Pushed out and Pulled In: Creating a Youth Support Complex Within a School-Based Intervention Program

• In Event: The Prison-to-School Pipeline: Nondeficit Approaches to Examining the Educational Trajectories of Marginalized Latino Males

Abstract

Merging Vigil’s multiple marginality theory and Rios’ youth control complex, this paper examines the educational experiences of Latino male youth participants, 13-18 years old, from a school-based gang and violence intervention program (GVIP) located on the west coast. The aim of this paper is to highlight how the youth dealt with daily obstacles in their lives, pre- and post- GVIP. The joint theories help explain how Latino boys evolved from being considered “regular” males to being seen as gang members and even criminal threats by adults. The youth in the study also faced scrutiny and discrimination, under multiple contexts and throughout the various institutions that they encountered on a daily basis. This paper uses qualitative data collected from 3 different phases of the study over a three-year period including participant experiences in the intervention program, as well as their school experiences outside of the program. Field observations were taken both on-site (weekly class meetings, school events, etc.) and off-site (field excursions, community visits etc.). The program met every week, on the same day, on a weekly rotating bell schedule.
The student participants’ exposure to the program has a positive impact for multiple reasons. First, the participants’ developed a strong bond with the other youth participants within the program and this enhanced their perspectives of their community. The role of culture influenced the study participants’ engagement with the intervention program. Additionally, the data suggests having a culturally relevant intervention coordinator further assists the participants’ engagement in the program and connection to the curriculum. Furthermore, the implementation of this intervention program allowed the youth to re-engage their academics and persist to high school completion. This is imperative as strong peer relationships account for a change in behavior along with academic success (Horvat & Lewis, 2003). Secondly, the students’ showed strong “association” to the program’s coordinator, which suggests cultural relevancy can be a significant factor to the strength in relationship between student and instructor (Waxman & Pardon, 2002). Moreover, emergent research shows that there is a strong connection between the time when an adolescent has felt justly treated and their behavior (Peguero, 2014) as “educational systems play a major role in the process of dehumanization” (Morrell, 2008). Also, students’ voice within the program can demonstrate “how” institutional bridging assists the program by providing various opportunities to transform participants’ perceptions, and actions; described as conscientization by Paolo Freire (1970), in their quest to re-engage in school and provide hope for a more promising future (Rodriguez, 2009).

Authors

• Victor Rios, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Mario Gerardo Galicia, University of California - Santa Barbara