Abstract
In the United States, young people of color are under attack. The school-to-prison pipeline, poverty, and racism are some of the systems of oppression that young people of color navigate. The challenging conditions that youth of color face have historically been met by their powerful resistance. Young people of color have fought for educational equity for decades. In the community in which this research study was situated, social justice youth development (SJYD) workers supported youth as they resisted unjust educational policies. I set out to answer the research question: In urban communities, how do youth workers engage adolescent youth in social justice activism? I found that adult youth workers at People for Change, a SJYD organization, maintained a consistent and multi-layered approach to supporting youth as they engaged in social justice activism. This paper highlights the ways in which adult youth workers (a) networked adult and youth supporters, (b) engaged in action, and (c) co-constructed knowledge with young people of color.
Highlights
In the United States, young people of color are under attack
Jean, and Dylan, the adult youth workers who were study participants, claimed different identities and had different types of experience organizing for social justice causes in the community:
“I think there’s this sort of perception that a teenager is this wild and uncontrollable thing in our society. . . . The sort of message I want to give to any educator and any teacher and anybody who is working with young people is to stop thinking of youth as young people and recognize that like they’re people—fully functioning and fully capable of anything.”
Summary
In the United States, young people of color are under attack. The school-to-prison pipeline, poverty, and racism are some of the systems of oppression that young people of color navigate (Anyon, 2014; Dialogic & Critical Pedagogies, 2017; Ginwright & Cammarota, 2002). In 1951, Barbara Johns, a 16-year-old student at Robert Russa Motan High School in Virginia organized young people at her school to strike in protest of poor conditions at their school. Johns’ organizing work turned into a legal case to fight for the. The Journal of Youth Development is the official peer-reviewed publication of the National Association of Extension 4-H Youth Development Professionals and the National AfterSchool Association
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