Facilitating youth development through service-learning: Social justice implications for underserved youth

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-103
Author(s):  
Christopher A Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Afterschool Programs ◽  
Marginalized Youth ◽  
Underserved Youth ◽  
Learning Programs

The implications of how service-learning participation can enhance civic knowledge and engagement among young people are discussed at length in the existing literature. However, research that explores the utility of formalizing service-learning as a means of enriching civic education for underserved and minority youth is lacking, particularly within the context of secondary education. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discourse around increasing the use of service-learning programs as a means of supplementing existing methods that facilitate well-rounded youth development (e.g. school curricula, afterschool programs, mentorship) and enhance well-being among underserved youth within a social justice framework. The aims of this article are met by first illuminating the risk factors facing minority and underserved youth. The social justice implications of service-learning participation for youth are then discussed. Finally, the feasibility of utilizing service-learning as a protective factor for marginalized youth is explored.

The Nuts and Bolts of Critical Service Learning Theoretical Foundations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Johnson ◽  
Cassandra McKay-Jackson ◽  
Giesela Grumbach
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Social And Emotional Learning ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Emotional Learning ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Mapping Tool ◽  
The Status

Critical service learning (CSL), social and emotional learning (SEL), and positive youth development (PYD) represent key elements for promot¬ing healthy attitudes and behaviors among youth. This chapter explains each component and provides a theoretical overview. As mentioned in Chapter 1, CSL represents a therapeutic strategy that encompasses a philosophy of youth empowerment. CSL emphasizes youth becoming empowered to view themselves in relation to others, as partners, to bring about change in their environment. Mitchell (2008) defined CSL as an approach that challenges youth to become self-aware of how their own situations influence their relationships within their community. When these relationships are based on the concerns of the community, they can facilitate CSL through the examination of issues of power, privilege, and oppression— and disparaging assumptions of class, gender, and race— and then take action to address unjust and inequitable social and economic systems (Cipolle, 2010). Youth engage in critical thinking about the problems they face within their own communities and are encouraged to take action. The critical approach to service learning promotes social justice and challenges the status quo. The approach to CSL involves three key elements: “working to redistribute power amongst all participants in the service learning relationship, developing authentic relationships in the classroom and in the community and working from a social change perspective” (Mitchell, 2008, p. 50). The goal of CSL is to examine power relations, challenge oppressive institutions, and cultivate in youth the power to take action. In our model, the CSL approach presents “student voice” as a necessary component to create a sense of empowerment and authentic engagement. The community web-mapping tool discussed in Chapter 3 serves as the vehicle for students to address social justice issues as they compare and contrast their vision of perfect and imperfect communities (Figure 2.1). Social and emotional learning is a framework that provides opportunities for young people to acquire the skills necessary for maintaining personal well-being and positive relationships across their life span (Elbertson, Brackett, & Weissberg, 2009). The five competency clusters for students are the following: 1. Self- awareness: the ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and how they influence behavior.

Minimizing the POSH Bias Through Education: Necessity of the “How-To” Component

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-395
Author(s):  
Justina M. Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Psychology Education ◽  
Implementing Change ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Newly Hired ◽  
Education Process

Gloss, Carr, Reichman, Abdul-Nasiru, and Oestereich (2017) neglected the “how-to” component of their proposal for increasing humanitarian efforts in the field of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology. Implementing change at an earlier point in the education process, through social justice awareness and applied service learning, is likely to lead to a more robust and fruitful shift away from a POSH bias compared to an attempt at persuading those currently in the field to adopt this change after their training (although I would never argue that the latter is utterly irrelevant). I hold an unwavering conviction that a natural route toward change would be to ensure that I-O psychology educators are explicitly focusing on the humanitarian workplace movement within our courses and that I-O professionals in organizations aid this cause by encouraging a humanitarian perspective as they train their newly hired, fresh-faced I-O graduates. The purposeful threading of humanitarian goals into I-O psychology education, in large part through service learning or civic education, is the key to our effectiveness. Without such a focus in the beginning stratum of I-O psychologists’ training, our other well-intentioned attempts at shifting the field's focus toward humanitarian concerns may be in vain. Below, I offer suggestions to reach this goal.

Citizenship and Civic Education: A Critical Elaboration on the Pedagogy of Rizal’s La Liga Filipina

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement Camposano
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Sociology Of Education ◽  
General Will ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Social ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
Ethical Project

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s role in shaping Jose Rizal’s political ideas is a blurred spot in existing scholarship on the latter’s life and works. There seems to be an endemic lack of interest in this matter, with scholars preferring to explore Rizal through the optics of nationalism and/or liberalism, often in their attempt to construct the “unity” of his ideas. Aiming to fill this lacuna and unsettle established readings, this article explores Rizal’s decisive shift from Voltairean liberalism in favor of Rousseau’s vision of a cohesive civic body constituted through the social contract. It contends that the social contract theory and its associated concept of the “general will” could serve as bases for resolving the problem of fractiousness and excessive individualism Rizal observed among young expatriate Filipinos, a problem he became increasingly concerned with and nuanced his commitment to the campaign for liberal reforms. Putting on hold the obsession with a unified Rizal, this article asserts that invoking Rousseau’s vision crystallizes the meaning of La Liga Filipina—its place in the trajectory of Rizal’s thoughts and the educative role it was meant to play in relation to the Filipino nation as an ethical project. Finally, the article elaborates on this role, critically exploring its significance and implications for civic education using key sociological concepts and insights from the anthropology and sociology of education, as well as studies on the effectiveness of service-learning programs in promoting civic engagement and participation among young people. A critical elaboration on the pedagogy suggested by La Liga calls attention to how citizenship education might be situated in quotidian processes and spaces, how it is implicated in systems of inequality, and how it could open up new possibilities.

Core Elements of Participatory Action Research for Educational Empowerment and Risk Prevention with Urban Youth

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Schensul ◽  
Marlene Berg ◽  
Daniel Schensul ◽  
Sandra Sydlo
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Experiential Education ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Risk Prevention ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Marginalized Youth ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Core Elements

This paper describes Youth-PAR, a social science and advocacy-based approach to working with young people, an emerging field that cuts across current movements: positive youth development, experiential education, prevention and service learning. Because it is inherently critical, addressing structural as well as individual and group level disparities, it is particularly suitable for working with disenfranchised or marginalized youth to assist them to gain a more central position and greater voice in shaping their own and their communities' socio-political, cultural, educational and public health futures.

scholarly journals Serving Children and Adolescents in Need during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evaluation of Service-Learning Subjects with and without Face-to-Face Interaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 2114
Author(s):  
Li Lin ◽  
Daniel T. L. Shek
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Outcome Evaluation ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Service Leadership ◽  
The Impact

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has posed a great challenge to teaching and learning activities in higher education, particularly for service-learning subjects that involve intensive human interaction. Although service-learning may be transformed to a virtual mode in response to the pandemic, little is known about the impact of this new mode on student learning and well-being. This paper reports a university credit-bearing service-learning subject that involves services toward needy children and adolescents in a non-face-to-face mode under COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the effectiveness of this subject by comparing it with the same subject delivered via a face-to-face mode. Objective outcome evaluation via a pretest-posttest comparison (N = 216) showed that the students who took service-learning subjects with and without face-to-face interaction showed similar positive changes in positive youth development competences, service leadership qualities, and life satisfaction. Subjective outcome evaluation (N = 345) also showed that most students were satisfied with the subject, instructors and benefits regardless of the service mode. The findings highlight the important role of non-face-to-face service learning in promoting college students’ positive growth and well-being.

Predicting Prosociality Among Urban Adolescents

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson M. Drinkard
Keyword(s):  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Urban Adolescents ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Neighborhood Factors ◽  
Neighborhood Collective Efficacy ◽  
Individual Family ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sociological View

Prosociality, conceptualized as a willingness to help, to be fair, and to be friendly to others, is essential to the maintenance of a civil society and has been linked with multiple measures of individual well-being. This study examines how individual, family, and neighborhood factors affect adolescents’ level of prosociality and tests for moderating influences in these relationships. Data for this study come from the 12-year-old cohort of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) study ( N = 723). Results show that being female and having the ability to rely on family, a teacher/coach, or an adult in the community predicts significantly higher levels of prosociality. In addition, I find that neighborhood collective efficacy moderates the relationship between gender and prosociality, serving as a protective factor in the development of prosociality for boys. The findings of this study are discussed in the context of a sociological view of positive youth development.

Older Lifelong Learners’ Motivations for Participating in Formal Volunteer Activities in Urban Communities

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Yamashita ◽  
Erick B. López ◽  
Marta Soligo ◽  
Jennifer R. Keene
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lifelong Learners ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Learning Programs

In recent years, volunteering has received increasing attention as a unique form of learning, one which may complement lifelong learning programs for older adults. This study examined the underlying volunteer motivations as well as formal volunteer behaviors among older adult lifelong learners. Data from 277 members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in an urban community in the western part of the United States were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and binary logistic regression models. Results showed that generativity (i.e., a desire to help next generations or communities), personal development, and well-being are salient underlying volunteer motivators. However, only generativity was associated with actual volunteering among older lifelong learners (odds ratio = 1.55; standard error = .17; p < .05). These findings suggested that existing lifelong learning programs might consider incorporating volunteer-based service learning components into their curricula in order to further promote the benefits of lifelong learning among older adults.

Addressing Youth-Focused Research Questions in a Community Context: Collecting and Integrating Mixed Methods Data at Multiple Ecological Levels With the PhotoStories Project

2020 ◽  
pp. 155868982097291
Author(s):  
Amanda NeMoyer ◽  
Kiara Alvarez ◽  
Ravali Mukthineni ◽  
Shalini Tendulkar ◽  
Margarita Alegría
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Marginalized Youth ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Real World Application ◽  
Research Designs

Research seeking to understand and improve social conditions for marginalized youth would benefit from merging complex mixed methods research designs emphasizing multilevel data and participatory social justice principles. We contribute to mixed methods research by introducing a novel framework that accomplishes this task and by illustrating its real-world application via PhotoStories, a multistage study aimed at understanding youths’ community-based experiences and emotional well-being. During the project’s three phases (preparation, training, and dissemination) we obtained and integrated quantitative and qualitative data at multiple ecological levels. Additionally, we examined youth perceptions about their participation, an important outcome given our focus on participatory social justice. We also provide lessons learned and recommendations for investigators seeking to use a similar approach for youth-focused research.

Service--Learning in Positive Psychology: Effects on Well-Being and Learning Outcomes

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeana L. Magyar-Moe ◽  
Katherine Becker ◽  
Lisa Rubow ◽  
Jenna Semling ◽  
Debra Simmerman
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Well Being

Positive risk-taking: Mixed-methods validation of a self-report scale and evidence for genetic links to personality and negative risk-taking

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Wales Patterson ◽  
Lilla Pivnick ◽  
Frank D Mann ◽  
Andrew D Grotzinger ◽  
Kathryn C Monahan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Youth Development ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Sensation Seeking ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Positive Behaviors ◽  
Adolescent Risk

Adolescents are more likely to take risks. Typically, research on adolescent risk-taking has focused on its negative health and societal consequences. However, some risk-taking behaviors might be positive, defined here as behavior that does not violate the rights of others and that might advance socially-valuable goals. Empirical work on positive risk-taking has been limited by measurement challenges. In this study, we elicited adolescents’ free responses (n = 75) about a time they took a risk. Based on thematic coding, we identified positive behaviors described as risks and selected items to form a self-report scale. The resulting positive risk-taking scale was quantitatively validated in a population-based sample of adolescent twins (n = 1249). Second, we evaluated associations between positive risk-taking, negative risk-taking, and potential personality and peer correlates using a genetically informed design. Sensation seeking predicted negative and positive risk-taking equally strongly, whereas extraversion differentiated forms of risk-taking. Additive genetic influences on personality accounted for the total heritability in positive risk-taking. Indirect pathways from personality through positive and negative peer environments were identified. These results provide promising evidence that personality factors of sensation seeking and extraversion can manifest as engagement in positive risks. Increased understanding of positive manifestations of adolescent risk-taking may yield targets for positive youth development strategies to bolster youth well-being.

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