This book explores the complex ways in which belonging, identity and time are entangled in shaping young people engagement with the middle years of school. The authors argue that these ‘entanglements’ need to be understood in ways that move beyond a focus on why individual young people engage with the middle years. Instead, there should be a focus on the socio-ecologies of particular places, and the ways in which these ecologies shape the possibilities of young people engaging productively in the middle years. Drawing on extensive qualitative data from an outer-urban metropolitan context, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, education and policy studies.

This book explores the complex ways in which belonging, identity and time are entangled in shaping young people engagement with the middle years of school. The authors argue that these ‘entanglements’ need to be understood in ways that move beyond a focus on why individual young people engage with the middle years. Instead, there should be a focus on the socio-ecologies of particular places, and the ways in which these ecologies shape the possibilities of young people engaging productively in the middle years. Drawing on extensive qualitative data from an outer-urban metropolitan context, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, education and policy studies.

This edited collection presents stories of children and young people’s entanglements with times of ongoing crisis in the Anthropocene. The authors use biographical narratives and arts-based methodologies to further the discussion surrounding young people’s well-being, resilience, and enterprise. Through these stories, they seek to critically engage with the literature on the Anthropocene and interrogate concepts such as agency, structure, and belonging.

The book charts the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact that it has had on the lives of young people and their communities, education systems, the teaching profession, governments and NGOs in postcolonial Pakistan. Drawing on the extensive knowledge and experience that the authors bring to these challenges – this case study of the ‘broken promise’ of education for sustainable development will have significant impact in post COVID-19 Pakistan, South Asia more broadly, and in other postcolonial development contexts around the world.

This book contains empirical research from established and emerging scholars who draw upon interdisciplinary perspectives of space and place in order to investigate young people’s sense of identities and belongings in diverse international contexts. The contributors aim to enhance our understanding of how theories of belonging are employed in the study of youth identity as these young people come to belong at a local, national, global, and even virtual level. The collection draws on research in the rural, the urban, and online, showcasing key sites and communities that play a role in young people’s lives as they negotiate their sense of agency and sense of identity within the contexts of the locale. Identities, Youth and Belonging will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including sociology, education, social policy, politics and geography.

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.