Rethinking Urban Youth and Martial Arts

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: Urban Learning, Teaching and Research SIG Roundtable Three (Table 16)

Abstract

This ethnographic study describes adolescents’ understandings of their martial arts training in an urban dojo. Prior research related to youth engagement in martial arts tended towards negative and essentializing descriptions of adolescents. This research provides a counternarrative: In focusing on the ways that routines, rituals and rules (Saldana, 2021) figure in the adolescents’ proximal processes (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and meaning making activities, a nuanced understanding of martial arts experiences is provided. In this ongoing study, after 18 months of observations and interviews, adolescents themselves explain and explore how they make meaning from the connections, routines, relationships and deeply positive experiences afforded by their martial arts training and experiences.

Author

• Mary Beth Schaefer, Saint John's University
  Presenting Author