Life as a High School Researcher: Group Autoethnography on Social Separation

In the United States, the poor and the middle class often live in different neighborhoods and go to different schools. This class separation contributes to misunderstandings about poverty in America. In the case of this panel, high school researchers and their University of Toledo mentors will discuss their weekly use of creative writing group discussions as a way to investigate what separates us by race, class, gender, and age and imagine creative ways to connect. Students at Rogers High School in Toledo write about and discuss weekly observations about social separation. The high school students are joined by University of Toledo students training to be professionals in the community. Many of the students from the University of Toledo learn that the myths they were taught about particular neighborhoods are false. The high school students begin to develop a creative research voice and are empowered as youth researchers to inform their community about the cost of neighborhoods being separated by economics. For this presentation both high school students and university students will share excerpts of their writing and discuss their process of better understanding social separation through group autoethnography.