Content area
Abstract
The researcher implemented a Youth Participatory Action Research project within the context of a summer reading assignment for rising high school seniors. Meeting once a week over the summer leading into their senior year, the Latinx student researchers used their critical lenses and summer reading texts as a springboard for their YPAR investigations into sociopolitical issues relevant to their communities. In facilitating this project, the researcher set out to study the ways in Latinx high school students interact with critical literacy and YPAR and the ways in which these students incorporate the tenets of critical literacy into their literature discussions and activities. The researcher found that by intersecting YPAR with critical literacy in this study, the student researchers utilized their critical lenses and qualitative research skills to problematize assigned canonical texts and traditional pedagogy within their senior year classes, explored the nuances of norms, expectations, and the status quo within their own lived experiences and communities, and eventually took action in response to this exploration. With their critical exploration of curricula and pedagogy, the canon, and their own lived experiences, the student researchers experienced greater understanding of and appreciation for the rigorous texts assigned in their literature classes. This study indicates the tremendous possibilities of leveraging critical literacy and YPAR in a literature class. With this study taking place over the summer, future research should further explore the possibilities of bringing YPAR into literature classes during the academic year.
