Empowering Youth: How Engagement as Young Activist Interns Develops the Critical Consciousness of Southeast Asian Youth

• In Event: Asian Girls at the Center: Identity, Politics, and Critical Consciousness

Abstract

PURPOSE. This case study served three purposes. First, while traditional youth programs serving immigrants and students of color in high poverty neighborhoods offer homework help or English tutoring, YoSEA incorporated a social justice curriculum that featured all students’ cultures, activism, community service, and outreach projects (Kolano & Davila, 2019). As O’Donoghue (2006) found, community-based youth organizations (CBYOs) offer youth a place to explore relevant issues impacting them and their communities, and we argued that YoSEA takes this role further, by teaching the youth how to actively impart change on the issues. Second, this research responded to the needs of urban youth, by addressing the gaps in their school curricula. The issues impacting immigrant youth are rarely addressed in the Eurocentric American school curriculums, and CBYOs that serve urban youth address the issues that shape their lives and experiences. Finally, there is a gap in the literature that focuses on critical consciousness development in Southeast Asian youth, and this research study addresses this gap. This research project allowed us to examine the shared experiences of the Southeast Asian youth that participate in the YoSEA programming and internship. Their shared experiences challenged anti-immigrant rhetoric, as well as dispelling the model minority myth.

FRAMEWORK. The development of a critical consciousness allows for marginalized populations to identify, examine, and the power to enact change upon their oppressive conditions. Through this process of critical consciousness development, the oppressed gain the awareness of connections between those in their group, the community, and the larger systems (Freire, 1970/2016; Turner-Essel, 2013). In this study, the participants engaged in an educational and transformative process, which made them aware of the oppressive conditions impacting their community.

MODES OF INQUIRY. Each participant’s experiences were examined, and themes emerged through the development of a short case study using their interviews, observations, and data collected through the examination of their final projects. The youth participants’ shared experiences along with an analysis through a critical consciousness lens reveal that engagement in an activism internship developed their critical reflection, political efficacy, and critical action.

DATA SOURCES. Data were collected, first informally for five years preceding this study, in the form of field observations as the researcher engaged as a mentor and advocate with the youth program. During the course of the activism internship, data were collected through individual interviews, field observations, and archived data analysis.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS. The findings of the study reveal that engagement in an activism internship developed their critical reflection, political efficacy, and critical action. Engagement as an intern also allowed the participants to examine the systems within which they live, and learn how to take action against those systems. Further, this study exposed how community-based organizations allow immigrant youth the space and experiences to deeply examine anti-immigrant systems and policies.

SIGNIFICANCE. Findings of this study add to critical consciousness theory scholarship, which empowers marginalized peoples to take action against oppressive forces. It informs future research by exposing the need for community-based organizations to incorporate activism and advocacy programming.

Authors

• Lan Quach Kolano, University of North Carolina - Charlotte
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn Wagner, University of North Carolina - Charlotte
  Presenting Author