Green, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8065-0446, Dobson, Tom ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5354-9150 and Haines Lyon, Charlotte ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8341-744X (2025) Student voice is not as important compared to teachers/adults’: critical capacity building for co-curricular youth participatory action research. Quality Education for All. (In Press)

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Abstract

Purpose: The past 30 years has seen an increase in the use of youth participatory action research (YPAR), but research into YPAR is, paradoxically, adult-centric, with capacity building adult-led (Cullen and Walsh, 2020). The purposes of this study are: to compare young people’s perspectives of YPAR outcomes to those identified in adult-centric research; and to articulate the potential of youth-led capacity building to improve YPAR processes and research outputs.

Methodology: Working alongside young people undertaking YPAR in a secondary school, we use qualitative methods - focus group, mind maps and research journals - to promote young people’s participation in the exploration of youth-led capacity building.

Findings: Undertaking thematic analysis, we have two key findings: engaging young people in research into YPAR shifts the research focus from individual to collective outcomes; and drawing upon young people’s prior understandings of research methods and ethics has the potential to promote critical capacity building.
Originality: We contribute to the literature on YPAR processes and research by demonstrating why future research into YPAR should involve young people in participatory roles, to promote critical capacity building and, ultimately, improve the quality of YPAR itself.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General)
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
Institutes:	Institute for Social Justice
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/11908

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