From Community Mapping to Community Action¹: Youth Participatory Action Research on the Educational Pipeline

This chapter discusses how a group of youth researchers at a local public high school and a local community center, with the assistance of university-level adult researchers, committed to two Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project as part of the Zona de Promesa initiative using a web-based mapping application. The purpose of both a public high school mapping and a community center mapping project was to use YPAR to have students identify the college-going culture of their communities through various messaging embedded in the physical environment, and to create action plans that lead to school and community-wide change. Through applications like Google My Maps, as well as other technologies like GPS clickers, IPads, and phone cameras, the youth identified college resources and community assets. Guided by the ABC Model, the YPAR project engaged youth in identifying school and community resources for the college application process. The findings of mapping initiatives suggest that empowering students to be advocates for their education can significantly change not only the way students perceive their educational possibilities but also the ways school administrators and stakeholders perceive the community’s commitment to higher education.