31.075 - Troubling Youth Leadership: The Complexities of Youth "Empowerment" Programs

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session problematizes the emphasis on youth “leadership” and “empowerment” by critically examining: (1) the role of adult program staff in structuring learning opportunities in ways that are (or are not) culturally and developmentally appropriate; and (2) the ways in which institutional constructions of “youth” and “youth development” can work against the interests of youth. The studies in this session cover a wide range of community organizing and youth leadership programs serving ethnically diverse youth in programs from Cape Town to Belfast to urban and rural United States. The varied perspectives will significantly contribute to more nuanced analyses of the broader social and cultural politics of youth development and practices that inform successful community youth programs.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Out-of-School Time

Chair

• Vichet Chhuon, University of Minnesota

Papers

• A Case Study of Youth Learning to Lead: The Power of Iterative Cycles of Situated Learning - Lisa Diaz, University of Illinois; Reed W. Larson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jessica Armstrong; Cole Perry

• "They're Just a Part of My Family": The Perspectives of a Hmong Immigrant Adviser on Building Relationships With Youth - Bic H. Ngo, University of Minnesota

• How "Youth" Gets Deployed as a Social Category in Community Organizing: A Discourse Analytic Study - Ben R. Kirshner, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Problematizing Youth of Color Empowerment - Soo Ah Kwon

Discussant

• Shepherd Zeldin, University of Wisconsin - Madison