In Solidarity With Youth: The Possibility and Precarity of Youth Work Through Pandemic and Protest

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Youth workers play a significant role in the educational, political, and activist lives of young people in out-of-school time (OST) settings. Many take on a pedagogical stance to work with youth rather than for youth (masked for review; Chávez & Soep, 2005; Ginwright, 2016; Kirshner, 2016; Watson, 2011). The complexities of intergenerational collaboration in OST settings have been made even more visible during the COVID-19 pandemic and national uprisings for Black lives. In this symposium, we bring together youth work scholars to wrestle with both tensions and possibilities of youth-adult partnerships (Zeldin, Christens, & Powers, 2012) as framed by our current sociopolitical context and related precarity of the youth work profession (masked for review).

Sub Unit

• SIG-Out-of-School Time

Chair

• Deepa Sriya Vasudevan, Wellesley College

Papers

• Under Pressure: Analyzing Tensions of Authentic Youth-Adult Partnerships in Our Sociopolitical Present - Bianca Jontae Baldridge, Harvard University

• Navigating Partnerships in Field-Based Uncertainty: Examining the Precarious Nature of Youth Work - Deepa Sriya Vasudevan, Wellesley College

• Engaging in Collective Action in Out-of-School Time Settings for Intergenerational Possibility, Healing, and Well-Being - Gretchen A. Brion-Meisels, Harvard University

Discussants

• Jaynemarie Enyonam Angbah, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies

• Natalie S. King, Georgia State University