Doing and undoing gendered racism with racialized girls: A school-based youth participatory action research study

Abstract

This article explores the ethics and transformative potential of youth participatory action research (yPAR) using data from a 2-year school-based yPAR study at an elite, independent school in Toronto, Canada. I use discourse analysis to show how school-based yPAR with racialized girls intensified their experiences of gendered racism, shaping the research in a circular fashion. I demonstrate how youth researchers' strategies for counteracting this intensification contradicted the project's critical race feminist investments. This study concludes that yPAR facilitators must address the potential/actual harm of youth researchers' involvement in yPAR as part of the research process.