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What Happens When YPAR Moves into the Classroom? A Study of Teachers’ Understanding of the Epistemology of Youth Participatory Action Research The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Buttimer, Christopher John. 2018. What Happens When YPAR Moves into the Classroom? A Study of Teachers’ Understanding of the Epistemology of Youth Participatory Action Research. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:37935841 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA What Happens When YPAR Moves into the Classroom? A Study of Teachers’ Understanding of the Epistemology of Youth Participatory Action Research Christopher J. Buttimer Dr. Meira Levinson Dr. Karen Brennan Dr. Kristen Buras Dr. Leigh Patel A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education 2018 © 2018 Christopher J. Buttimer All Rights Reserved i Dedication For my first and best teachers: my mom and dad. ii Acknowledgements Attempting to acknowledge all of those who have supported me to write this dissertation seems both incredibly necessary and also likely to be woefully incomplete. Before I embark on this effort, I apologize in advance to anyone reading this who may not be named specifically but who played a role, big or small, in helping me to complete this work. Please know that you are deeply appreciated. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the teachers who agreed to speak with me about their beliefs and experiences implementing YPAR with students in public school classrooms. Teaching is the hardest (and best) job in the world, and I cannot thank these teachers enough for taking time out of their extremely busy schedules to speak with me, often for over an hour. They did this for no other reward than contributing to our understanding of teaching and learning through a YPAR approach, which shows how much they care about their craft, the young people in their classrooms, and the communities they serve. I have learned so much from them. Next, I want to acknowledge the role my wonderful committee members played, including and especially my advisor, Meira Levinson. Meira pushed me to do work she knew I was capable of doing, often in spite of my own beliefs about my (lack of) capacity, and I truly would not have completed the doctoral program without her. She continually pushed me to develop a scholarly lens, in the best sense of the word. In the end, I accomplished so much more that I thought I could because of her efforts, and I will be forever grateful to her. Additionally, I want to thank Karen Brennan, who helped me to wrestle with extremely challenging concepts and to imagine “alternate universes,” while also ensuring that my work stayed grounded in the lived realities of teachers and students. I also want to thank Kristen Buras, who so often cheered me on from afar in places like Atlanta and New Orleans while also pushing me to think through my work more carefully and thoughtfully, which resulted in a dissertation that will be more useful to teachers in classrooms doing the work with young people. Finally, I want to thank Leigh Patel, who served as a mentor to so many of us organizing for educational justice in Boston for so many years and who, throughout my doctoral journey, recognized where I was at in my learning and then pushed me to go a little bit further, which is what a great teacher does. Next, I want to thank my amazing writing group, who were gracious enough to let me jump into their already-established community late in the process, which was crucial to me getting over the last few, and most difficult by far, hurdles of writing the dissertation: Sarah Fine, Jenna Gravel, James Noonan, and Tori Theisen-Homer. I learned so much from reading their work as well, and it was a pleasure and an honor to dialogue with folks so deeply knowledgeable and passionate about teaching and learning. I also want to thank the many professors, classmates, friends, and colleagues with whom I have had numerous conversations about my dissertation work over the years, and whose input has been invaluable: Laura Edwards, Aaliyah El-Amin, Jenny Jacobs, Swati Kshama Rani, Lauren Elmore, Christina Villarreal, Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Rebekah Cordova, Christina Grayson, Dara Bayer, Ross Kochman, Op, Alicia Thomas, Stephany Cuevas, Mildred Boveda, Eve Ewing, Janine de Novais, Amanda Klonsky, Houman Harouni, Yusef Daulatzai, Matthew Shaw, Jessica Fei, Deepa Vasudevan, Maleka Donaldson, Maung Nyeu, Vidur Chopra, Pooja Bakhai, Bobbie Jo Valenzuela, Thomas Albright, Paula Elias, Joe Shosh, Tara Brown, Daren Graves, John Diamond, Natasha iii Warikoo, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Pamela Mason, Tom Hehir, David Rose, Richard Elmore, Eleanor Duckworth, and everyone at TAG Boston. Finally, I want to thank my family, broadly defined, for supporting me in an infinite number of ways, for which I will be eternally grateful. Most importantly, I want to acknowledge and thank my mother and father. My mother, Linda, was a public school teacher for 35 years, and she taught me what it means to love learning, as well as to be kind and compassionate toward others. My father, Pete, was a truck driver for 30 years, and he taught me what it means to be curious about life, as well as to be passionate in the fight for a better world. Without these teachings from my parents, as well as their unconditional love and support, this dissertation does not exist. Thank you for everything, Mom and Dad. iv Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF YPAR ................................................................................................................................. 2 THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF SCHOOLING....................................................................................................................... 3 YPAR MOVES INTO PUBLIC SCHOOLS ..................................................................................................................... 4 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE........................................................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 11 PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT ................................................................................................................................... 12 SAMPLE ....................................................................................................................................................................... 14 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................................................... 16 ANALYTICAL STRATEGY ........................................................................................................................................... 19 LIMITATIONS .............................................................................................................................................................. 22 HOW MY POSITIONALITY INFORMED MY ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER 3: THE CRITICAL AND ACTION-ORIENTED NATURE OF YPAR ...........................26 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................... 26 WHAT DO UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS BELIEVE ABOUT THE CRITICAL AND ACTION-ORIENTED NATURE OF YPAR? ................................................................................................................................................................... 28 WHAT DO TEACHERS BELIEVE ABOUT THE CRITICAL AND ACTION-ORIENTED NATURE OF YPAR? ......... 36 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................................ 51 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER 4: THE YOUTH-LED NATURE OF YPAR AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUTH TO PARTICIPATE .............................................................................................................................................57 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................... 57 DO UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS BELIEVE YPAR IS “YOUTH-LED” AND WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? ........... 59 HART’S LADDER OF PARTICIPATION ...................................................................................................................... 62 WHAT DO TEACHERS BELIEVE ABOUT YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN YPAR? .................................................... 73 DISCUSSION ...............................................................................................................................................................

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