CITIZEN SCIENCE LAB

Schools should be enabling spaces for learners to flourish in a safe, nurturing environment where they feel they belong. However, in Tanzania context, this is not always the case due to a variety of socio historical structural factors. Many children have been rendered vulnerable by the intersectionality of multiple stressors stemming from, and contributing to, increased poverty, ill health and disease, and parental alcohol abuse and neglect. Education is a critical factor in determining the future of children living in deprivation. Although a means to disrupt the cycle of poverty in which they are trapped, the under-resourced state of schools in socioeconomically challenged communities contributes to, rather than addresses, the problem. Many schools, especially in rural areas, are faced with a dearth of infrastructure: overcrowded classrooms; inadequate resources for teaching, learning, and extra-mural activities; a lack of basic services such as clean water and sanitation; and insufficient access to social welfare services. In such settings, teachers struggle to provide the socio emotional support to ensure learners not only survive, but also thrive despite the adversity they face. Many learners living in these contexts have to work after school hours to contribute to the support of their families, or miss school on occasion to carry out family duties their parents cannot perform due to absence or illness. These added responsibilities negatively affect their ability to attend, or to concentrate at school .

Eventually, their academic performance suffers, which can trigger other negative effects such as internalizing or aggressive behaviors, depression, substance abuse, or school dropout.

The future of society is increasingly dependent upon young people being resilient enough to learn and adapt to different requirements and demands in a constantly changing world. From a socio ecological view of resilience, the onus falls on adults in the environment to provide the child with access to protective resources to  buffer risk. In communities characterised by poverty and adversity, many parents and adults are not able to provide such support, and may even contribute to the risk factors facing the child. Although the expectation that the teacher provides psychosocial support to children deemed to be at risk is contested in literature for these children, teachers are often the only adults available who could do so. However, teachers too, have become increasingly demotivated and stressed by working in such socio economically challenged environments  with negative consequences for themselves and, ultimately, for their learners.

Many schools have thus become disabling, unsafe, and stigmatizing spaces for children; they feel unwelcome and disconnected from the school. As a teacher in such a school, the lead author has personal experience of how these circumstances negatively affect learners. Given that there is little hope of positive support from social structures in the near future, we felt compelled to take action to somehow improve the situation.

Our youth participatory action research creates opportunities for youth and adults to work together to develop a research agenda to bring about change in their circumstances, and influence policies on issues that impact directly on their lives . Our Youth action participatory research has increasingly been used by researchers in schools to develop youth advocacy by working collaboratively through cycles of action and reflection to identify issues, generate and analyse data, and disseminate findings to bring aboutchange in their social environments

1. Young people begin by exploriing social issues in their school, program, or community.
   2. They then choose a topic to explore in depth.
    Once they have selected their problem of interest, they gain hands-on experience in various research methods, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, or documentary videos.
    3. As participants collect data from stakeholders to answer their research question, they also think strategically about how to create social change by building alliances with stakeholders.
   4. After identifying the main findings from their research,youth generate recommendations for change and advocate for their solutions

OUR SOLUTION

(a)Youth will research the problem which affecting their lives :
Young people identify a problem of concern, gather data about it, and then make recommendations for improvement. For example, participants might select the topic of school violence, survey their peers to assess their experiences, and then present their results and suggested solutions to the local school board.
(b)Youth will prioritize problems based on the research data:

Our  researchers will facilitated a community meeting to all youth in the schools. At this meeting  youth will received basic advocacy training, reviewed the collectively gathered information such as  photographs, audio narrative transcripts and prioritized issues to address.

The training will provided by the researchers in a group setting and emphasized realistic goal setting, development of action plans, and
strategic identification of potential allies and resources. Each  participant will receive  a community advocacy handbook that included  definitions, educational materials, and worksheets that will be  developed by the research team and that have been shown to have initial  utility in fostering community change.

All written materials and meetings were bilingual (English, Swahili).
Sample photos and audio transcripts for each element will be displayed
around the room to guide the discussion.

(c)Youth will prioritize solution to those problems affecting their lives:

Youth will vote to indicate the issues they felt were most  important and feasible to address and then collectively youth will brainstorm potential solutions. Three youth and four  adult leaders volunteered will be elected to represent the group in meetings with policy makers and decision makers.

(d) Youth will develop and implement an action plan to advocate with decision makers for policy changes.

Elected youth  will held a meeting with relevant community leaders, policy and decision makers, and community partners to share the problem and solutions from research which they are conducted. The meeting will select the potential solution to solve youth problems.

Our solution will serve youth from low income schools. Schools should be enabling spaces for learners to flourish in a safe, nurturing environment where they feel they belong. However, in Tanzania context, this is not always the case due to a variety of socio historical structural factors. Many children have been rendered vulnerable by the intersectionality of multiple stressors stemming from, and contributing to, increased poverty, ill health and disease, and parental alcohol abuse and neglect.

Our youth participatory action research creates opportunities for youth and adults to work together to develop a research agenda to bring about change in their circumstances, and influence policies on issues that impact directly on their lives . Our Youth action participatory research has increasingly been used by researchers in schools to develop youth advocacy by working collaboratively through cycles of action and reflection to identify issues, generate and analyse data, and disseminate findings to bring aboutchange in their social environments

Youth action participatory research is grounded in an emancipatory paradigm, aimed at producing knowledge to benefit oppressed groups. Youth participants engage in ongoing dialogue with their peers and the adult researchers, learning how to become self-reflective and critical thinkers. The process is also educative because it enables youth participants to improve their planning, research, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. Youth action participatory research as a form of critical pedagogy has a political intent because youth learn how to challenge oppressive systems to influence policy on a micro level. Youth action participatory research has been found to enable young people to increase their resilience, giving them the confidence to believe in their capabilities and to perceive themselves as agents of change in their school.

In this Project, the voices of the youth participants will be accentuated, with the teacher-researcher guiding them to analyse their unsupportive school environment and navigate towards solutions to make it a more welcoming space.

Given that youth action participatory research is a collaborative and participatory process, the adult researcher assumes the role of facilitator, observer, and reporter of the participant group-her primary role being to provide guidance with regard to the research principles and process. As facilitator, the adult is also responsible for building participants' confidence and independence by listening to and validating their inputs. Although  youth action participatory research is an emerging methodology, research to date has demonstrated its value for developing the voice and agency of youth and for equipping them with lifelong skills of value beyond the project . However, given that Youth action participatory research sets out to change and challenge existing structures, it can be interpreted by those in power as a threat, leading them to either ignore or ridicule the ideas of the youth. They may also try to impose barriers to youth activity to generate and disseminate data, or, as we feared, try to victimise the youth participants in an effort to stop the project. Thus, it is essential that the adult researcher monitors the process carefully for any adverse outcomes so that immediate action can be taken to prevent harm to the participants.
Our project is guided by three key principles which are following
• Inquiry-based. Topics of investigation are grounded
in young people’s life experiences and concerns.
• Participatory. Young people share power with adults in making decisions about their project and how to move it forward.
• Transformative. The purpose of YPAR is to improve the lives of marginalized youth and their communities.

(A) Kurwa is the leader with five year  experience using a student-centered approach to developing content, policies, procedures, and expectations can be utilized throughout the school building. Here are a few considerations . Kurwa using youth participated action research (YPAR) to :

1. Treat students as the experts. Remember that your role is to guide students in conducting their research and help them learn to publicly disseminate and articulate their findings.
2. Offer students an incentive. You can’t pay them, but you can incentive them in other ways. I offered to take students on field trips to universities, give them polo shirts and food!
3. Invite policymakers, decision-makers, and others with the power to create change to listen to your students. Regardless of how your group chooses to present its findings, make sure the people who can effect lasting change are in the room.

(B) Innocent temba (co-founder) is formerly the citizen science community  project manager which he used photovoice to gather information in  community problems.

Joackim (co-founder) is the teacher and data analytics practitioner that have a good understanding on data analytic and researches so she lead on choosing with parameters should be measured and published to push the mitigation process

To promote transformative and change oriented : We are focuses on changing inequalities that occur within social systems (including policies, practices, and norms). And while there can be relational and developmental benefits for youth who participate in our project, the ultimate outcome of research conducted by youth is to promote actual change in programs and communities that impact young people lives in school.

To promote reorganization of decision-making power. Much like in broader society, youth programs are often the recipients of services developed by adults. The goal is to value youths’ perspectives  and to influence the settings that youth must navigate in their daily lives (e.g., school, neighborhoods, peer groups).  We places youth in the decision-making role of leading research for change in the program and community. Just like a program may adopt recommendations from outside adult researchers, youths’ findings should be valued to inform program policies and practices.

To promote youth as researchers with valuable expertise. Youth lead the selection of the research topic, methods, analysis, and action(s). This approach is founded on the recognition that adults are not the only ones who can create knowledge and research about the way the world works – youth can, too. Typically, adults are seen as the experts, but youth shakes up this idea and places youth in the driver seat because youth are experts in their own experiences navigating  programs in school lives. We leverages this expertise for change.

Our youth participatory action research creates opportunities for youth and adults to work together to develop a research agenda to bring about change in their circumstances, and influence policies on issues that impact directly on their lives . Our Youth action participatory research has increasingly been used by researchers in schools to develop youth advocacy by working collaboratively through cycles of action and reflection to identify issues, generate and analyse data, and disseminate findings to bring about change in their social environments

Youth action participatory research is grounded in an emancipatory paradigm, aimed at producing knowledge to benefit oppressed groups. Youth participants engage in ongoing dialogue with their peers and the adult researchers, learning how to become self-reflective and critical thinkers. The process is also educative because it enables youth participants to improve their planning, research, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. Youth action participatory research as a form of critical pedagogy has a political intent because youth learn how to challenge oppressive systems to influence policy on a micro level. Youth action participatory research has been found to enable young people to increase their resilience, giving them the confidence to believe in their capabilities and to perceive themselves as agents of change in their school.

In this Project, the voices of the youth participants will be accentuated, with the teacher-researcher guiding them to analyse their unsupportive school environment and navigate towards solutions to make it a more welcoming space.

Given that youth action participatory research is a collaborative and participatory process, the adult researcher assumes the role of facilitator, observer, and reporter of the participant group-her primary role being to provide guidance with regard to the research principles and process. As facilitator, the adult is also responsible for building participants' confidence and independence by listening to and validating their inputs. Although  youth action participatory research is an emerging methodology, research to date has demonstrated its value for developing the voice and agency of youth and for equipping them with lifelong skills of value beyond the project . However, given that Youth action participatory research sets out to change and challenge existing structures, it can be interpreted by those in power as a threat, leading them to either ignore or ridicule the ideas of the youth. They may also try to impose barriers to youth activity to generate and disseminate data, or, as we feared, try to victimise the youth participants in an effort to stop the project. Thus, it is essential that the adult researcher monitors the process carefully for any adverse outcomes so that immediate action can be taken to prevent harm to the participants. Nonetheless, the benefits of youth action participatory research  for developing the resilience of youth seem to outweigh the challenges.

Next year goal 

1. Youth from 20 of schools can actively  participatory action research . We can mobilize them to push the goverments to sync their actions about school local issues
2. 30 of schools can actively  participatory action research . We can mobilize
   them to push the goverments to sync their actions about school local issues

next 5 years goal :

1. Government see us as partner and work with us to mitigate social issue and educate citizens and mobilize them for necessary actions

We measure 

1. Number of youth participating participatory action research to problem in the school
2. Number of problem solved by youth participatory action research.
3. relevant key performance indicator per project 

Rural schools in Tanzania face many social and environmental challenges which impact negatively on learner well being and performance. Given the severity and history of these problems, the situation is unlikely to change in the near future. Yet, schools are supposed to be enabling environments, providing holistic support to learners from communities plagued by severe economic, health and social challenges. A different strategy is clearly needed to promote the health and well being of learners. Youth participatory action research (YPAR) appears to offer a plausible approach to kick start improved social services  within the school. We will facilitate youth participatory research process with youth learners to find out how they could begin to transform their rural school. Using photovoice methods, the learners will successful raising awareness of the negative effects they were suffering as a result of the poor social-emotional climate in the school, the unsanitary facilities and the lack of opportunities to engage in physical exercise. The actions they will take to address these issues will be catalyst for ongoing positive change in the school.

This approach foregrounds the voices and agency of the learners since they themselves are best placed to sensitize people to their needs and wants   Youth participatory action research (YPAR) as a Paradigm for Social Change Youth participatory action research(YPAR) is grounded in an emancipatory paradigm, enabling youth to effect social change in matters that affect their lives. This paradigm recognizes the value and validity of knowledge generated by the youth, and their right to mobilize such knowledge to inform policy and practice. Will enable youth living in inequitable conditions to critique, redefine, and overcome the very asymmetries they face in their schools and communities.

Adult facilitators work with youth through cycles of action and reflection to identify issues, generate and analyse data, and disseminate findings as advocates for change in their environments . The process in itself is educative, as participants experientially learn to be self-reflective and self-directed learners and are afforded opportunity to develop life skills such as communication, problem-solving,  group work, planning and organization that are of value throughout their lives  .

Youth will use citizen science method such as photovoice .Citizen scientis will use smart phone and tablets to gather information’s about strength and concern in their schools.we will digital technology such as electronic tablets and smartphone to collect data for our youth participatory research.Youth will be given tablets and smartphone to collect data for our project. Also we will use zoom platform for organizing meeting for project activities. Also we use software for analysing data for our projects

We work with people from different background,experience,knowledges in order to achieve our goals.We involved different  community members that  can be anyone (any gender) and any condition to achieve our goals.