Ethical Commitments in Community-Based Research with Youth

This article offers an ethnographic account of a formally organized group of students who worked to influence policy in their schools and the adults they encountered in this activity. I also address my role as an observant participant to highlight a series of emergent “ethical opportunities” that created contexts for mutual human development. This account is intended to contribute to a discussion of the developmental role of contradictions highlighted in cultural-historical activity theory. In particular, I seek to highlight opportunities afforded by community-based research for all involved to respond to contradictions as learners, rather than arbiters of ethical practice.