Places of possibility: youth research as creative liberatory praxis

This work builds upon and extends critical youth studies scholarship concerned with strategies for engaging with young people as active change agents with arts-based research to advance theory and practice for democratic and emancipatory research with young people. In this paper, we share a collaborative self-study where we critically reflected upon our distinct experiences doing arts-based participatory youth research. We applied a critical analysis to our pedagogical and research practices in a systematic manner to garner insights, strategies, and tools that can enhance and improve them. We conceive of ‘places of possibility’ as literal and metaphorical spaces where young people are afforded the tools and resources necessary to imagine alternative realities, identities, and systems than what currently exists, primarily through art and creative practices (Goessling, K. P. 2017. “Youth Learning to be Activists: Constructing ‘Places of Possibility’ Together.” Critical Questions in Education 8 (4): 418–437. doi:17/10/goesslingfinal.pdf). We examined our art and creative practices for generating pedagogical places of possibility at three intersections: (1) creative practices as pedagogy, (2) moments of encounter, and (3) thick participation. Our findings provide strategies and tools for designing transformative research spaces with young people that are humanizing and liberatory places of learning and knowledge production.