Education
A SEAT AT WHOSE TABLE? FOOD AS EMBODIED PEDAGOGY IN YOUTH SPACES
Document Type
Article
Abstract
These collaborative autoethnographic narratives examine how food practices in two youth participatory action research (YPAR) programs became sites of contestation over cultural knowledge, institutional power, and authentic community engagement. Through reflexive analysis of two cases in New Orleans, we explore how seemingly mundane decisions about food exposed broader patterns of adultism, institutional racism, and the selective embrace of community engagement within university-community partnerships. Drawing on community cultural wealth theory and critical spatial justice frameworks, we demonstrate how food became both medium and message in creating conditions for genuine youth voice and cultural affirmation. Our findings reveal food as central to transformative learning, offering insights for embodied critical pedagogy and decolonizing educational practice. © 2026 University of North Carolina at Greensboro. All rights reserved.
Publication Title
International Journal of Critical Pedagogy
Publication Date
2026
Volume
15
Issue
1
First Page
201
Last Page
222
ISSN
2157-1074
DOI
https://doi.org//ijcp.2793
Keywords
autoethnography, critical pedagogy, embodied pedagogy, New Orleans, youth, youth participatory action research
Repository Citation
Stevenson, Rae and Lugo, Micaiah, "A SEAT AT WHOSE TABLE? FOOD AS EMBODIED PEDAGOGY IN YOUTH SPACES" (2026). Education. 55.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_education/55
