Unaffirmative Actions: Lessons on Refusal, Racism, and Youth Research

Authors

  • Shangi Vijenthira McMaster University
  • Rifaa Ali McMaster University
  • Erin Manogaran University of Southern California

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33137/incite.1.28880

Keywords:

participatory action research, critical race theory, youth, educators, teachers, racism, youth participatory action research, youth research

Abstract

We are all girls of colour attending an independent secondary school in downtown Toronto, where we learn from a majority white teaching and guidance staff, despite having a racially diverse student and city population. We used our school as an example of what we view as a widespread problem, both in our personal experiences in Toronto and as researched throughout Canada and the United States: a lack of racial diversity in secondary school faculty. Using youth participatory action research methodologies, we set out to investigate the source of this problem at our school, but instead encountered refusal and evasion by school administration and teachers of colour. They appeared to use various defense tactics to avoid acknowledging racism in our society. We categorized the ways staff refused and evaded our study into three groups: dismissiveness, rationalization, and sugarcoating. Our study became an example of the difficulties of youth research and of trying to subvert constructs like the teacher-student hierarchy.

Author Biographies

Shangi Vijenthira, McMaster University

Shangi is one of the founding youth editors at in:cite in Toronto and a past student in youth participatory action research from 2015 to 2017. She is just starting her first year at McMaster University, studying health sciences. In her spare time, Shangi likes to read, hike, work on learning Tamil and French, and knit.

Rifaa Ali, McMaster University

Rifaa has recently graduated high school and is now at McMaster University. She was involved in youth participatory action research from 2015 to 2017 and is currently studying Health Sciences. As hobbies, Rifaa enjoys reading, jogging, drawing and geocaching.

Erin Manogaran, University of Southern California

Erin has been a part of the Youth Participatory Action Research project since 2016. After graduating from high school in 2018, she is currently studying biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California. In her spare time, Erin can be found reading, catching up with friends and being a culinary aficionado.

journal cover (white text on dark purple background): incite journal volume 1, 2018, edited by the incite journal editorial team

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Published

2018-09-19

Issue

Vol. 1 (2018)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Shangi Vijenthira, Rifaa Ali, Erin Manogaran

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