Pawns or Power Players? The Grounds on Which Adults Dismiss or Defend Youth Organizers

• In Event: The Intersection of Student Voice and Educational Leadership: Opportunities and Obstacles

Abstract

Objectives:
Over the last decade, youth organizing has emerged as an important strategy for educational reform; however, considerable barriers to meaningful participation for youth remain. This paper explores one such barrier, adultism, as it is directed towards a youth organizing group, Students for Equity (SFE). We examine how adult civic leaders view SFE youth in their community. On what grounds do adults dismiss or defend youth organizers?
Theoretical Framework:
We approach the data through the lens of adultism. Adultism refers to attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that are based upon the notion that adults are “better than” young people, and therefore, entitled to make decisions for them without their consent (Bell, 1995). It is marked by a lack of respect for the needs, competence, and potential of youth (Tate & Copas, 2003).
Methods & Data Sources:
Thirty adult leaders involved in education in the city where SFE organizes participated in in-depth individual interviews focusing on their perceptions of SFE. We invited respondents to participate in our study until we had representatives from all of the important constituencies and reached a point of data saturation. All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and rigorously coded, following conventions of thematic analysis.
Results:
The data show that SFE is highly respected and widely recognized by adult civic leaders as a key player in education politics at the city level. However, even adults who credit the group with significantly influencing policy express skepticism about its youth leadership. Some question whether the youth truly understand the critique they offer of current reform agendas. Others question whether the youth independently devise and implement the elaborate, large-scale actions they stage. Many express concern that youth are puppets or pawns of the paid adult organizers. A small number of participants constitute the “true believers,” who view SFE youth as legitimate leaders, capable of standing up to adult influence within and beyond the youth organizing space. Most participants found at least one reason to discredit or question the work of the youth organizers, and these reasons betrayed adultist assumptions about youths’ limited capacity to understand complex analysis, problem solve, and self-direct.
Significance:
It is now almost cliché to say that youth have unique insights into the problems afflicting their schools and innovative ideas about how to address them. If we are to realize the potential of their innovative solutions, however, we must understand how to help adults take youth seriously. This study aids in that task by uncovering the bases of adults’ reticence towards youth organizers. Although youth organizers can continue to assert their voices, it is not until adult leaders’ concerns and questions about them are allayed that youth will be granted a legitimate, valued, and influential voice at the policy table. Ironically, in order to relinquish some of their power and share it with youth, adult leaders first must be convinced that youth possess their own unadulterated power and perspective.

Author

• Jerusha Osberg Conner, Villanova University