Social Justice and Ethnic Studies Youth Conference: Tool for Aligning Organizing With Critical Pedagogy

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Envisioned Futures: Transformative Work With Young People

Abstract

Through a three year ethnographic study, this paper assesses an annual youth conference on social justice and ethnic studies that features youth as presenters, sharers of knowledge, and builders of visions for action. Such gatherings can serve as bridges that connect in-class learning with the spaces of the educational continuum (such as colleges and universities), while simultaneously providing a forum where community leaders, academics, k-20 students, and families can engage with youth in an environment where power structures, at least temporarily, are more balanced and where youth voice is centered. The present banking approach of youth conferences are missed opportunities to collectively move toward youth-centered and youth-powered ways of collectively addressing and working toward resolving social inequities.

Author

• Gabriel Higuera, The University of Arizona