Engage for What? Interactions Between Normative and Political Forces and Democratic Youth Participation

• In Event: The Power of Youth for Communal and Educational Change

Abstract

In marginalized communities, reforms tend to be imposed from the outside, silencing and drowning out the voices of youth, parents, and communities. My study explores how grassroots youth organizers participated in equity-oriented reform efforts, how such participation is shaped by political and normative forces, and the ways in which their participation challenges these forces. By developing various pathways to consciousness-raising and participation in unsanctioned spaces, as well as creating public ways of holding decision-makers accountable, organizers developed new ideas and abilities among the youth about what they deserved and increased sense of collective power. This research is designed to deepen our understanding of how organizing efforts build the necessary countervailing power to compel districts to develop and implement equity-oriented reforms.

Author

• Julia A. Daniel, University of Colorado - Boulder