“They Taught Me More than I Taught Them:” Situating Youth as the Experts in Learning Spaces (Part 2)

As a reminder to readers, we’ll include the introduction to Andre’s piece here, then we’ll jump into the second lesson he shared with us.

For the past three years, I have been working on my doctoral studies in educational and organizational leadership the centers the significance of organic critical literacies (Campano et al., 2013) and formulating a research study that embodies multiple truths about myself: my intersectional identity as Filipinx and Queer; my love for the brilliance and authenticity of our queer youth; and my passion for collectivist and collaborative inquiries. In my parallel work with the 228 Accelerator, I am often reminded of how necessary it is to understand yourself is necessary when engaging in liberation work. It reminds of this quote from “The Combahee River Collective Statement” (1977): 

“This focusing upon your own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’s oppression.”

As founder of 228 Accelerator, Caroline Hill, has often said to me: 

“Heal yourself first. So you can heal others.

Free yourself first. So you can free others.”

And so, after much reflection, I decided to center my dissertation on queer Filipinx youth. Together, the youth and I launched an inquiry to learn about our ancestral roots as a way to return home to ourselves. In the process, I looked at ways they used their imahinasyon to make sense of their pagkakakilanlan ng bakla (queer identities) and Filipinx identities. As a result, the youth and I, named as Queer Kapamilya, launched an inquiry that used imagination strategies to think about a world that includes ourselves in the future. For the purpose of this article, I am going to focus on the creation of the learning space, which centered the voices of the youth and situated themselves as experts in this process. Most importantly, I ceded power as the “teacher” of the space and allowed more room for the youth to lead. 

Lesson Two: Flipping the Hierarchy: Kapabayan Youth as Experts

In many situations, the teaching relationship in schools and classrooms situates the teacher, professor, or “lead” as the expert; however, YPAR pushes pedagogical practices that situate the youth as experts of knowledge and intellectual beings (Carballo et al., 2017). While in this instance, I took the lead on planning the sessions, the voices and guidance of the youth shone through in the relational interviews and class conversations. 

Some of the most meaningful conversations were centered around queer identity. Based on the different environments the youth live in and the schools they attend, they make active decisions about how they show up and express their identities. This ties back to the concept around situating agency (Gooding et al., 2022), where they have to negotiate and decide what parts of their identities are safe. The discussion around having a “target on your back” from Larry and Dustin really impacted me. They both shared that even in places where they experience outright discrimination, they still show up authentically. They were specifically talking about their style of dress and whether they chose to wear acrylic nails and make-up. I found myself reflecting on my own practices as a queer adult and how I show up in my worlds. Witnessing their courage inspired me to show up, show vulnerability, and take my learnings out into the real world. As my own personal push, thinking about the Queer Kapamilya, I decided to show up to several holiday parties over winter break with painted acrylic nails on. I was riddled with anxiety, but the fear dissipated when I thought about Larry, Dustin, and Kevin, so unafraid to be who they are. In one of our winter break sessions, I revealed to the youth my triumph. They expressed overt excitement about my share during check-in, and, during his final relational interview, Larry went so far as to mention it as one of his favorite moments of the program. 

This was a particularly significant moment for me as the facilitator because I realized that as the adult in the situation, I had been carrying the burden of modeling to them “what it meant to be Filipinx” or “what it meant to be queer.” However, in that moment, my inspiration and learning came from the youth. Their knowledge of how to be queer helped me expand on my personal expression around queerness. It taught me how to exist more authentically as myself. Youth are also experts. This revelation allowed me to continue thinking about this project as a journey together versus a dynamic of teacher-student hierarchy. While the expectation was for me, as the “educator,” to teach them, they also taught me. In reflection during post-study, I came to the realization that I learned more from then than they learned from me regarding the aspects around living “out loud.” We were learning collaboratively with one another.

What This Means

While this took place outside of the school context and in a third space environment, I often think about the implications of what this could mean in the school setting. Firstly, we already know that relationship-building is the fabric of a strong classroom culture. It is more than a perfectly executed Unit 0; it requires moments where you get to know youth interests, see what they are interested in learning about, and reflect on where this class fits into their long-term plan. Treat relationship-building as a cycle that continues throughout the year allows for moments where the group can navigate conflict. Secondly, within our learning spaces there needs to be a new paradigm that allows youth to co-create and co-design in the classroom. This means that student should be empowered to develop units and curriculum through modes of inquiry that situate the youth not only as learners but also as experts. As educators, we should cede power in the learning space by flattening the hierarchy. We all have something to learn from each other; recognizing this fact ensures a better learning community.

This summer I am going to continue this exploration with Queer Kapamilya, but also as a part of House of Legends in the 228 Accelerator Metaverse House. We are questioning to see how queer youth collaborate and co-design this space as a place where we continue to learning about liberation, where there are no restrictions to this movement. Stay tuned for this announcement! 

Bibliography

Caraballo, L., Lozenski, B. D., Lyiscott, J. J., & Morrell, E. (2017). YPAR and Critical 

Epistemologies: Rethinking Education Research. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 311–336. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16686948

Campano, G., Ghiso, M. P., & Sánchez, L. (2013). “Nobody Knows the... Amount of a Person”: 

Elementary Students Critiquing Dehumanization through Organic Critical Literacies. Research in the Teaching of English, 48(1), 98–125. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24398648

Gooding, A. R., Zaman, B. A., Harrell, S. J., Collins, S., Abelson, M. J., & Anderson-Nathe, B. 

(2023). Situated agency: How LGBTQ youth navigate and create queer(ed) space. Journal of LGBT Youth, 20(3), 524–544. https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2022.2089430

Mirra, N., Garcia, A., & Morrell, E. (2016). Doing youth participatory action research: 

Transforming inquiry with researchers, educators, and students. Routledge.