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The Urban Review

, Volume 46, Issue 4, pp 703–724 | Cite as

Questioning Our Questions: Assessing Question Asking Practices to Evaluate a yPAR Program

  • Sarah Grace
  • Regina Day Langhout
Article
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Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine question asking practices in a youth participatory action research (yPAR) after school program housed at an elementary school. The research question was: In which ways did the adult question asking practices in a yPAR setting challenge and/or reproduce conventional models of power in educational settings? We aligned Fink’s taxonomy (Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated approach to designing college courses. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2003) to Freire’s (The pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum, New York, 1970/2000) banking concept and problem-posing educational models. All adult questions were categorized from twelve randomly selected yPAR sessions over 2 years. The program served 4th and 5th grade students. Of the 500+ questions adults asked, 17 % were foundational (aligned with Freire’s banking concept). All other questions were aligned with Freire’s problem-posing model. Specifically, 34 % were application, 3 % were integration, 15 % were caring, 11 % were human dimension, and 8 % were learning how to learn questions. By studying question asking patterns and practices, we gained a better understanding of how students and adults navigated this particular after school space, which, at its core, sought to disrupt conventional notions of power and status.

Keywords

yPAR Freire Fink’s taxonomy Question asking Power Adult–child relations 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the students in “Change 4 Good,” the Maplewood School community, and Brooke Davidson, Brenda Garibay Natalie Henry, Danielle Kohfeldt, Jessenia Meza, and Jeremy Rosen-Prinz. This research was supported through the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community; a Division of Social Sciences Junior Faculty Research Grant; and University-Community Links.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Psychology DepartmentUniversity of California, Santa CruzSanta CruzUSA

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