From “Functionally Illiterate” to Critical Theorists: Kosova Youth Theorizing Their Educational Experiences Across Learning Contexts

• In Event: Youth Voices: Critical Engagement and Care in Informal Education Spaces

Abstract

This ethnographic study examines a group of Kosovo youth’s experiences within a youth empowerment program–Lumi, the theorizing this experience engendered regarding their participation and learning across learning contexts, and the role Lumi played in facilitating these perspectives. Thinking with sociocultural learning theory and critical youth studies, analytically, we draw on participation structures and Freire’s notion of naming power structures to examine Kosova youth experiences across these learning contexts. Findings demonstrate that youth had an overwhelmingly positive experience (socioemotional and intellectual), and how Lumi facilitated their critical consciousness regarding participation opportunities and limitations across educational contexts. Findings also demonstrate how Lumi constrained participation due to deficit discourses of adolescence/ts and age.

Authors

• Ermal Hoxha, University of Missouri

• Robert Petrone, University of Missouri