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Supporting Young People's Access to Sustainable Livelihoods in New Media Arts

Tue, April 12, 8:15 to 9:45am, Convention Center, Floor: Level One, Room 103 A

Abstract

Since the mid 1990s programs and initiatives guided by principles of Positive Youth Development (PYD) have proliferated (Strobel et al., 2008). Connected Learning (CL), a more recent initiative that reflects PYD principles, focuses on learning in digital media and other creative, interest-driven pursuits that connect in and out of school settings (Ito et al., 2013). Much of the research and evaluation about PYD spaces has focused on either defining what constitutes quality or analyzing psychosocial and academic outcomes (e.g., Eccles & Gootman, 2002). Although important, we worry that this focus is too limiting. Recognition of the need for young people to learn how to navigate across systems and institutions (Banks et al., 2007), suggests that PYD and CL programs ought to expand how they think about supporting young people, especially those growing up in concentrated poverty, in their transitions into sustainable livelihoods.

One element of this support across transitions may be “brokering” new relationships. There may be other important forms of support that call for attention, such as making pathways to a professional domain more visible or ensuring access to the right networks. This is especially important in the field of new media arts (NMA), such as videography, web design, and music recording (Watkins, 2011). NMA is a dynamic field that depends less on formal education credentials and more on access to networks and apprenticeship opportunities (Sefton-Green & Brown, 2014). In some cases program leaders may need to actively create the networks and professional opportunities because the field itself is rapidly changing (O’Connor & Allen, 2011). Neither PYD nor CL have adequately conceptualized or designed for support for young people’s pathways when they exit programs, particularly into NMA.

This paper draws on data from a participatory research project with youth researchers from three programs focused on STEM, civic engagement, and New Media Arts, respectively. Youth researchers, who worked collaboratively with the poster authors, investigated pathways to interest-based employment through interviews with peers, alumni, and mentors. The group met ten times via Google Hangouts over the course of roughly 5 months. For this paper we analyzed the interview data and research group discussions to generate ideas for what an expanded view of brokering might look like for young people pursuing NMA.

Cross-case analysis shows divergence in young people’s success leveraging their experiences to find paid work in NMA. This difference was not due to program quality or youth development. On the contrary, each of the programs demonstrated high quality support for positive relationships, experiences of belonging, and skill mastery. Instead, our analysis of interviews suggested that variations in pathways were tied to the sedimentation versus precarity of the domain. Whereas STEM fields were highly structured, brokered, visible, and supported, pathways into New Media Arts were opaque, unstable, and highly network dependent.

The paper discusses implications for how youth-serving institutions might organize for young people’s trajectories into NMA by making the domain more visible, brokering relationships, and actively constructing new opportunities.

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