When you know the data, you have the power: Working across settings and levels of change

The purpose of the research was to identify struggles and gains occurring within a year-long participatory action research (PAR) project. The project involved high school youth, several K-12 educators, graduate students and faculty member at a public urban university in the Midwest. The PAR project itself focused on surveying ninth grade students on their schooling experience. The paper explores change processes at multiple levels within the PAR project, guided by Stanton-Salazar’s study of social capital for working class youth of color as well as the role of institutional agents as “countervailing forces” against structural inequality within schools (Stanton-Salazar, 2011). In this manner, Stanton-Salazar offers a theory of change at the individual student level but also at the level of educational institutions. Reflecting transdisciplinary traditions integrating inquiry and action, the paper also draws on the literature on youth and PAR, whereby youth, sometimes in collectives with adults, inquire about a problem, often using the creative arts in some aspect of the research design. Youth and adults close to a problem bring a crucial angle of vision, which is studied in relation to other data sources. The process is frequently iterative, involving data collection, analysis, reporting back and other forms of action at different junctures in the research (Cammarota & Fine, 2008; Christens & Kirshner, 2011; Fox, Mediratta, Ruglis, Stoudt, Shah, & Fine, 2010; McIntyre, 2010).