Implementing a Youth-Centered Ethics Training for Youth Participatory Action Research

Background and Purpose. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) engages young people as collaborators and partners in knowledge production aimed at social action. The increasing use of YPAR suggests a structural need for re-envisioned human subjects training and approval processes specifically designed to meaningfully prepare youth for their research roles (Teixeira, et al. 2021). Because youth actively collect data in these research approaches, providing appropriate paths to human subjects training and approval to youth researchers is essential. However, despite increasing efforts by scholars to engage young people as partners in the research process, traditional university IRB systems have created challenges to engaging young people fully in this role.

This workshop will be led by two faculty members and a doctoral candidate. The faculty members created and implemented the training curriculum, and worked with a university IRB to gain approval for using this curriculum.

Workshop Content. This workshop will share the content of an IRB-approved, youth-centered ethics training created to support a team of young people with the opportunity to engage as true co-researchers in the process. In this workshop, the lead authors of the training curriculum will outline the core elements of the training: (1) Introduction and warm-up, (2) History and ethics of research, (3) Informed consent, (4) Confidentiality, (5) Research practices with youth, and (6) Application

Using a hands-on and interactive approach, we will provide sample activities and approaches for consideration in other institutions. We will showcase and practice some of these activities, such as role plays, drawing, think-pair-share discussions, and group brainstorms, that help youth engage with the content and develop a critical youth perspective on research ethics.

In addition to sharing materials and engaging in discussion about the training content, we will discuss the adaptations and lessons learned from utilizing the curriculum in practice, including from our experiences navigating the IRB to adopt this alternative training content. Within the workshop, we will invite participants to share their own experiences navigating IRB structures and training youth to engage in participatory research. We will also discuss and collectively develop ideas about how this curriculum could be useful in other contexts.

Implications. We hope that our work helps contribute to broader efforts among YPAR scholars to share ideas, push and challenge our own practices, and explore ways we can collectively challenge the traditional paradigms that dominate the academic research endeavor. We also hope that the workshop will support a larger conversation about the ways in which institutional research structures need to change and evolve to truly support the voices of young people.