Solutions to the countless crises middle schools face are typically proposed by policy makers with little actual classroom experience. Meanwhile, essential insights from students on the issues they experience firsthand every day are largely ignored. Youth participatory action research (YPAR) can help, as social researchers collaborate with youth,…

This is the account of a practitioner using action research in his classroom. Lamenting a lack of democracy in his teaching, the teacher is advised by his critical friends to present the problem to his sixth grade students. Together, they come up with a plan to try to democratize their classroom one period at a time. Using both student and teacher…