Research and Activism for Change

BPE has been at the forefront of promoting the idea that high schools need to rethink students’ roles and involvement in improvement efforts because they are vital assets and problem solvers in their schools and communities. BPE’s primary student engagement strategy, training students as researchers, resulted in two important student-led research projects, one on student attendance and one on school climate. The effort also led to the design of Research & Activism for Change, a credit-bearing high school course that strengthens students’ literacy skills through their critical examination of themselves as learners, of their schools, and of contemporary issues plaguing their communities.

In RAC, students conduct a participatory action research (PAR) project. They review literature and collect, analyze, and present data about issues that impact the quality of their educational and social experiences. With an emphasis on the development of critical literacy skills and social justice, the course has five goals:

• to use the development of students’ academic and critical literacies as a means to improved academic performance
• to engage students in critical thinking and analysis of issues in their school and their communities
• to support students in producing high-quality essays and research papers in response to what they are reading, researching, and learning
• to develop students’ social consciousness and civic leadership skills and become agents of social change
• to strengthen students’ aspirations for higher education

In our continuing work to increase and institutionalize student voice and engagement in school decision-making, BPE has successfully implemented RAC in three schools, Boston Community Leadership Academy, Brighton High School, and Social Justice Academy, working with a total of about 150 students and seven teachers.

BPE supports RAC teachers in their integration of student research into instruction through its Teachers as Researchers Institute (TRI). Participants receive weekly support from BPE staff as well as bi-monthly, full-day sessions with Dr. Ernest Morrell, assistant professor at UCLA and author of Becoming Critical Researchers: Literacy and Empowerment for Urban Youth. TRI sessions focus on deepening teachers’ understanding of social theory, social science research methods, and data analysis so they can effectively guide their students through a PAR study. The syllabus and agendas for  session 1, session 2, and session 3 detail the content of the institute, as does the TRI schedule.

Boston Community Leadership Academy (BCLA)

At BCLA, RAC is one component of a mandatory senior  "capstone" class called Lead, Act, Change: Youth Empowerment and Possibility in a Democratic Society. The other component of the course is a series of community service learning (CSL) internships at community-based organizations, which tie into the students’ research. The Lead, Act, Change curriculum begins with three historical case studies of youth activism in the Boston area. In the second quarter, students choose research topics based on analysis of their own experiences in Boston’s communities, along with the information they gathered from the case studies. Students conduct this analysis through the creation of oral histories, focusing on a social issue of their choice. Students then narrow their topics to research questions and conduct all the necessary research to answer those questions, culminating in a final presentation to peers, BCLA faculty, BPE staff, community members, and representatives from the internship sites.

Brighton High School (BHS)

Students from last year’s RAC course meet bi-weekly as a club because the headmaster was unable to fit the course into the schedule. They work on the issues that emerged in last year’s PAR project: the quality of MBTA services, BHS college support services, and the effect of metal detectors on school climate. Students conduct research using methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and field notes. The headmaster and BPE staff advise the group. In the spring, RAC students will help recruit next year’s RAC group, which will be an after-school program if the schedule cannot accommodate it.

Social Justice Academy (SJA)

Last year three teachers at SJA participated in TRI and implemented mini-research projects with their students, which provided important data for staff to assess its first year as a small school. This year, one teacher is teaching RAC, with students researching public awareness of global warming and inequalities in public education; the teacher is also assisting several humanities teachers with student research projects. Because the underlying principles of PAR and critical literacy align well with the school’s commitment to social justice, fairness, and equity, the headmaster would like to incorporate aspects of PAR and critical literacy into all classes.