptation, and strong community partnerships. Early findings demonstrate that Project SCORE is a feasible, acceptable, and replicable model for engaging historically excluded youth in STEM and public health through community-based, student-centered research experiences. Full article

In alternative education programs, school wellbeing is enacted partially through the spatialized (emplaced and embodied) lived experiences of students whose educational futures are fragile. Displaced to a series of trailers and limited to half-day attendance, the participants in this qualitative study were removed from mainstream classes in a large urban high school to attend alternative programming. Utilizing a critical counter-mapping youth participatory action approach, 24 participants mapped their barriers and supports to school wellbeing by moving through, sitting within, and writing together in the school spaces they were no longer permitted to occupy during their studies. As a research collective, students produced twenty-six annotated counter-maps, inscribing their school histories, present tensions, and hopes for educational futures onto existing geographical maps of the building. Findings contribute to understandings of students’ perspectives on best practices for complex school interactions as a foundation for building school climates that center educational wellbeing, care, play, and relationships. In addition to insights into current spatial practices in schools and how they might be rewritten to advance an equity-orientation, this work makes visible the tensions between the school’s emphasis on academic performance and the youth’s lived experiences of injustice on the spatial and metaphorical edges of the system. Full article

Every act of design tells a story about who belongs, who is seen, and who is heard. This paper looks at how participatory design-based research (PDR), practiced with relational care and reflexivity, can help shift interactions among marginalized youth from urban Indigenous and newcomer immigrant communities in Canada from othering toward understanding. Moving beyond surface-level celebrations of multiculturalism, the study frames design as a relational and ethical practice, one that surfaces assumptions, holds space for difference, and creates openings for intercultural dialogue. The study draws on a series of design circles (d.circles) in which youth co-created visual communication artefacts reflecting their lived experiences. These artefacts became catalysts for dialogue, enabling participants to challenge stereotypes, articulate concerns, and develop shared perspectives. Reflexivity was integral to the process, guiding both participants and the facilitator to consider power, positionality, and relational accountability throughout. Findings show that participatory design, grounded in Indigenous relational principles and participatory action research, can unsettle dominant narratives, foster mutual recognition, and support youth-led meaning-making. This work contributes to emerging conversations that position design thinking as a practice of ethical engagement rather than a tool for problem-solving alone. The learnings from this study show how critically practiced PDR can cultivate more inclusive and socially responsive pathways for intercultural understanding to take shape. Full article

Truth-telling, a community intervention to increase reconciliation after systemic injustices, has been employed recently to increase public awareness of harms perpetuated by the child welfare industry in the U.S. Guided by participatory action research principles, we examined a public truth telling initiative over two years which was co-designed by a trans-experiential team of emerging adults with lived expertise and child welfare system professionals in Kentucky. The aims of the truth-telling events were to raise awareness about the experiences of Black American youth in the Kentucky child welfare system and generate ideas for improvements. We conducted a longitudinal collaborative autoethnography (n = 9, 2 time points) to examine our collective experience of developing and hosting the truth-telling circles and supporting activities. Key themes included the transformative impact on the alumni of receiving validation and acknowledgement, as well as forming social and professional connections. Some concerns related to timing of activities and group dynamics also were reported. In addition, the four lived expert truth-tellers engaged in a systematic consensus workgroup process to select a list of 10 priority practice and policy recommendations, such as child welfare system alumni being hired to provide emotion regulation and self-advocacy skills training directly to youth. Full article

Community-based organizations are recognized as key stakeholders for public health, as their community expertise positions them to create tailored interventions to comprehensively address community needs that large-scale public health interventions may not address. The current study describes one youth-serving community-based non-profit’s approach to public health, where youth civic engagement is oriented by social justice coursework and integrated within youth participatory action research (YPAR) to engage youth in health equity efforts. The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) framework and the Socioecological Model (SEM) were applied to student research outputs to understand student conceptualization of social issues and the subsequent interventions they suggest. This work explores the feasibility and depth of student-created interventions within each SDOH domain, identifying common themes in students’ conceptualizations of social problems and interventions to promote health equity. Suggestions for integrating SDOH frameworks into the YPAR curriculum to scaffold youth projects, identifying root causes of health disparities, and developing practical community-based solutions are provided. Full article

Mathematics interwoven with Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) EntreMunods is an ontological playground for youth liberation, where mathematical learning helped to create an experience where youth empower themselves by engaging in critical social science research. In this study, seven stages of conocimientos are expanded to help understand how consciousness shifts while engaged in mathematics. Thematic analysis of student reflections on the YPAR mathematics activities revealed how students developed a mathematical critical consciousness. This manuscript is a theatrical conceptualizing of the Math YPAR experience, leading to development of the Mathematics with|in Conocimientos framework; seven mathematical embodiments or stages that once experienced, represent a change in mathematical consciousness. In situating mathematics as a guiding epistemology, method, and pedagogy to the YPAR methodological design, this study highlights the transformative power of mathematics rooted in challenging systemic injustices. Full article

This study addresses the dual sociological challenges of the silver digital divide and intergenerational estrangement in aging societies. Through a Participatory Action Research project, it explores and evaluates the AI-Enhanced Intergenerational Digital Inclusion (AI-IDI) framework as a mechanism for fostering social cohesion. Findings indicate that socio-emotional scaffolding from students, rather than technical instruction, was instrumental in reducing older adults’ technology anxiety, while students’ civic responsibility increased in line with the quality of collaboration. Interpreting these findings through the lens of Digital Symbiosis highlights how youth’s digital fluency and elders’ life wisdom can function as mutually reinforcing assets. Positioned as conceptual development and exploratory empirical research, this study reframes AI not as a mere tool but as a mediating resource for dialogue and solidarity. It contributes to sociological debates on technology and intergenerational relations while offering a transferable model for advancing digital equity and community cohesion. Full article

This article discusses the importance of cultural identity for ethnic youth, considering the challenges they face as migrants or from migrant backgrounds. It then develops the idea of using safe cultural spaces as a culturally responsive model of care for these youth. The data used are drawn from a qualitative study with 35 African heritage youth living in Aotearoa–New Zealand as participants. The study was guided by participatory action research (PAR) methodology principles. Data was collected using research workshops (adaption of focus groups) and qualitative survey questionnaires. PAR’s transformative lens, narrative inquiry, and inductive thematic analysis were used to identify and analyse the reported themes. Findings show that ethnic youth value their cultural identities primarily because, in the context of migration, where they constantly navigate multiple levels of social exclusion and marginality, it confers a sense of personhood, uniqueness, and belonging. However, trying to live their multiple cultures authentically presents many challenges. Accordingly, intentional initiatives that are culturally responsive and holistic are critical to support them in navigating this process healthily. Creating safe cultural spaces is proposed as a model of care. The article reports and discusses youth perspectives on what these spaces and the model of care would entail. Full article

Young people are frustrated and disheartened with the lack of adult leadership and action to address the climate crisis. Although youth representation in global, regional, and local decision-making contexts on climate change is steadily growing, the desired role and effect of youth in environmental and climate decision-making has shifted from a focus on having youth voices heard, to having a direct and meaningful impact on policy and action. To meaningfully integrate youth perspectives into climate policies and programs, intergenerational approaches and youth–adult partnerships are key. This paper explores strategies to support youth action and engagement as adult partners by investigating youth perspectives on what adults and adult-led organizations should consider when engaging young people in climate-related work. This qualitative research study introduces a revised version of the 7P youth participation framework, developed through focus groups with high school youth. This paper provides reflective questions and practical recommendations for participants engaged in youth–adult partnerships to help guide engagement beyond token representation and create meaningfully participatory conditions for youth agency in climate organizing spaces. Full article

Participatory action research (PAR) has been increasingly used in sport for development research due to its potential to challenge hegemonic forms of knowledge production within sport contexts. Drawing on the youth and feminist action literature, we explore the methodological and ethical challenges of conducting participatory research as young academic researchers collaborating with young coaches as community collaborators. This article calls for greater transparency in how researchers conduct YPAR, whether it is youth-centred or youth-led, and underscores the utility of a feminist lens and trauma- and violence-informed framework in grounding critical reflexivity throughout the research process. These contributions aim to advance ethically grounded, trauma-informed action research projects with young people in sport and physical activity settings. Full article