"Just" Mentoring: Interrupting the Reproduction of Social and Educational Inequities Affecting Marginalized Youth

• In Event: 52.066 - A Call for Critical Education Policy: Examining Injustice and Advancing Justice in Education

Abstract

This study examines the practices of mentors motivated by their sense of social responsibility and by their desire to interrupt policies which reproduce social and educational inequities for marginalized youth. Situated in the Netherlands, the historical, political and social contexts position second generation Muslim youth as hostile and alienated as a result of their religious affiliation, their families' history of migration, and their socioeconomic situation (Essed, 2009; Goldberg, 2006; Van Der Veer, 2006). In response to fears of Muslim youth becoming potentially radicalized (Buijs, 2009) and to fears of the increasing number of Dutch citizens of immigrant origin (Lucassen, 2005), a plethora of youth programs focused on integrating Muslim (and other immigrant) youth and engendering in them the values of Dutch society have been created.
As those on the “front lines,” mentors enact mandates required by the state and their programs’ funding agencies. These policies often serve to reinscribe Muslim youth as culturally deficient. Mentors, aware of the negative consequences of such policies, have the potential to interrupt and subvert the implementation of policy but few do.
With few exceptions (see Camino, 2000 and Ginwright, 2005), existing research on mentoring practices in the context of youth development (Cordero-Guzman, 2005; Nettles, 1991; Noam & Rosenbaum Tillinger, 2004; Woodland, 2008) and in immigrant communities (Crul, 2003; Zhou & Kim, 2006), focuses on youth’s social and academic needs without attending to how critically conscious mentors can support marginalized youth. While the immigrant youth literature addresses some unique issues relevant to mentoring in diasporic contexts, the mentors’ role in addressing and interrupting racial, social class, ethnic, cultural, and/or religious discrimination is understudied.
The focal participants of this qualitative study were 10 mentors, all were second generation immigrants working in various youth programs throughout Amsterdam. I analyzed interviews with each mentor, focus groups with 25 mentees, and 21 participant observations in six youth programs. In my analysis, I triangulate data from the participant observations and the focus groups (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014) with the accounts of the mentors to disclose the entanglement of policy and practice at the local level, and the ways in which these practices fall short of providing Muslim youth with what they need.
Motivated by social justice, the mentors in this study subverted policies and practices by buffering Muslim youth from the effects of Islamophobia and helping them negotiate exclusionary practices in school and society. Specifically, they provided academic and social support that included relevant cultural capital and a collective critique of the injustices their mentees encountered. Through their actions, the mentors embodied critique of the limited policies and practices that did not address positive youth development.
This study contributes to youth development literature and highlights the need for responsive relational spaces that moderate the impact of discrimination on marginalized youth. To be responsive to young people’s needs, mentors must have a critical consciousness about the forces of inequity and oppression that face young people and consider the specific context in which their mentees live.

Author

• Mayida Zaal, Montclair State University