The Justice-oriented Youth (JoY) Education Lab
Drexel University School of Education
“It is a beautiful thing to be on fire for justice...there is no greater joy than inspiring and empowering others”. ~ Dr. Cornel West
The Justice-oriented Youth (JoY) Education Lab was founded in 2019 by Dr. Ayana Allen-Handy in the School of Education at Drexel University. Our team of faculty, graduate, undergraduate, youth, and community researchers engage in research methods and critical civic praxis rooted in culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies, critical race theory, intersectionality, and social justice youth development, with the intent to advance justice in all of its’ forms, particularly education, social, and racial justice. Our project-based research approach includes Youth-led and Community-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR/CPAR), what Dr. Julio Cammarota and Dr. Michelle Fine call a dynamic, co-constructed research process that is designed to interrogate and transform systems and institutions to produce greater distributive justice. The JoY Education Lab strives to democratize traditional research methods (which are often reserved for and sanctioned by the academy) by centering the lived experiences, cultural ways of knowing and being, and expertise of our youth and community researchers. Ultimately, we seek to cultivate joy amongst our diverse, intergenerational community of scholars in our collective pursuit of justice.