Student Voice and Personalized Learning Plans: A Youth Participatory Action Research Dissertation

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2022-09-16

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Southern New Hampshire University

Abstract

This Dissertation in Practice explores how students reimagined the Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) process in a small, Vermont high school. Using critical theory to justify the centering and raising of student voice coupled with social cognitive theory and the psychological concepts of self-efficacy and agency, a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) method was used. YPAR invites students to lead the research process among their peers with the goal of their student voice and agency being supported and strengthened. With greater student voice and student agency being key outcomes of PLPs in Vermont, including student voice and agency within the research process was logical. UP for Learning’s “Roadmap to Agency” was used to both guide and assess progress toward centering student voice. Outcomes included increased voice and agency for the student participants as well as the future potential for greater voice and agency for all students in the high school as they progress through the reimagined Personalized Learning Plan process.

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