Abstract:

What if the experts on community change are not just seated in boardrooms and conference calls, but in high school classrooms? Across the globe, young people are confronting challenges with insight and creativity that traditional institutions often overlook. When given the tools and trust to investigate their own realities, youth don’t just participate, they lead. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) centers young people as active investigators of issues affecting their schools and communities. Unlike typical research models that rely solely on academic authority, YPAR prioritizes experiential learning, local knowledge, and youth voice to address community needs. In this informal learning experience, young people engage in hands-on research projects and learn how disseminate to an audience. In Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, an old mining town of about 2,000 people, high school students learn mixed methods research practices and explore issues in their community. This is based on the Youth As Researchers (YAR) curriculum, developed by UNESCO Chairs at the National University of Ireland Galway and Penn State University. Students participate in research to address the question: What do young people in Philipsburg need to thrive? Community leaders including high school faculty, local corporations, and borough representatives support this initiative and serve as the audience to present the research to. More specifically, the findings from the YAR project inform the design and scaling of a youth development program in Philipsburg, as well as providing actionable guidance for the local school district and community organizations.

In small, post-industrial towns like Philipsburg, youth engagement often operates against histories of civic disconnection and limited institutional responsiveness. Scholarship on student voice indicates that participation in decision-making and change efforts correlates with greater attachment to their community, but studies often report summative outcomes without detailing the interactional and narrative processes that generate feelings of belonging. Through my experience facilitating the YAR curriculum, I studied the way YAR practices impact community connection related outcomes. My research assesses how the students’ research practices impact their commitment to local places and people. By analyzing student narratives, my project extends knowledge of community connectedness and offers a model for bridging program activities to social outcomes.

Keywords:

Informal learning, curriculum, student voice, youth.