Critical Engaging Participatory Action Research with Second-Generation African-Australian Students through Communicative Spaces for Reflection and Co-creation

This doctoral research was part of a partnership between Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic schools (MACS) and Monash University and explored the multiple factors which impact second-generation African-Australian students’ educational engagement. The research proposes an innovative Critical Engaging Participatory Action Research (CEPAR) study with second-generation African-Australian students attending a Catholic secondary school. Co-creating communicative spaces for reflection emerged as essential in order to challenge current educational practices and enable possibilities for new educational arrangements to emerge. The research suggested that conceptualising African-Australian students as transformative actors in their own lives was critical in challenging dominant discourses of this group of students.