Examining Youths' Culturally Sustaining Peer Interactions in a Community-Based Participatory Research Initiative.

This article investigates how youth enacted culturally sustaining pedagogies—educational approaches that affirm and extend diverse cultural identities—in their peer interactions within The Youth Voices Project, a multi-year community-based participatory literacy initiative in a subsidized housing community in the US Midwest. Drawing on transcripts from 53 weekly Zoom sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020–June 2021), the study identifies three key tenets of culturally sustaining peer interactions: youths acknowledging and learning from peers' identities and cultures; collaboratively making sense of current events; and envisioning more just, pluralistic social futures. The findings illustrate how youth used these interactions to navigate systemic racism, racial violence, and educational inequities, highlighting the potential for such peer pedagogies to inform educators' efforts in creating equitable learning environments. The study emphasizes the importance of recognizing youths' cultural strengths and solidarity practices as resources for disrupting educational inequities both within and beyond school contexts.