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Youth Speak: Gretchen Brion-Meisels

"In my... work, I am interested in collaborating with youth to explore questions that matter to them, and I believe that working with youth is one of the best ways to learn with and from them."

Gretchen Brion-MeiselsHow would education research be different if, rather than adults asking the questions, youth asked instead? This summer doctoral student Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Ed.M.’11, decided to find out.

As part of the Cambridge Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment program — in which Brion-Meisels herself participated as a teen — she hired 14 young people to conduct research with her over a six-week period. The project, Supporting Our City to Support Our Friends, was a collaborative research project where Brion-Meisels worked with Cambridge youth to explore the ways in which they define, choose, and use school- and community-based support systems.

“We want young people to have a voice,” says Brion-Meisels. “In my own work, I am interested in collaborating with youth to explore questions that matter to them, and I believe that working with youth is one of the best ways to learn with and from them.”

Brion-Meisels is particularly interested in understanding how young people are thinking and making decisions about school-based supports. One problem facing communities, she says, is that often there is an issue with whether youth are using community and school supports, as well as adults not completely understanding what youth need from supports.

In order to get them talking about the topic, Brion-Meisels taught the group of students — all Cambridge teenagers — to conduct research. The students practiced all aspects of the research process including defining the problem, designing the research methodology, collecting data, and analyzing and disseminating results. While Brion-Meisels initially asked the youth to consider how their peers “define, choose, and use” supports, the students ultimately settled on their own research questions: How do youth in Cambridge make decisions about when and how to use supports? And, how does the Internet add to support – or stress/distress – for Cambridge youth? To answer these questions, they surveyed 208 youth, conducted 25 interviews, and held four focus groups.

Emma Steffen, 15, noted that teens often won’t share what they really think with adults and this work was unique for that reason. “I think it is cool because there are not a lot of projects where teens talk to teens,” Steffen says. “This was a great idea.”

Though Keisha Lamarre, 15, admitted she had hoped to work in a library as part of the mayor’s program, she was pleasantly surprised by the experience. “It didn’t sound fun,” Lamarre says. “But it became interesting and really broadened my view of what Cambridge kids think.”

At the close of summer, the group of students, wearing t-shirts reading “Youth Speak,” presented their findings to an audience at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Among other results, the students found that their peers seek support from adults who are trustworthy, understanding, nonjudgmental, engaging, and experienced. In fact, confidentiality and trust seem to be among the most important issues for youth when they choose supports. In addition to these concerns, the students found that youth sometimes avoid using supports based on concerns about confidentiality, repercussions, pride, and control. Finally, the students’ findings suggest that youth are using the Internet as an important source of academic and social/emotional support, despite the fact that cyber-bullying is a continued concern for many young people. At the end of their presentation, the students answered questions from audience members, including the district superintendent, about their work.

Brion-Meisels hopes that the research will have an impact on the students and also the city.

“I've been speaking with the youth researchers individually about how they experienced the summer research project,” Brion-Meisels says. “It’s been wonderful to hear about what parts of the research process were powerful for them, and where they would do things differently next time.” In addition, the youth researchers have been accepted to a conference in October, where they will present a poster with their work.

As part of her dissertation research, Brion-Meisels plans to continue to explore the role that collaborative research with youth can play in shaping student-support processes. “It's important for both researchers and practitioners to create spaces in which youth can explore, critique, and advocate for change. Service providers, in particular, can learn so much when they see their relationships with youth as reciprocally transformative,” Brion-Meisels says. “I am interested in learning how young people think about 'support' and what they want from adults, so that schools and communities can adjust their practices to create spaces that better respect and nurture young people.”

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