Youth participatory action research: A pedagogy of transformational resistance for critical youth studies

This article explains how some youth gain insights into educational processes of social reproduction by participating in a pedagogy of transformational resistance. These insights lead to resistances that have the potential to transform young people’s subjectivities while allowing them to envision ways of learning to counteract oppressive and reproductive schooling. The pedagogy of transformational resistance derives from a youth participatory action research (YPAR) program implemented in Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The YPAR program was called the Social Justice Education Project (SJEP), and its primary function was to engage youth in critical inquiries that address negative social and economic conditions in their schools and communities. The article begins with a brief lineage of critical youth studies (CYS), and its attendant academic focus on social reproduction and resistance. The contemporary moment within CYS centers around YPAR, where formal pedagogical practices cultivate young people’s critical insights/consciousness and resistances.