1-090 - Afterschool Programs as Contexts for Adolescent Active Cultural Socialization: Challenges and Opportunities

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Adolescence is a period when immigrant, minority, and mixed-ethnicity youth become more aware of their cultural backgrounds and often become actively engaged in their own cultural socialization (development of identity, critical consciousness). Afterschool programs potentially provide valuable contexts for these active processes. They are designed to support youth-driven learning; less freighted by the institutional constraints of schools; and social-emotional development is part of their mission (Roth & Brooks-Gunn, 2003). Yet many programs either ignore or are superficial in incorporating culture and helping youth address cultural issues (Quiroz-Martinez, HoSang & Villarosa, 2004).

This symposium identifies challenges programs face and suggests how programs can better support youth’s active cultural socialization.

Paper 1 finds that direct programing on Mexican culture elicited negative reactions from 7th grade Mexican-American youth and many of their parents. Results suggest that rather than focusing on traditional culture, programs should address the diverse and dynamic current cultural experiences of Mexican-American youth and families.

Paper 2 identifies how immigrant Hmong youth used a theater program to discuss pressing cultural issues in their lives (e.g., being bullied by white youth, shamed by other Hmong youth for being “a race traitor”). The program provided opportunities for youth to critically explore and (re)present the complexity of their cultural identities.

Paper 3 shifts attention to program leaders. It first identifies culture-related challenges/ opportunities experienced by leaders from ethnically-diverse programs. Second it finds that, while some leaders respond to these challenges by engaging with youth on the issues, many (especially white leaders) are avoidant.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Reed W Larson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Discussant

• Carola Suarez-Orozco, University of California, Los Angeles

Individual Presentations

• Latino Families’ Perspectives on Cultural Content in Afterschool Programs: How Important is Ethnic and Cultural Congruence? - Presenting Author: Andrea Elaine Vest, Arizona State University; Sandra Denise Simpkins, Arizona State University

• Exploring the Hybridity of Immigrant Youth Culture in an Arts Program - Presenting Author: Bic Ngo, University of Minnesota

• ‘Full-Right-In’ vs. Avoidance: Leaders Responses to Cultural Challenges in Youth Programs - Presenting Author: Vanessa Gutierrez, Univ of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Reed W Larson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Mariela Fernandez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Marcela Raffaelli, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign