YPAR projects in the Burlington School District have confronted the messiest – and thus, often neglected – issues of injustice, such as racist and sexist student handbooks, sexist and racist dress codes, white supremacist curriculum, cis-sexist school policies, heteronormative school curriculum, and lack of accountability structures for racist behavior of teachers. Our liberation orientation requires us to elevate the voices and needs of the marginalized over the needs of the privileged when making decisions.
2016/2017
Burlington High School YPAR team gathers data on student perceptions of the Student Handbook and utilizes the data to push through new handbook policies that reject punitive discipline practices and adopts Restorative Practices.
2017/2018
YPAR begins at Edmunds Middle School (EMS) within the 6th grade, gather racism, ableism and gender discrimination. They present their findings to school staff and at the 2018 Annual UVM CESS Research Consortium.
2019/2020
The 8th grade YPAR team took up 3 activism projects–creating an annual Black Lives Matter Flag Ceremony, revising the school dress code to redress gender discrimination and organizing the commissioning of a LGBTQ+ mural. The 8th grade YPAR team organized and led a moving BLM Flag Ceremony, that received significant local media coverage. The YPAR team delivered the keynote address at the annual Middle Grades Institute Conference. The YPAR team were featured presenters at the “Let’s Reimagine Schools Together: Youth Participatory Action Research Virtual Institute.”
Edmunds Middle School YPAR Collective Receives 2021 Impact Award from the American Educational Research Association
Edmunds Middle School (EMS) and University of Vermont’s (UVM) Youth Participatory Action Research Collective (YPAR) has been recognized by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) with its Impact Award. The group was recognized for its work using multiple data gathering methods to identify equity issues at EMS and create an action plan to address those issues in a data-informed way, working with multiple school stakeholders.
“The YPAR collective is growing in Burlington School District,” said Liz Clements, YPAR co-teacher. “This group of students, teachers, UVM partners, and administrators are dedicated to amplifying the voices of students in our schools. In YPAR students discover their agency to interrupt oppression as they research, plan, and enact positive changes that impact their lives and lives of others in their school. The curriculum offers students the opportunity to name and discuss injustices they see around them, a process which has helped me, and other adults, recognize and break down my own biases as a teacher. Thank you to our students for leading the way!”