Treffer: 'A Very Peaceful Coup': Renegotiating Youth-Adult Dynamics through an Online Writing Community

This collaborative autoethnography explores the shifting power dynamics in a youth-adult research partnership within a participatory design research project focused on a youth-led online writing community. The authors, a former high school teacher/now doctoral student researcher and former high school students/current co-researchers, analyze their evolving relationship within the larger research project, highlighting the complexities of navigating shifting roles. The research, grounded in theories of intergenerational inquiry and participatory methodologies, investigates how power circulates and is negotiated within such partnerships, including the fluid interplay of institutional power and shared agency. The study examines how their relationship transitioned from teacher-student to co-researchers and friends over two and a half years, where findings reveal the role of intergenerational spaces and shared fandom interests for restructuring boundaries, foregrounding student expertise both in the online community and in the research, and building true reciprocal co-researcher relationships by shifting leadership of project facets to youth. The paper concludes by highlighting the study's implications for educators and intergenerational research teams seeking to create more equitable and collaborative learning environments, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and valuing youth expertise, promoting youth leadership in the knowledge construction process, and openly discussing and navigating power dynamics.

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