Abstract
Nothing brought me more joy during my years as the coordinator of the UCLA Council of Youth Research than those moments when, after politely listening to my explanation of some theoretical concept that scholars have painstakingly defined and debated across years in the academy, the students would laugh and respond with some variation of, “Yeah, we get it. We know what they’re saying—they just use fancy language to say it.” Hegemony, social capital— whatever the concept, the youth could always tap into their own identities and experiences to understand that, stripped of all jargon, they already viscerally grasped these realities—the literature just provided some new vocabulary.
Author Biography
Nicole Mirra
Nicole Mirra is an associate professor of urban teacher education in the Department of Learning & Teaching at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. Her research utilizes participatory design methods in classroom, community, and digital spaces to collaboratively create civic learning environments with youth and educators that disrupt structures of racial injustice and creatively compose liberatory social futures. She previously taught secondary literacy and debate in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California. Her most recent book is Civics for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom (Norton, 2023).
Recommended Citation
Mirra, N.
(2025).
Speculation is not theoretical: the work of YPAR moving forward.
Occasional Paper Series,
(53).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1553
Included in
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