This book explores the transformative power of critical literacy in fostering youth engagement through university-community partnerships. It is based on a six-year study by The Literacy and Community Initiative (LCI) at North Carolina State University. This book examines the potential, possibilities, and challenges of using critical literacy in university-community partnerships to amplify youth voices. Through the LCI program, youth in four community-based organizations completed a critical literacy curriculum, published their writings in a book, and participated in public readings to engage and lead their communities. The authors draw on data from semi-structured individual interviews, focus groups, youth narratives, and socio-emotional surveys across four unique youth populations. The youth populations involved collaborations with youth of color in urban communities, Latine immigrant and second-generation youth, girls in foster care and high-risk situations, and youth from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. Results of the study suggest that after engaging in the LCI critical literacy program, youth demonstrated improved literacy skills, enhanced social-emotional well-being, and increased community leadership and self-advocacy. Presenting a novel theoretical framework for the effective use of critical literacy to promote positive youth development in conjunction with first-hand insights into the successful development and sustainment of university-community research partnerships, this book ultimately provides a unique insight into how critical literacy and successful university-community partnerships can combine to result in powerful support for underserved culturally and linguistically diverse youth. This book will appeal to scholars, educators, and practitioners with interests in critical literacy, positive youth development studies, and adolescent research.

Cutting through the political rhetoric about the power of sport as a tool for social change and personal improvement, this book offers insight into how and why participating in sport can be good for children and young people. Still the only book to focus on the role of sport in positive youth development (PYD), it brings together high-profile contributors from diverse disciplines to critically examine the ways in which sport can be used to promote youth development. Now in a fully updated, revised, and expanded third edition, Positive Youth Development through Sport covers a wider range of disciplines including sport psychology, development psychology, physical education, sport development, and sport sociology. With every chapter asking why, what, so what, and what next, the book introduces the theoretical basis and historical context of PYD, quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing PYD in sport, and the potential of PYD in sport across different ages and abilities. This edition includes brand-new chapters on PYD in schools, in Indigenous populations, and across the lifespan, as well as new material on evaluating PYD programs and new case studies of PYD around the world. This is invaluable reading for all students, researchers, educators, practitioners, programmers, and policy makers with an interest in youth sport.

This special issue of Youth Voice Journal examines recent scholarship tackling core aspects of elevating modern education and empowering young learners and brings together empirical findings across critical facets of education needing attention among today’s shifting realities. The studies contained in this issue provide well-timed data and recommendations to guide policies and teaching methods in line with 21st-century realities. The authors employ focused empirical research across contexts – from preschool to higher education – combined with analysis of past techniques. Findings shed light on improvements ranging from teacher professional development and student evaluation to virtual learning models and nurturing non-cognitive skills. Across diverse methodologies and populations, common threads emerge around building adaptable, supportive educational environments. The studies analyze challenges and opportunities emerging from evolving technologies, social contexts, and educational paradigms. While wide-ranging, the research collectively highlights changes needing proactive responses to better serve youth development. Additional scholarship building on these findings can further inform evidence-based policies and teaching methods. Guest Editor: Liudmyla H. Obek DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12098.56005 To cite this issue: Obek L. H. (2023). Ways of modernizing education and improving the research skills of young people, Youth Voice Journal, Vol. I. ISBN (ONLINE): 978-1-911634-95-9

Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.

In this innovative and engaging text, Vivian Maria Vasquez draws on her own classroom experience to demonstrate how issues raised from everyday conversations with pre-kindergarten children can be used to create an integrated critical literacy curriculum over the course of one school year. The strategies presented are solidly grounded in relevant theory and research. The author describes how she and her students negotiated a critical literacy curriculum; shows how they dealt with particular social and cultural issues and themes; and shares the insights she gained as she attempted to understand what it means to frame ones teaching from a critical literacy perspective. New in the 10th Anniversary Edition New section: "Getting Beyond Prescriptive Curricula, the Mandated Curriculum, and Core Standards" New feature: "Critical Reflections and Pedagogical Suggestions" at the end of the demonstration chaptesr New Appendices: "Resources for Negotiating Critical Literacies" and "Alternate Possibilities for Conducting an Audit Trail" Companion Website: narratives of ways in which the audit trail has been used as a tool for teaching and learning; resources on critical literacy including links to other websites and blogs; podcast focused on critical literacy and young children

"This practical resource will assist secondary educators in creating equitable schooling environments for racially diverse youth. The authors identify key aspects of successful strategies and offer recommendations for tackling the many challenges of implementing effective school change. Chapters include vignettes and questions to help readers reflect on their own experiences and perspectives"--

This text aims to help professionals empower children so that they can contribute to the decisions which affect them as individuals and as a group; at unit, local and national levels. The manual helps to ensure success by providing a training tool for both professionals and young people. The manual examines: the importance of empowerment to children and young people; the benefits of empowerment to children and professionals alike; the barriers to empowerment; and the need for workers and organizations to understand their own intentions before embarking on moves towards promoting children and young people's involvement in decision-making.