This guidebook provides teachers, administrators and community leaders with key considerations for planning, implementing and refining a yearlong YPAR course. The curriculum contains the scope and sequence, detailed lesson plans, instructional resources and a host of crucial sample documents educators and leaders need to construct a rigorous, fun and inspiring YPAR course. It contains three distinct cycles of student-led research investigations. Throughout the guidebook we have integrated a host of practitioner-friendly resources to:

• Help educators and students execute research tasks by focusing on their own positionality and the lenses it affords
• Develop strong research questions that align with students’ concerns and curiosities
• Build effective systems and structures to carry out activities associated with data gathering, analysis and presentation

To facilitate strong renditions of YPAR projects, we organized the guidebook and curriculum into four phases, all designed to be adapted to fit local contexts and conditions:

• Phase 1 describes the goals of YPAR and orients practitioners to its learner-centered routines and structures.
• Phase 2 provides details on preparing to offer a YPAR course including: curriculum development; recruiting partners, students and educators; and preparing students and educators to engage in the work.
• Phase 3 supplies activities to design, refine and execute investigations, then share discoveries with audiences positioned to do something about it.
• Phase 4 provides suggestions for refining the YPAR systems, structures and curriculum throughout the year based on student reflection, feedback and leadership.

We think students are hungry for these types of opportunities and challenges, communities benefit greatly from well-designed youth inquiry and leadership and educators thrive when they have a structure they can rely on to implement it well.