Youth Activism Pedagogies
Chrissy Obryk
Embedded Files
Educational Leadership as Accompaniment: From Managing to Cultivating Youth Activism by Ethan Chang and Rebeca Gamez
Typically in school settings, youth activism is greatly discouraged in order to ensure that the school environment is not disrupted. Many administrators believe that to keep the peace and make sure rules are still being followed, talk regarding controversial issues should be left outside. Youth activism is described by the authors as being “the active participation and leadership among young people to name and challenge injustices, shift cultural attitudes, and organize grassroots campaigns for material and policy changes.” (Conner & Rosen, 2016; Kirshner, 2015). Rather than viewing youth activism as beneficial, they view it as a distraction and disruption. By doing this, they directly prevent young students from engaging in current issues that they actually care about.
As an educator, this is a very difficult stance to take. While you want to encourage your student’s engagement in current events that they want to actively participate in, you may also risk your job depending on your boss’ opinion of whether or not youth activism within schools is disruptive. Many administrators may feel that current event topics that require youth activism may be “too political”, “disruptive”, or “too mature” for your students. If this is the case for you, I think it is important to find ways in which you can help your students be involved that does not “distract” other students. For example, creating class fundraisers in which all proceeds can be donated to the organization or charity you wish to support. Even simply further educating your students on the topic they care about can enhance their knowledge on the topic and allow them to take action on their own personal time. While activism might be more difficult within school walls, that does not mean that students can’t take action on their personal time.
USEFUL THEORY: Making Critical Education Practical. Chapter Three: Listening to Youth Voices: Activism and Critical Pedagogy by Leonisa Ardizzone
Aridzzone begins this chapter of her book with a quote from the United Nations that states that the “youth, more than ever, are at the forefront of global social, economic and political developments.” (United Nations, 1998, p.1). However, she then questions how, with the way that young students are constantly dismissed, could this be true? Students have consistently proven in the past that they are willing to have their voices heard in order to fight for better education, yet they are constantly turned away by the adults who hold the power to change these issues. As teachers (and future teachers), it is important to support your students and make sure their voices are heard.
Creating critical consciousness in your classroom is a large part of encouraging and implementing youth activism within your students. It is only when your students are able to recognize the adversities themselves, their families, or their communities might have been faced with that true action can take place. A classroom in which students have a deep sense and understanding of critical thinking and consciousness is a classroom in which learning becomes “critical, creative, and student-subjective” (Ardizzone 53). A classroom environment like this can also lead to more open discussions between students and teachers. Paulo Freire believes that education must include aspects that give students opportunities to take action. Creating lessons surrounding real world issues or issues that may specifically pertain to your students can create passion in your classroom and have students feel more closely connected to the problem at hand. Further allowing your students to or providing them with opportunities in which they can personally contribute to fix said problems can also enhance their influence and inclusion.
Conscientização: the learning to perceive the social, political and economic contradictions and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality. – Paulo Freire
Activism and Service-Learning: Reframing Volunteerism As Acts of Dissent by Donna M. Bickford and Nedra Reynolds
Similarly to class, this article focuses on discovering the root of problems rather than the direct problem at hand. For example, the authors mentioned one student who was pleased with her community service of picking up litter from the beach. When her teacher asked if she considered picketing the business that is the number one polluter of the beach, the student was unable to answer. Bickford and Reynolds’ goal of this article is to establish the difference between volunteering and activism, and how to make sure your students understand this difference.
Bickford and Reynolds highlight the fact that the start to many acts of activism is being forced to do it by an authority figure. Like, for example, having to complete an act of community service as a requirement (similar to the IDS courses that TCNJ students must complete during their freshman year). As an educator, it is your responsibility to provide your students with topics that may interest them, maybe making them a little uncomfortable, in order to make learning happen. Rather than forcing students to participate in a service project that they have no prior education on or that does not relate to them (which can lead to them forgetting about the entire purpose in a couple months), providing students with a service that is directly related to themselves or their community is the best way to engage them and possibly make them interested enough to take action on their own time in the future.
From Hopelessness to Hope: Social Justice Pedagogy in Urban Education and Youth Development by Julio Cammarota
This source shares many connections to what we discuss heavily in class. Within the article, author Julio Cammarota delves into the idea that youth participation and activism within their communities (and globally) allows for students to heal from the adversities they may have faced throughout their childhoods. Cammarota conducts his research through urban school districts, highlighting the stereotypes associated with students that attend these underfunded, understaffed, and underprivileged schools. Similarly to sources read in class, Cammarota states that students that live in “bad” neighborhoods are not reflections of their environment; that problem behavior is “socially constructed” and is typically adapted through familial and peer culture. However, these behaviors can be adapted. Cammarota claims that behaviors deemed problematic, “are still subject to reflection, resistance, and restructuring via lived experience and critical action.” (Cammarota 831). It is through gaining a deeper understanding of one’s self, community and global impact that students begin to realize the potential and influence they truly hold.
In order for students to understand the impact that they have, they must develop awareness of self, community, and others. Urban school districts and communities hear far too often the negative stereotypes used to describe them (poverty, drug use, crime, police brutality, etc). Constant reminders from the news about how society views you can result in lower self-esteem within these students, resulting in a need for action that will improve student’s views on their personal ethnic and racial identities. One example the article provides when demonstrating how to give a student a better sense of self, is by writing a simple “I am” poem. Although slightly overused, these poems allow for students to reflect positively on their social identities and communities. Students then read them to the class, classmates, or teacher. Allowing for students to gain awareness of their community and others will lead to higher levels of compassion and empathy. Encouraging your students to stand up for themselves and what they believe in, to allow them room to challenge themselves and others will only positively impact the future.
The Power to Change the World: A Teaching Unit on Student Activism in History and Today by Katherine Schulten
The Power to Change the World: A Teaching Unit on Student Activism in History and Today by Katherine Schulten
This article provides examples of ways that teachers can create lessons surrounding current issues and youth activism. Written not even a month after the event, Schulten uses the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as the basis of these lessons, discussing the school walkouts, moments of silence, etc. that many schools across the country participated in after that day.
Schulten provides direct links to podcasts and videos that can be used within your classroom as well as questions that can be posed in order to appropriately and sensitively talk openly about these topics with your students. Included are discussion questions that can be asked in pairs, groups, or the whole class, writing prompts that allow students to write their own personal responses to questions (these would not be read in front of the class to ensure that students are honest), timelines regarding the history of school shootings, and much more.
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