288,904 research outputs found

    Investing in Youth Media: A Guide for Grantmakers

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    Investing in Youth Media is a compilation of success stories, lessons, and guidance for grantmakers interested in being part of the vibrant and growing field of youth media. It is a tool to help funders consider the value of youth media in connection to program areas such as civic engagement, the arts, education, youth development, and journalism.Why are funders becoming interested in youth media? Youth media organizations offer a broad impact that belies their often small sizes and even smaller budgets. They bring together youth development and social justice in a way that is both energizing and authentic. They offer new models for educating young people who have lost interest in school, bring youth voices to public attention, and offer opportunities for artistic exploration and career experiences.Programs are built on the best practices of positive youth development, teaching young people new skills and empowering them to make smart decisions, explore new horizons, and work toward their goals. Program graduates leave with skills in interviewing, researching, and storytelling. They learn how to develop an idea and stick with it until they get the project done. These skills become important for their professional and personal lives.At the same time, youth media organizations can engage young people in social justice issues that are important to them. Whether it's inequity in education, foster care conditions, or the politics of immigration, young people explore the landscape, develop opinions, and share those opinions, along with their personal experiences, through film, radio, and the printed word. Although they are still too young to vote, these young people have found a way to impact the issues that affect their lives.While most funders do not have a defined youth media program, many find that youth media is an effective component of their grantmaking strategy. The case studies that follow introduce youth media programs supported by a variety of small local funders and large international philanthropies. They illustrate the links between youth media and six other program areas: youth development, social change, youth voice, education, journalism, media arts, and field building.The resource list at the end of this publication includes contact information for all of the youth media organizations listed here as well as intermediaries and others who can help you consider, develop, and launch a youth media philanthropy program

    Arts Infusion Initiative, 2010-15: Evaluation Report

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    For youth involved in the criminal justice system, a better future depends on improving their social and emotional learning skills -- skills like conflict resolution, career readiness and preparation for the future. An assessment by the Urban Institute shows how the Arts Infusion Initiative helped achieve just that for young people detained in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC), and for high-risk youth in the Lawndale, Little Village, Back of the Yards and South Shore communities. From 2010 to 2015, this catalytic approach to restoring the peace for Chicago's youth supported 14 nonprofits providing teens with rigorous arts instruction, infused with social and emotional learning goals. Funded by The Chicago Community Trust, the $2.5 million Initiative built collaborations with the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Public Schools, and Northwestern and Loyola Universities. The Urban Institute's mixed-method evaluation (2.9MB), commissioned by the National Guild for Community Arts Education with funding from the Trust, concluded that "the fields of education, juvenile justice and family and youth services can benefit tremendously from the emergent approaches embodied in the Arts Infusion Initiative." Among the successes their research revealed:Participants showed substantial improvements in social and emotional learning skills, as measured by conflict resolution, future orientation, critical response and career readiness. Improvements ranged from 27% in conflict resolution and career readiness, to 29% for critical response and 36% for future orientation.The initiative helped foster collaboration between program directors, public schools, community policing and the detention center. Examples include the Trust and the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy program working together to open a high-tech digital music lab at JTDC. Chicago Public Schools' plan for a new Digital Arts Career Academy for at-risk and court-involved high school youth is a direct result of the positive effects Arts Infusion had on youth, and of the relationship forged between CPS and the Trust.The program exposed at-risk youth to new skills and technologies that opened their minds to a positive future. Arts Infusion grants enabled many participating programs to purchase -- often for the first time -- modern, professional-grade equipment to which many youth had never been exposed. Better Boys Foundation used its funding to purchase enough modern film lab equipment to serve a full 17-student class -- previous classes had only one camera to share among all students

    Interviewing as a Pedagogical Tool in Arts for Social Justice: A Case Study of an Afterschool Arts Program

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    Purpose: The rise of out-of-school youth arts organizations, especially those dedicated to addressing social issues with young people, suggests a growing need for spaces in which we prepare young people to creatively and critically shape their communities. While the popularity of these programs is certainly positive, it does little to tell us what pedagogical lessons we might learn from how youth arts organizations approach social justice teaching in the arts. In order to understand what it takes to do social justice art education, our research team investigated the pedagogical strategies used by Center for Urban Pedagogy, an out-of-school youth arts organization. Method: Through qualitative interviews, observations, and document analyses, this case study examined the specific pedagogical strategies used by educators in the Center for Urban Pedagogy’s (CUP) Urban Investigations program to engage young people in creating art for social justice aims.  Findings: Our initial findings revealed that the process of interviewing is at the center of CUP’s approach to both social engagement and art-making. According to our research, interviewing reveals hidden layers of meaning to learners, offers opportunities to visualize personal connections, and provides a means to critically and collaboratively create artwork

    Collectively Creative: a means to perceive differently

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    This feature article is a response to the question " Can anyone be creative?"In dialogue with the Editor of the Hong Kong Youth Journal Elaine Morgan the argument is made that it is possible given the right environment. The significance of the creative arts in the establishment of social justice in education is highlighted

    For the Culture: The Importance of a Critical Social Theory within the Music Education Classroom

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    This paper will analyze the history of music education in the United States and discuss how the music classroom can contribute to and dismantle social inequalities including social class, gender, and race. Class effects music education by creating barriers to necessary resources and opportunities as a result of economic positions.[1] Gender is the second focus because music has historically been a male-dominated profession. As a result, many textbooks and curriculum highlight the achievements of men while erasing the contributions of women which has taught women to devalue their own work.[2] The last focus is race. While the arts once served as a catalyst for community empowerment, it has become a way to control free thought and exploration of culture.[3] Thus, the purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the social justice issues affecting our youth as a guide for creating better pedagogies for music education

    There is a Monster in my House, Cultura Cura Uncovering 11 Milliones de Sueños: Understanding the Emotional and Psychological Experiences of Undocumented and Mixed-Status Youth and Finding Healing Spaces

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    This research gives voice to the emotional experiences of mixed-status and undocumented youth, and explores the Mexican cultural arts as a healing space for this community of children. This research expands our mental health understanding of undocumented and mixed status children, capturing the undocu-trauma these participants describe in narrating the chronic fear they live with. Their stories speak to the monster of fear, la migra, witches in the field, Trump, racism, societal violence and trauma that is invisible in their home but alive in their daily lives. The participants in this study narrate the power of the cultural arts to heal and create comunidad through a non-profit that has concentrated its efforts on using ballet folklórico, Mariachi, education, culture, and social justice and social work as a temascal of healing in their community. This qualitative research journey represents a critical discursive space that examines these youths’ narratives to emphasizes the urgency of addressing the psychological consequences of being an undocumented or mixed-status child in the United States. This qualitative research uses testimonio as methodology to document how culture rises as a shield of protection and has inspired these youth to reclaim their identities, heal societal wounds, and find strength through using the cultural arts as resistance and power. Their participation in a Northern California cultural arts non-profit organization opened the doors for a community to unite behind these children and families using a combination of the cultural arts, education, and social justice to uncover the cultural citizenship of these folklore heroes. The program of 11 Millones de Sueños has transformed into a space of cariño to capture the orgullo, esfuerza, corazón, and resistance of these youth to help them withstand the emotional suffering that has gone unrecognized for too long. Their participation in the program, their cultural wealth, resistance, determination and familia has inspired a cultural citizenship that extends beyond papers. Their citizenship is rooted in character, leadership, community service, comunidad, orgullo y alegria, danza, mariachi y folklore. No longer afraid to be seen, these youth stand strong against the societal monsters that have attempted to dismantle their humanity

    Social Justice Education as Anti-Poverty Work: Undergraduates’ Experiential Learning in Childhood and Youth Spaces

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    Experiential learning is a growing commitment in higher education and often takes the form of undergraduates venturing off of their campuses and into the communities surrounding their colleges. Through the lens of experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984), this qualitative study examines the lived experiences and outcomes of undergraduates delivering literacy based social justice education lessons in local childhood spaces. As a further focus, this study also seeks to illuminate the role of social justice education as a form of anti-poverty work when implemented through college-community partnerships. Analysis of the experiences of ten undergraduate students at a small private liberal arts college in Central New York will work to demonstrate the role college-community partnerships can play in fostering social justice and class equity, specifically in the context of undergraduates working with children and youth

    Mission Possible: Teachers Serving as Agents of Social Change

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    A case study was conducted to learn about the formation of social justice teachers, and the methods used by radical educators to engage students in social change. Interviews conducted with eight junior and senior high school social studies teachers identified several types of formative experiences inspiring teachers to become radical educators. Personal and family experiences of oppression during their youth and early adult years, childhood multicultural experiences, social activism, volunteerism, and contact with adult mentors influenced teachers to become social justice educators. Adopting critical thinking as the cornerstone of their social justice practice, social justice teachers employed strategies to foster critical thinking and moral action as a central feature of social justice pedagogy. These included (1) adopting alternative texts and supplemental resources to focus on social justice issues, (2) emphasizing active learning and 21st century learning skills (Rosefsky, Saavedra, & Opfer, 2012), (3) engaging students in service learning and civic action projects, and (4) integrating the arts within the social studies curriculum to raise cultural awareness and appreciation. Data gathered from interviews, observations, and documents were analyzed using a transformational learning (Mezirow, 2000) and critical thinking theory (Brookfield, 2012). Findings reveal the importance of contact with diverse others and the important role that critical thinking and awareness play in raising social consciousness leading to moral action

    Measuring the Social and Emotional Skills of Hispanic American Students in an Afterschool Karate Program

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    The social and emotional learning skills of children play an important role in their development. These skills include persistence, self-control, and social competence. The lack of these skills can often be a predictor of future criminality and antisocial behavior. Aggressiveness in youth plays a key role in violence among juveniles. Violent crime committed by juvenile offenders has been a longstanding issue facing the United States criminal justice system. It lacks an effective prevention method, disproportionately affects minority youth, and is often cited as a future predictor of criminality. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, one-group, pretest–posttest design study, was twofold. First, it examined the effects of traditional martial arts training on the social and emotional learning skills of persistence, self-control and social competence of students within a structured afterschool setting. Secondly, it investigated the effects of traditional martial arts training on the ability to resolve problems with peers without becoming aggressive in these same students. The research subjects consist of 57 predominantly Hispanic students (ages 5-11) enrolled in an afterschool program at Tiger and Dragon Youth Center (T&D), throughout the 2018-19 academic school year. This program teaches the traditional martial art of Kenpo Karate

    Education and Social Innovation: The Youth Uncensored Project—A Case Study of Youth Participatory Research and Cultural Democracy in Action

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    This article discusses social innovation in education informed by arts-based and Indigenous ways of knowing. I use the term Indigenous to refer to First Peoples’ and their wisdom traditions from places around the world and the term Aboriginal to refer to the diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples of Canada. The article looks at the ethical imperative for doing socially innovative work, and examines practices with potential for embedding social innovation in educational scholarship, including experiential and relational educational approaches, such as community-service learning and restorative justice; participatory action research as an allied research approach; and community arts framed as cultural democracy. It describes a research project with street-involved youth as a case study for research that moves toward social innovation through the Government of Canada Policy Research Initiative’s five steps involved in a co-creative social innovation project
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