• Consider the theme, topic, or issue you would like the youth to engage with.

• Is there a pressing problem in the community?

• Is there a social justice cause that the youth are interested in thinking about?

• Is there / has there been a particularly relevant event in the community?

• Consider what knowledge and understandings you hope students will learn through this topic.

• Regardless of your setting, what do you want the youth to better understand about the world around them? About their own community? About how their world has been socially constructed?

• If you are in a school setting, what content knowledge do you want your students to gain through engaging in this project?

• How do you want your students to engage in their communities, neighborhoods, etc.?

• What skills do you hope this project will teach students that they can bring into their futures?

• Refer to the Resource Guide for more information on resources for teaching skills.

• Consider how the theme, content, and product of your project are connected to the place / setting in which they are situated?

• How does that particular social justice issue or pressing problem affect the particular local place in which the youth live?

• How does the content knowledge or understandings you are hoping they will learn relate directly to the local realities where students live?

• How does the product you hope students will create connect to their community? Where will it be placed?

• Identify local community-based organizations, professional organizations, and museums that want to partner with youth in creating this project.

• Reach out and plan early! Work out the specifics of your partnership with these organizations as early as possible.

• How can you involve leaders from the youth’s community in this project?

• How can you involve the youth’s families in this project?

• Consider how to make these partnerships deep, meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial.

• What is the product you hope students will create from this PBCA project?

• If students are presenting information as a result of this project, how will they present that information?

• How does critical arts creation figure into your plan to create this product?

As this is an interdisciplinary arts project, it is important to present students with an idea of what this project can be. Click on this to see our section on framing PBCA to learn how to introduce this project to young people.

As a first step in the research process, students broadly about a question they are interested in addressing. We recommend a collective brainstorm. This can take a number of forms:

• Collective visual brainstorm, where students create a “map” of relevant issues facing the community

• Student groups do initial on research a relevant issue to bring back to the class, students vote on what feels most relevant.

Once the class has agreed on a research question, the initial class research can take many iterations, and benefits from some planning by the educator.

Some pathways may be:

1. Visiting a local museum or organization related to the research question to learn about issue.

2. Invite guest speakers, community members, and classmates to speak with the class

3. Students do a “literature review”: collecting news articles, poetry, photographs, and relevant media connected to the problem, and present it to the class.

Using the primary research the class has collectively gathered, the class gathers to think collectively about a list of questions that will guide their community research. Click this to be redirected to the resource page for more information on creating an interview guide.

Ethnography is an opportunity for students to realize connections between their own critical self reflection and critical thinking. Click on this to be redirected to the resource page for more on conducting ethnographic research.

Following the community conversations, students will review the materials they collected- listening deeply and thinking critically of what is said, unsaid, and what is said between the lines. Throughout this process students should make note of what stands out.

Guided by the analysis of the results of their research, students will begin to build ideas of how to respond to community needs that were articulated.

Building on the relationships established throughout the interview, students will work collectively with each other and with community members to build out their project. The process should leave room for dialogue, reflection, and community organizing.

In culmination of all the work done by students and with community members, students will present their projects in a celebratory event open to all.