Activating Youth as Change Agents: Integrating Youth Participatory Action Research in School Counseling

In Activating Youth as Change Agents: Integrating Youth Participatory Action Research in School Counseling, editors Amy L. Cook and Ian P. Levy aim to reshape the way school counselors work with youth by shifting the power dynamic to allow young people to tell their stories and uncover the hidden inequities and power structures that disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as other marginalized groups. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an action-oriented research and group approach that encourages critical examination of experiences and knowledge in ways that seek to promote youth and community development.

The authors describe the applications of YPAR as a youth-oriented group process where school counselors collaborate alongside students in developmentally relevant ways to achieve their goals toward personal growth and positive school-community improvement. In section one of the book, YPAR is introduced with a focus on the individual/small group level. In sections two and three, authors provide developmentally relevant descriptions and report on YPAR projects conducted in small and large groups, and illustrate YPAR at the community level.

Activating Youth as Change Agents is essential reading for school counseling professionals and trainees who are seeking how to engage in culturally responsive counseling practice that helps build counselors’ self-awareness and understanding of bias, and how to collaborate with others to improve systems that are unjust. Additionally, this book provides practitioners and counselors-in-training with group-counseling skills focused on action and how to engage in social justice efforts both locally at their school and in their communities.

Amy L. Cook, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Department Chair of Counseling and School Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Cook’s research focuses on supporting equity and access for social-emotional learning, largely through community-engaged research with partner schools and organizations. She teaches courses in psychopathology and diagnosis and collaborative consultation in schools.

Ian P. Levy, EdD, is an Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Counseling and Therapy at Manhattan College. Levy’s research explores preparing school counselors to use Hip Hop based interventions to support youth development. Most notably, Levy piloted the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Hip Hop based counseling framework, which has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, and published in a variety of academic journals.