Youth Engagement in Transformative School/Community Problem Solving: Challenges and Opportunities in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia

Session Type: Off-Site Visit

Abstract

This 2-part session begins with a 2-hour field trip to an urban high school in South East Washington, DC where youth are engaged in a Restorative Justice Program and Youth Participatory Research. The aim is to contribute to the body of “public scholarship for diverse democracies” around youth engagement in school/community transformation, with a focus on youth research as critical literacy learning in the African American education for liberation tradition. Part 1 is a 2-hour guided field trip experience. Field trip participants will observe and interact with students and staff involved in youth engagement programs at Ballou Senior High School. Invited guests / panelists, including Atlanta-area police department leaders engaged with a youth crime prevention/diversion university-community partnership, will participate in a facilitated feed-back session with the host school students and staff who are involved in "youth engagement in transformative school-community problem solving". Part 2 is a 90-minute public Forum following the site visit. Two research-based panel presentations will focus on outcomes and the challenges, opportunities and results of engaging youth in transformative school/community problem solving in Washington, DC (Ballou Senior High School) and Atlanta metropolitan area public schools.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Visit Leaders

• Joyce E. King, Georgia State University

• Cirecie A. West-Olatunji, Xavier University of Louisiana

• Yetunde Reeves, Mills College/Stanford New Schools

Papers

• Panel 1: Frank W. Ballou Senior High School - Yetunde Z. Reeves, University of California - Los Angeles; Regina Nadir, Ballou Senior High School; Andre Ford, Georgia State University; K. Ivy Hylton, Ballou Senior High School; N.S. Hylton, Ballou Senior High School; Thais M Council, Georgia State University

• Panel 2: Atlanta Metropolitan Area Public Schools - Keith Meadows, College Park Police Department; Byron Martin, Atlanta Police Department; Shadonna Davis, Georgia State University; Brian N. Williams, University of Georgia

Discussants

• Ben R. Kirshner, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Yolanda Anyon, University of Denver

• Stafford Hood, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Johnaé Strong, Black Youth Project