From Segregation to Bonding: Improving Youth of Color Intercultural Understanding Through Democratic Engagement

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Facets of Identity: African American Stakeholders Constructing Subjectivities

Abstract

In this study, I examine interracial/intercultural interaction among students of color (African American and Latino/a) as they engage in a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project in an urban high school. The overall results of this study reveal the effectiveness of critical, collaborative activities and regular cross-cultural contact for youth of color. In this presentation, I specifically focus on how participants moved from segregation to bonding during the school year. Although initially students segregated themselves by race and track and were initially very suspicious and uncomfortable working together, by the end of the school year, students stated that YCfC provided a space for them to bond, get to know one another and interact across their differences.

Author

• Cherese Diane Childers-McKee, University of North Carolina - Greensboro