Interracial/intercultural relations among students of color: Fostering solidarity while maintaining individual notions of our cultural selves
Abstract
Despite frequent contact between students of color and increased instances of intercultural conflict in school settings, there is limited research about youth of color interaction in educational spaces (Quijada, 2009). In the dissertation, I examine interaction among students of color (African American, Asian, and Latino/a) as they engage in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project in an urban high school. As youth engage in critically-oriented activities and collaborative interaction, I explore how the participatory research process influences and shapes youths’ relationships, particularly as they navigate racial/cultural/gender differences.
While researchers have used YPAR as a primary research methodology, in this study, the participatory action research process represents a part of the intervention that will be used to shape student relations. Thus, I utilize an ethnographic approach to both describe the high school context in which intercultural/interracial relations occur as well as to map the particulars of collaborative relations as I engage youth in a year-long action research project. Through individual interviews, an initial questionnaire, school-wide observations, contact with the YPAR group, artifacts, and a final focus group, I explore the particulars of how youth participants navigate relations, as well as explicate the influences of larger structural issues in the school context on student relations. The results of this dissertation inform research on the development of personal and collective agency, provide data about the role of emancipatory experiences in fostering better interracial/intercultural relations among youth, and provide fertile ground for theorizing about the role of intercultural coalitions in addressing systemic oppression.
Presentation Description
In the dissertation, I examine intercultural/interracial interaction among African American, Asian, and Latino/a students as they engage in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project in an urban high school. Through school-wide observations, pre/post interviews, and observations of critically-oriented activities, collaborative interaction in the YPAR group, I investigate the particulars of how participants navigate racial/cultural/gendered relations. The results of this dissertation provide data about the role of emancipatory curriculum experiences in fostering better interracial/intercultural relations among youth.
Keywords
intercultural relations/interracial relations; participatory action research; youth studies, critical pedagogy; student empowerment; ethnography; urban schools; Black students; Latino/a Students; Students of Color
Location
Magnolia Room A
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Childers-McKee, Cherese Diane, "Interracial/intercultural relations among students of color: Fostering solidarity while maintaining individual notions of our cultural selves" (2015). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 10.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2015/2015/10
Interracial/intercultural relations among students of color: Fostering solidarity while maintaining individual notions of our cultural selves
Magnolia Room A
Despite frequent contact between students of color and increased instances of intercultural conflict in school settings, there is limited research about youth of color interaction in educational spaces (Quijada, 2009). In the dissertation, I examine interaction among students of color (African American, Asian, and Latino/a) as they engage in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project in an urban high school. As youth engage in critically-oriented activities and collaborative interaction, I explore how the participatory research process influences and shapes youths’ relationships, particularly as they navigate racial/cultural/gender differences.
While researchers have used YPAR as a primary research methodology, in this study, the participatory action research process represents a part of the intervention that will be used to shape student relations. Thus, I utilize an ethnographic approach to both describe the high school context in which intercultural/interracial relations occur as well as to map the particulars of collaborative relations as I engage youth in a year-long action research project. Through individual interviews, an initial questionnaire, school-wide observations, contact with the YPAR group, artifacts, and a final focus group, I explore the particulars of how youth participants navigate relations, as well as explicate the influences of larger structural issues in the school context on student relations. The results of this dissertation inform research on the development of personal and collective agency, provide data about the role of emancipatory experiences in fostering better interracial/intercultural relations among youth, and provide fertile ground for theorizing about the role of intercultural coalitions in addressing systemic oppression.
