Scholarship on youth digital media literacy programs has focused on how adults practice restraint... more Scholarship on youth digital media literacy programs has focused on how adults practice restraint as a means of allowing young people to exercise agency in decision-making experiences. Yet youth also practice restraint, as we found in a digital storytelling program involving 16 early adolescents (ages 11–14) from economically precarious communities who worked with 18 adult mentors trained in discussing systemic and racial injustices in the context of trauma-informed practices. Building on a framework of critical youth studies, our ethnographic data reveals how youth deployed their own version of restraint that is simultaneously defensive and agentive. We argue that this is a form of empowerment that needs to be better understood in the contexts of actual practices of youth/adult media co-production, and in relation to support for the development of critical, participatory and collaborative, and expressive competencies. Restraint is thus presented as a strategy of empowerment that youth develop in relation to digital media literacy and youth voice, especially for young people from populations historically marginalized and frequently misunderstood in media and in public life.
Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an approach where youth and adults partner to ident... more Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an approach where youth and adults partner to identify and address social issues and, in theory, creates conditions for positive intergroup contact. Yet, little is known about how the practices of YPAR facilitators enable or constrain intergroup contact, particularly in racially diverse groups. Using critical discourse analysis, we examined data from an observational study of YPAR at four sites of a youth organization serving public housing residents to interrogate power dynamics between youth and adults. Our findings suggest that supporting youth in leading and making decisions, encouraging dialogue and using open-ended questions, engaging in joint work, facilitating with intentionality, celebrating accomplishments, and involving staff who are willing to contribute to group activities may enable positive intergroup contact and mitigate adultism. Policing youths’ behavior, disengaging with the project, separating adults from youth, and only involving other staff members in punitive discipline are all practices that adults engaged in that constrained intergroup contact. Practices hindering positive intergroup contact may best be understood in relation to racialized adultism. To realize positive intergroup contact in YPAR and other youth-serving settings, therefore, this study suggests that practitioners must mitigate racism and adultism.
This study examines the realities of LGBTQ young adults experiencing family rejection, specifical... more This study examines the realities of LGBTQ young adults experiencing family rejection, specifically illuminating forms of heterosexist and cisgenderist family rejection and their impact on LGBTQ young adults.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) young adults are overrepres... more Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) young adults are overrepresented among young adults experiencing homelessness. Heterosexist and cisgenderist rejection from their families frequently causes and exacerbates this housing instability. Despite these challenges, LGBTQ young adults demonstrate tremendous resilience. Using grounded theory to analyze interviews with 15 young adults experiencing family rejection and housing instability, this study seeks to illuminate the practices and attitudes that allow LGBTQ young adults to develop and maintain resilience. Analysis of the interview data revealed three main themes: (1) strategizing: taking agency, making plans, and learning lessons; (2) connecting: getting support from individuals, institutions, and communities, and engaging in their own altruism; and, (3) coping: focusing on goals, maintaining motivation, and using creativity. This study holds important implications for housing agencies and others who seek to support LGBTQ young adults, suggesting that we should build programs that leverage the existing strengths and resilience of these young adults in efforts to create housing stability. ge the existing strengths and resilience of young adults in efforts to create housing stability.
Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 2022
This article draws on qualitative data from a long-term partnership to exemplify the unique advan... more This article draws on qualitative data from a long-term partnership to exemplify the unique advantages of interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches in community-engaged research. We demonstrate how the differing foci and intersecting concerns of our scholarly fields, social work and media studies, benefited our work with marginalized communities to promote youth voice through digital storytelling. This effort was grounded in the shared view that digital storytelling offers an excellent opportunity to engage creatively with young people’s memories and experiences and that such storytelling can support young people in their healing, identity formation, agency development, and engagement with the public. By working together across disciplines, we were able to surface and address concerns related to vulnerability, privacy, and advocacy among young people experiencing marginalization in ways that would not have been possible in a project involving only social work or media studies. We illustrate this process by describing three critical incidents that exposed our disciplinary overlaps and differences in ways that helped us navigate complex issues related to young people shared their stories with the public. Our findings therefore have implications for others working with vulnerable communities to amplify counternarratives with the goal of bringing about positive systemic change.
In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspe... more In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspension. Using data collected through observational methods, we present a detailed description and analysis of two in-school suspension rooms. These rooms operated in prominent, racially diverse middle schools in a large urban district. Applying critical theories of race and social exclusion, we reveal the ways that in-school suspension rooms constituted deep, exclusionary discipline and cast wide discipline nets that disproportionately impacted Black students and Latino students for minor reasons and provided few educational opportunities. Due to the racialized nature of in-school suspension in otherwise "integrated" schools, the rooms themselves became segregated internal racial colonies with implications for the racial distribution of education as a social, political, and economic good.
This study explores the association between school-level poverty rates and young peoples' percept... more This study explores the association between school-level poverty rates and young peoples' perceptions of student empowerment, drawing on survey and administrative data from a large urban district. Participants included 29,318 diverse youth in grades 6-12 from 211 schools. We used multilevel linear regression models to estimate the relationships between school poverty rates and students' reports of positive relationships, equitable roles, and a sense of community. Results indicated that youth attending schools with higher poverty rates were less likely to report empowering school climates than their peers from schools serving more affluent students. We also found a strong correlation between school-level poverty rates and student racial composition. Findings suggest that young people who attend racially segregated schools with concentrated poverty would likely benefit from greater opportunities for relationship building, power-sharing, and community building. Such efforts may also strengthen other domains of youth development, including academic achievement and positive identity.
Although in-school suspensions may be viewed as less severe than out-of-school suspensions, both ... more Although in-school suspensions may be viewed as less severe than out-of-school suspensions, both discipline consequences limit students’ access to learning opportunities and are negatively associated with a range of educational outcomes. Moreover, if sending students out of class perpetuates the same racial disparities as sending them home, this practice does not realize the equity goals of discipline reforms over the last decade. Our study draws on Critical Race Theory and QuantCrit to understand racial discipline gaps across in-school and out-of-school suspensions using data from students and schools in one large district. Results of multilevel regression models indicate similar racial disparities in both suspension types, suggesting neither approach is equitable. These findings illustrate the limits of race-neutral policies in mitigating exclusionary discipline gaps. Addressing the thorny issues that contribute to racial disparities will likely require greater resources for high quality implementation of school-wide culture change initiatives that are explicitly anti-racist.
In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspe... more In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspension. Using data collected through observational methods, we present a detailed description and analysis of two in-school suspension rooms. These rooms operated in prominent, racially diverse middle schools in a large urban district. Applying critical theories of race and social exclusion, we reveal the ways that in-school suspension rooms constituted deep, exclusionary discipline and cast wide discipline nets that disproportionately impacted Black students and Latino students for minor reasons and provided few educational opportunities. Due to the racialized nature of in-school suspension in otherwise "integrated" schools, the rooms themselves became segregated internal racial colonies with implications for the racial distribution of education as a social, political, and economic good.
Studies suggest that out-of-school suspensions (OSS) are negatively associated with student perce... more Studies suggest that out-of-school suspensions (OSS) are negatively associated with student perceptions of school climate and attitudes toward school. However, this relationship has not been considered in the case of disciplinary approaches such as restorative practices (RP) and in-school suspensions (ISS). Using a sample of 30,799 secondary school students from a large urban school district, student-level survey data were matched with discipline records to investigate whether the type of disciplinary resolution received was related to student perceptions of disciplinary structure, supportive relationships, school bonding, disengagement, and safety. The findings of the current study suggest that students who received suspensions (in- or out-of-school) generally had worse perceptions of school climate and more negative attitudes toward school than their peers without a record of discipline incidents.
Political elections have been shown to influence youth civic development. The election of Donald ... more Political elections have been shown to influence youth civic development. The election of Donald Trump is historic and has elevated precarity for people of color and immigrants, yet we know little about how young people with these identities experienced this potentially catalytic event. Using ethnographic methods, we examined youth and adult discussions that occurred during youth participatory action research in four sites of one after-school program between October 2016 and May 2017, to investigate how the development of critical consciousness occurs among early adolescent youth of color in the context of catalyzing political events. We identified emergent patterns in how young people (a) engaged in critical reflection, (b) weighed political efficacy, and (c) considered engagement in critical action in the wake of Trump's election. The data revealed that young people's critical consciousness development ranged from basic to advanced levels. This research highlights the ways that politically catalytic events shape critical consciousness development among early adolescents of color.
Over the last twenty years, research on the impact of engaging children and adolescents in the g... more Over the last twenty years, research on the impact of engaging children and adolescents in the generation of new knowledge about their lives, schools, and communities, has grown tremendously. This systematic review summarizes the findings from empirical studies of youth inquiry approaches in the United States, with a focus on their environmental outcomes. Searches of four interdisciplinary databases retrieved a total of 3,724 relevant articles published between 1995 and 2015. Sixty-three distinct studies met the systematic review inclusion criteria, of which, 36 (57.1%) reported that the youth inquiry approach contributed to positive changes among adults, peers, organizations, and/or institutions. These environmental outcomes were qualitatively recorded, inductively categorized, and then organized into Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework. Youth inquiry approaches led to practitioner growth and changes in peer group norms at the micro-system level, program development or improvement and research benefits at the meso-system level, and school, city, and state level policy adoption at the exo-system level. Qualitative methods, especially case studies, were most commonly used to evaluate the impact of youth inquiry approaches on environmental outcomes. Studies of approaches that utilized advocacy to create change, targeted decision-makers as the audience for the youth's work and convened for a longer duration were more likely to report improved environmental outcomes. This systematic review suggests that youth inquiry approaches are a promising strategy for ecological systems change.
This study adds to the extant research on the school-to-prison pipeline by investigating how scho... more This study adds to the extant research on the school-to-prison pipeline by investigating how school-based service providers and administrators conceptualize the causal mechanisms constraining and enabling the school-to-prison pipeline in a large urban district. Thirty-three schools were selected for the study based on their suspension rates. Support staff and district partners (n=36) participated in focus groups guided by semi-structured protocols. Most participants emphasized structural and systemic causes of the school-to-prison pipeline, such as institutional racism and poverty. To minimize the school-to-prison pipeline, participants highlighted the importance of relationship building and non-punitive practices in response to misbehavior, although solutions offered limited evidence of promising interventions. Given strong research indicating that racial disparities cannot be explained by differential behavior, scholarship in this area emphasizes the need to increase school-level practices that promote positive school climate. The persistence of exclusionary and punitive attitudes among a subset of the sample suggests a need for differentiated professional development to address competing frameworks for understanding the root causes of, and solutions to, the school-to-prison pipeline.
In the field of prevention science, some consider fidelity to manualized protocols to be a hallma... more In the field of prevention science, some consider fidelity to manualized protocols to be a hallmark of successful implementation. A growing number of scholars agree that high-quality implementation should also include some adaptations to local context, particularly as prevention programs are scaled up, in order to strengthen their relevance and increase participant engagement. From this perspective, fidelity and adaptation can both be seen as necessary, albeit mutually exclusive, dimensions of implementation quality. In this article, we propose that the relationship between these two constructs may be more complex, particularly when adaptations are consistent with the key principles underlying the program model. Our argument draws on examples from the implementation of a manualized youth voice program (YVP) in two different organizations serving six distinct communities. Through a series of retreats, implementers identified examples of modifications made and grouped them into themes. Results suggest that some adaptations were actually indicators of fidelity to the key principles of YVPs: power-sharing, youth ownership, and engagement in social change. We therefore offer suggestions for re-conceptualizing the fidelity-adaptation debate, highlight implications for measurement and assessment, and illustrate that the de facto treatment of adaptation and fidelity as opposing constructs may limit the diffusion or scaling up of these types of youth programs.
This qualitative study identified nonpunitive and nonexclusionary discipline strategies used in s... more This qualitative study identified nonpunitive and nonexclusionary discipline strategies used in schools with low out-of-school suspension rates. Interviews and focus groups with 198 educators from 33 low-suspending schools in a large urban district were conducted to learn more about the approaches that were essential to their school's success. Data were analyzed with inductive and deductive approaches to identify themes regarding efficacious approaches across schools. Relationship building was noted as a key strategy in reducing exclusionary discipline outcomes and racial disparities in out-of-school suspension. Specific relationship-building strategies and the rationales behind these practices are described, including home visits, greetings, morning meetings, advisory periods, increased adult visibility in and out of school, and positive contact with families.
Districts have been engaged in efforts to reduce " differential processing " of discipline-referr... more Districts have been engaged in efforts to reduce " differential processing " of discipline-referred students based on their racial backgrounds. They strive for fair assignment of exclusionary consequences across racial groups. The current study examines discipline records for one academic year in an urban school district (N = 9,039 discipline referred students) to identify the factors associated with equitable assignment of out-of-school suspension (OSS). Multilevel logistic regression found that student participation in restorative interventions substantially reduced the odds that individual students received OSS. However, such participation was only marginally associated with more comparable assignment of OSS to Black students relative to their White peers. Together these findings suggest that alternatives to suspension, such as restorative interventions, may yield benefits for all student groups, but they may result in only marginal narrowing of the disparities in suspension rates between Black and White students. This indicates that greater attention is needed to address the inequitable school contexts in which disparities arise.
Objectives. To use a systematic review methodology to describe the state of the youth participato... more Objectives. To use a systematic review methodology to describe the state of the youth participatory action research (YPAR) literature and synthesize findings about the youth outcomes reported in these studies. Methods. We screened and coded studies using a process consistent with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Of the 3,724 articles found in the database search, 67 reports of 63 distinct studies were included in the final sample. These reports were coded for reports of YPAR principles and project characteristics, study methods, and reported youth outcomes. Results. The YPAR literature comprises predominantly qualitative studies, with only two randomized trials. The most common outcomes associated with participation in YPAR were those related to agency and leadership (75.0%), followed by academic or career (55.8%), social (36.5%), interpersonal (34.6%), and cognitive (23.1%) outcomes. Conclusions. This systematic review provides emerging evidence of the skills and competencies youth may develop through YPAR and offers methodological recommendations for future research that can provide greater evidence of causality.
Transgender people have entered an unprecedented moment of visibility in American society and acr... more Transgender people have entered an unprecedented moment of visibility in American society and across the globe. However, transgender and gender expansive youth remain vulnerable to family rejection, harassment at school, and discrimination in healthcare and employment. Positive Youth Development (PYD) is an established framework for strengths-based practice with young people that is focused on helping youth develop the skills they need to become healthy, productive adults. In this manuscript, we reconceptualize the 5 C’s of PYD to address the unique needs and experiences of transgender and gender expansive youth. We also provide specific guidance for empowering service providers to help these young people thrive in the face of marginalization and oppression.
This pilot study explored the impact of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project on e... more This pilot study explored the impact of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project on early adolescents’ perceptions of youth voice and adult support in an after school program (ASP).
Afterschool programs (ASPs) designed to increase academic performance and prevent behavior proble... more Afterschool programs (ASPs) designed to increase academic performance and prevent behavior problems among young people are implemented widely. Yet few evaluations that include a comparison group have been conducted to assess the effects of these preventive interventions. This is particularly true for programs located in community settings, where research infrastructure tends to be less developed than schools. This study used a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent comparison groups to examine the effects of a community-based ASP-located in low-income and racially segregated neighborhoods-on academic performance and school behavior problems among students in grades kindergarten to 12. The ASP's ecological program model is guided by positive youth development and a public health framework that considers risk and protective factors for academic and other behavior problems. Intervention components include academic tutoring, homework help, a manualized reading curriculum, and skill building groups that aim to enhance participants' academic and social-emotional development. Youth who participated in the ASP (n = 418; mean age = 10.8 years; 52% female; 89% youth of color) had significantly higher levels of school attendance, a greater increase in independent reading level over the academic year, and lower odds of incurring a suspension or expulsion from school than youth in a comparison group (n = 226; mean age = 8.99; 49% female; 94% youth of color). Participation in the ASP was also significantly related to classroom teacher ratings of proficiency in the subject areas of math and science. These findings suggest that community-based afterschool interventions have the potential to improve academic performance and school behavior among children and youth living in public housing.
Scholarship on youth digital media literacy programs has focused on how adults practice restraint... more Scholarship on youth digital media literacy programs has focused on how adults practice restraint as a means of allowing young people to exercise agency in decision-making experiences. Yet youth also practice restraint, as we found in a digital storytelling program involving 16 early adolescents (ages 11–14) from economically precarious communities who worked with 18 adult mentors trained in discussing systemic and racial injustices in the context of trauma-informed practices. Building on a framework of critical youth studies, our ethnographic data reveals how youth deployed their own version of restraint that is simultaneously defensive and agentive. We argue that this is a form of empowerment that needs to be better understood in the contexts of actual practices of youth/adult media co-production, and in relation to support for the development of critical, participatory and collaborative, and expressive competencies. Restraint is thus presented as a strategy of empowerment that youth develop in relation to digital media literacy and youth voice, especially for young people from populations historically marginalized and frequently misunderstood in media and in public life.
Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an approach where youth and adults partner to ident... more Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an approach where youth and adults partner to identify and address social issues and, in theory, creates conditions for positive intergroup contact. Yet, little is known about how the practices of YPAR facilitators enable or constrain intergroup contact, particularly in racially diverse groups. Using critical discourse analysis, we examined data from an observational study of YPAR at four sites of a youth organization serving public housing residents to interrogate power dynamics between youth and adults. Our findings suggest that supporting youth in leading and making decisions, encouraging dialogue and using open-ended questions, engaging in joint work, facilitating with intentionality, celebrating accomplishments, and involving staff who are willing to contribute to group activities may enable positive intergroup contact and mitigate adultism. Policing youths’ behavior, disengaging with the project, separating adults from youth, and only involving other staff members in punitive discipline are all practices that adults engaged in that constrained intergroup contact. Practices hindering positive intergroup contact may best be understood in relation to racialized adultism. To realize positive intergroup contact in YPAR and other youth-serving settings, therefore, this study suggests that practitioners must mitigate racism and adultism.
This study examines the realities of LGBTQ young adults experiencing family rejection, specifical... more This study examines the realities of LGBTQ young adults experiencing family rejection, specifically illuminating forms of heterosexist and cisgenderist family rejection and their impact on LGBTQ young adults.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) young adults are overrepres... more Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) young adults are overrepresented among young adults experiencing homelessness. Heterosexist and cisgenderist rejection from their families frequently causes and exacerbates this housing instability. Despite these challenges, LGBTQ young adults demonstrate tremendous resilience. Using grounded theory to analyze interviews with 15 young adults experiencing family rejection and housing instability, this study seeks to illuminate the practices and attitudes that allow LGBTQ young adults to develop and maintain resilience. Analysis of the interview data revealed three main themes: (1) strategizing: taking agency, making plans, and learning lessons; (2) connecting: getting support from individuals, institutions, and communities, and engaging in their own altruism; and, (3) coping: focusing on goals, maintaining motivation, and using creativity. This study holds important implications for housing agencies and others who seek to support LGBTQ young adults, suggesting that we should build programs that leverage the existing strengths and resilience of these young adults in efforts to create housing stability. ge the existing strengths and resilience of young adults in efforts to create housing stability.
Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 2022
This article draws on qualitative data from a long-term partnership to exemplify the unique advan... more This article draws on qualitative data from a long-term partnership to exemplify the unique advantages of interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches in community-engaged research. We demonstrate how the differing foci and intersecting concerns of our scholarly fields, social work and media studies, benefited our work with marginalized communities to promote youth voice through digital storytelling. This effort was grounded in the shared view that digital storytelling offers an excellent opportunity to engage creatively with young people’s memories and experiences and that such storytelling can support young people in their healing, identity formation, agency development, and engagement with the public. By working together across disciplines, we were able to surface and address concerns related to vulnerability, privacy, and advocacy among young people experiencing marginalization in ways that would not have been possible in a project involving only social work or media studies. We illustrate this process by describing three critical incidents that exposed our disciplinary overlaps and differences in ways that helped us navigate complex issues related to young people shared their stories with the public. Our findings therefore have implications for others working with vulnerable communities to amplify counternarratives with the goal of bringing about positive systemic change.
In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspe... more In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspension. Using data collected through observational methods, we present a detailed description and analysis of two in-school suspension rooms. These rooms operated in prominent, racially diverse middle schools in a large urban district. Applying critical theories of race and social exclusion, we reveal the ways that in-school suspension rooms constituted deep, exclusionary discipline and cast wide discipline nets that disproportionately impacted Black students and Latino students for minor reasons and provided few educational opportunities. Due to the racialized nature of in-school suspension in otherwise "integrated" schools, the rooms themselves became segregated internal racial colonies with implications for the racial distribution of education as a social, political, and economic good.
This study explores the association between school-level poverty rates and young peoples' percept... more This study explores the association between school-level poverty rates and young peoples' perceptions of student empowerment, drawing on survey and administrative data from a large urban district. Participants included 29,318 diverse youth in grades 6-12 from 211 schools. We used multilevel linear regression models to estimate the relationships between school poverty rates and students' reports of positive relationships, equitable roles, and a sense of community. Results indicated that youth attending schools with higher poverty rates were less likely to report empowering school climates than their peers from schools serving more affluent students. We also found a strong correlation between school-level poverty rates and student racial composition. Findings suggest that young people who attend racially segregated schools with concentrated poverty would likely benefit from greater opportunities for relationship building, power-sharing, and community building. Such efforts may also strengthen other domains of youth development, including academic achievement and positive identity.
Although in-school suspensions may be viewed as less severe than out-of-school suspensions, both ... more Although in-school suspensions may be viewed as less severe than out-of-school suspensions, both discipline consequences limit students’ access to learning opportunities and are negatively associated with a range of educational outcomes. Moreover, if sending students out of class perpetuates the same racial disparities as sending them home, this practice does not realize the equity goals of discipline reforms over the last decade. Our study draws on Critical Race Theory and QuantCrit to understand racial discipline gaps across in-school and out-of-school suspensions using data from students and schools in one large district. Results of multilevel regression models indicate similar racial disparities in both suspension types, suggesting neither approach is equitable. These findings illustrate the limits of race-neutral policies in mitigating exclusionary discipline gaps. Addressing the thorny issues that contribute to racial disparities will likely require greater resources for high quality implementation of school-wide culture change initiatives that are explicitly anti-racist.
In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspe... more In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspension. Using data collected through observational methods, we present a detailed description and analysis of two in-school suspension rooms. These rooms operated in prominent, racially diverse middle schools in a large urban district. Applying critical theories of race and social exclusion, we reveal the ways that in-school suspension rooms constituted deep, exclusionary discipline and cast wide discipline nets that disproportionately impacted Black students and Latino students for minor reasons and provided few educational opportunities. Due to the racialized nature of in-school suspension in otherwise "integrated" schools, the rooms themselves became segregated internal racial colonies with implications for the racial distribution of education as a social, political, and economic good.
Studies suggest that out-of-school suspensions (OSS) are negatively associated with student perce... more Studies suggest that out-of-school suspensions (OSS) are negatively associated with student perceptions of school climate and attitudes toward school. However, this relationship has not been considered in the case of disciplinary approaches such as restorative practices (RP) and in-school suspensions (ISS). Using a sample of 30,799 secondary school students from a large urban school district, student-level survey data were matched with discipline records to investigate whether the type of disciplinary resolution received was related to student perceptions of disciplinary structure, supportive relationships, school bonding, disengagement, and safety. The findings of the current study suggest that students who received suspensions (in- or out-of-school) generally had worse perceptions of school climate and more negative attitudes toward school than their peers without a record of discipline incidents.
Political elections have been shown to influence youth civic development. The election of Donald ... more Political elections have been shown to influence youth civic development. The election of Donald Trump is historic and has elevated precarity for people of color and immigrants, yet we know little about how young people with these identities experienced this potentially catalytic event. Using ethnographic methods, we examined youth and adult discussions that occurred during youth participatory action research in four sites of one after-school program between October 2016 and May 2017, to investigate how the development of critical consciousness occurs among early adolescent youth of color in the context of catalyzing political events. We identified emergent patterns in how young people (a) engaged in critical reflection, (b) weighed political efficacy, and (c) considered engagement in critical action in the wake of Trump's election. The data revealed that young people's critical consciousness development ranged from basic to advanced levels. This research highlights the ways that politically catalytic events shape critical consciousness development among early adolescents of color.
Over the last twenty years, research on the impact of engaging children and adolescents in the g... more Over the last twenty years, research on the impact of engaging children and adolescents in the generation of new knowledge about their lives, schools, and communities, has grown tremendously. This systematic review summarizes the findings from empirical studies of youth inquiry approaches in the United States, with a focus on their environmental outcomes. Searches of four interdisciplinary databases retrieved a total of 3,724 relevant articles published between 1995 and 2015. Sixty-three distinct studies met the systematic review inclusion criteria, of which, 36 (57.1%) reported that the youth inquiry approach contributed to positive changes among adults, peers, organizations, and/or institutions. These environmental outcomes were qualitatively recorded, inductively categorized, and then organized into Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework. Youth inquiry approaches led to practitioner growth and changes in peer group norms at the micro-system level, program development or improvement and research benefits at the meso-system level, and school, city, and state level policy adoption at the exo-system level. Qualitative methods, especially case studies, were most commonly used to evaluate the impact of youth inquiry approaches on environmental outcomes. Studies of approaches that utilized advocacy to create change, targeted decision-makers as the audience for the youth's work and convened for a longer duration were more likely to report improved environmental outcomes. This systematic review suggests that youth inquiry approaches are a promising strategy for ecological systems change.
This study adds to the extant research on the school-to-prison pipeline by investigating how scho... more This study adds to the extant research on the school-to-prison pipeline by investigating how school-based service providers and administrators conceptualize the causal mechanisms constraining and enabling the school-to-prison pipeline in a large urban district. Thirty-three schools were selected for the study based on their suspension rates. Support staff and district partners (n=36) participated in focus groups guided by semi-structured protocols. Most participants emphasized structural and systemic causes of the school-to-prison pipeline, such as institutional racism and poverty. To minimize the school-to-prison pipeline, participants highlighted the importance of relationship building and non-punitive practices in response to misbehavior, although solutions offered limited evidence of promising interventions. Given strong research indicating that racial disparities cannot be explained by differential behavior, scholarship in this area emphasizes the need to increase school-level practices that promote positive school climate. The persistence of exclusionary and punitive attitudes among a subset of the sample suggests a need for differentiated professional development to address competing frameworks for understanding the root causes of, and solutions to, the school-to-prison pipeline.
In the field of prevention science, some consider fidelity to manualized protocols to be a hallma... more In the field of prevention science, some consider fidelity to manualized protocols to be a hallmark of successful implementation. A growing number of scholars agree that high-quality implementation should also include some adaptations to local context, particularly as prevention programs are scaled up, in order to strengthen their relevance and increase participant engagement. From this perspective, fidelity and adaptation can both be seen as necessary, albeit mutually exclusive, dimensions of implementation quality. In this article, we propose that the relationship between these two constructs may be more complex, particularly when adaptations are consistent with the key principles underlying the program model. Our argument draws on examples from the implementation of a manualized youth voice program (YVP) in two different organizations serving six distinct communities. Through a series of retreats, implementers identified examples of modifications made and grouped them into themes. Results suggest that some adaptations were actually indicators of fidelity to the key principles of YVPs: power-sharing, youth ownership, and engagement in social change. We therefore offer suggestions for re-conceptualizing the fidelity-adaptation debate, highlight implications for measurement and assessment, and illustrate that the de facto treatment of adaptation and fidelity as opposing constructs may limit the diffusion or scaling up of these types of youth programs.
This qualitative study identified nonpunitive and nonexclusionary discipline strategies used in s... more This qualitative study identified nonpunitive and nonexclusionary discipline strategies used in schools with low out-of-school suspension rates. Interviews and focus groups with 198 educators from 33 low-suspending schools in a large urban district were conducted to learn more about the approaches that were essential to their school's success. Data were analyzed with inductive and deductive approaches to identify themes regarding efficacious approaches across schools. Relationship building was noted as a key strategy in reducing exclusionary discipline outcomes and racial disparities in out-of-school suspension. Specific relationship-building strategies and the rationales behind these practices are described, including home visits, greetings, morning meetings, advisory periods, increased adult visibility in and out of school, and positive contact with families.
Districts have been engaged in efforts to reduce " differential processing " of discipline-referr... more Districts have been engaged in efforts to reduce " differential processing " of discipline-referred students based on their racial backgrounds. They strive for fair assignment of exclusionary consequences across racial groups. The current study examines discipline records for one academic year in an urban school district (N = 9,039 discipline referred students) to identify the factors associated with equitable assignment of out-of-school suspension (OSS). Multilevel logistic regression found that student participation in restorative interventions substantially reduced the odds that individual students received OSS. However, such participation was only marginally associated with more comparable assignment of OSS to Black students relative to their White peers. Together these findings suggest that alternatives to suspension, such as restorative interventions, may yield benefits for all student groups, but they may result in only marginal narrowing of the disparities in suspension rates between Black and White students. This indicates that greater attention is needed to address the inequitable school contexts in which disparities arise.
Objectives. To use a systematic review methodology to describe the state of the youth participato... more Objectives. To use a systematic review methodology to describe the state of the youth participatory action research (YPAR) literature and synthesize findings about the youth outcomes reported in these studies. Methods. We screened and coded studies using a process consistent with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Of the 3,724 articles found in the database search, 67 reports of 63 distinct studies were included in the final sample. These reports were coded for reports of YPAR principles and project characteristics, study methods, and reported youth outcomes. Results. The YPAR literature comprises predominantly qualitative studies, with only two randomized trials. The most common outcomes associated with participation in YPAR were those related to agency and leadership (75.0%), followed by academic or career (55.8%), social (36.5%), interpersonal (34.6%), and cognitive (23.1%) outcomes. Conclusions. This systematic review provides emerging evidence of the skills and competencies youth may develop through YPAR and offers methodological recommendations for future research that can provide greater evidence of causality.
Transgender people have entered an unprecedented moment of visibility in American society and acr... more Transgender people have entered an unprecedented moment of visibility in American society and across the globe. However, transgender and gender expansive youth remain vulnerable to family rejection, harassment at school, and discrimination in healthcare and employment. Positive Youth Development (PYD) is an established framework for strengths-based practice with young people that is focused on helping youth develop the skills they need to become healthy, productive adults. In this manuscript, we reconceptualize the 5 C’s of PYD to address the unique needs and experiences of transgender and gender expansive youth. We also provide specific guidance for empowering service providers to help these young people thrive in the face of marginalization and oppression.
This pilot study explored the impact of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project on e... more This pilot study explored the impact of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project on early adolescents’ perceptions of youth voice and adult support in an after school program (ASP).
Afterschool programs (ASPs) designed to increase academic performance and prevent behavior proble... more Afterschool programs (ASPs) designed to increase academic performance and prevent behavior problems among young people are implemented widely. Yet few evaluations that include a comparison group have been conducted to assess the effects of these preventive interventions. This is particularly true for programs located in community settings, where research infrastructure tends to be less developed than schools. This study used a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent comparison groups to examine the effects of a community-based ASP-located in low-income and racially segregated neighborhoods-on academic performance and school behavior problems among students in grades kindergarten to 12. The ASP's ecological program model is guided by positive youth development and a public health framework that considers risk and protective factors for academic and other behavior problems. Intervention components include academic tutoring, homework help, a manualized reading curriculum, and skill building groups that aim to enhance participants' academic and social-emotional development. Youth who participated in the ASP (n = 418; mean age = 10.8 years; 52% female; 89% youth of color) had significantly higher levels of school attendance, a greater increase in independent reading level over the academic year, and lower odds of incurring a suspension or expulsion from school than youth in a comparison group (n = 226; mean age = 8.99; 49% female; 94% youth of color). Participation in the ASP was also significantly related to classroom teacher ratings of proficiency in the subject areas of math and science. These findings suggest that community-based afterschool interventions have the potential to improve academic performance and school behavior among children and youth living in public housing.
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Papers by Yolanda (Yoli) Anyon
of the sample suggests a need for differentiated professional
development to address competing frameworks for understanding the root causes of, and solutions to, the school-to-prison pipeline.
of the sample suggests a need for differentiated professional
development to address competing frameworks for understanding the root causes of, and solutions to, the school-to-prison pipeline.