Cultivating hope through creative resistance: Puerto Rican undergraduates surviving the disasters of climate and colonization

Int J Qual Stud Educ. 2022;35(8):830-842. doi: 10.1080/09518398.2022.2061069. Epub 2022 May 23.

Abstract

This article details what occurred during a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project involving Puerto Rican undergraduates who at first focused their analysis on how their experiences with Hurricane María could be framed as resiliency and then eventually adopted a framework of resistance to further capture their actions, stances, and practices in response to government neglect. The YPAR generative process facilitated this emergence of resistance by beginning with the presentation of a cultural artifact and then helping students to use creative and artistic means to critically reflect on their experiences and the ways that not just resiliency, but also resistance captured their analysis of the actions of the people and government actors both immediately after the hurricane and in the long recovery that followed.

Keywords: Latinx students; Puerto Rico; YPAR; participatory action research; resistance.