"Why Can't I Be a Professional Jane and Fincher?" Education and Training Needs of Racialized Young Adult Offenders and Queer Youth of Color

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-14 - Queer of Color Critique as a Critical and Postfoundational Perspective in Educational Research

Abstract

This paper problematizes the low levels of educational attainment and high levels of unemployment that racialized and marginalized youth in Canada are currently experiencing. These youth are growing up in an era of complexity and economic uncertainty (Franke, 2010; Furlong, 2009). In these precarious times the author argues that certain groups of highly stigmatized young adults, specifically racialized young adult offenders (RYAO) and queer youth of colour (QYOC), deserve our attention with respect to education and training (Osgood et al., 2005). The author mobilizes a conceptual framework comprised of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2004), and queer of color analysis (Author 4, 2013) to analyze the scholarly literature and four community-based focus groups with RYAO and QYOC in Toronto and Montreal to understand, compare and contrast the following: 1) challenges they face accessing postsecondary education and training, 2) examples of resilience, and 3) impact the process of transitioning to “adult” roles is having on them, their families and communities. In conclusion, the author considers how young adult narratives could be viewed as a (queer of colour) lens for analyzing possibilities and limitations of existing policies and programs designed to facilitate education and training, and the ways community programs and services can effectively respond to the education and training needs of RYAO and QYOC in these precarious times.

Author

• Lance Trevor McCready, University of San Francisco