Youth civic engagement is relatively low in the United States. However, when students are involved in an action civics class (like Generation Citizen), they enthusiastically take action on a wide variety of topics. To systematically assess what issues youth are interested in, we analyzed administrative data from 1,651 action projects conducted by…

The efficacy of a three-week career construction counselling group intervention that was structured using the My Career Story workbook [Savickas, M. L., & Hartung, P. J. (2012). My career story: An autobiographical workbook for life-career success. www.vocopher.com] was examined using a pre/post-test design. The group intervention was…

This paper presents the argument that climate change should be taught in schools as a sociopolitical and scientific process, and that students should be able to use their science knowledge to think critically about climate change as a social justice issue. A necessary and achievable outcome of science education is critical climate awareness--an…

Critical pedagogies often prioritize critical thinking and social awareness at the expense of preparing urban youth for social action. Though sociopolitical efficacy is argued to bridge critical reflection and social action, this relationship is undetermined. We argue that critical reflection and sociopolitical efficacy are independent predictors…

Prior research on anti-blackness in education demonstrates that Black bodies are marked as undesirable and therefore require exclusion, neglect, or mistreatment. Building on this research, I turn to geographical theories to understand the lived, everyday experiences of Black students who attended a predominately Latinx high school. Via visceral…

This phenomenological case study examined the emergence of critical scholar identities among five urban youth who participated in a 2-year critical research fellows program. The program was grounded on the theoretical framework of Social Justice Youth Development, which included the development of self, social/community, and global awareness…

This study aimed to (a) identify mentoring quality profiles based on characteristics of informal mentoring relationships, (b) examine how mentor and youth demographic characteristics were related to the profiles, and (c) investigate whether the profiles were related to youth's academic outcomes. Participants were 411 ninth-grade urban, low-income…

This article draws from a two-year youth-informed, multi-site ethnographic study, in which interracial anti-racist youth activist groups (IAYAG) amplified their own pedagogical leadership in their schools. The demand for curricular relevance in urban schools is at an all-time high, and the work of youth organizers is in direct opposition to a…

This article discusses the role of play and imagination in three urban settings: an ELA classroom, a community organization grounded in civic participation, and a digital learning lab in a library setting. We draw on sociocultural theories of imagination to show that all of the affordances and constraints of the settings contribute to what could…

Internationally, there is a gap in high-school completion rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. In Australia, gap estimates are commonly based on lag indicators, precluding examination of underlying mechanisms. Using two longitudinal representative samples of Australian youth, we explored differences in high-school completion between…

Critical consciousness represents the analysis and critique of structural inequalities, the motivation and perceived capacity to effect change, and social action to redress inequity. A wave of recent instruments measuring critical consciousness has been rigorously validated. Yet, whether these measures efficiently assess different levels of…

This study aims to develop a standard instrument for measuring mental health among urban adolescents in Indonesia. The objective is to produce valid and reliable school adolescent mental health instruments to be used by agencies or schools to identify students' mental health. The survey was conducted in Jakarta and South Tangerang with a total of…

Grounded in the traditions of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Hip-Hop culture, Cyphers for Justice (CFJ) youth work alongside college students (undergraduate and graduate), professors, and community-based teaching artists to conduct research and present their findings on relevant social issues. As a critical approach that privileges…

Youth-focused environmental programs develop environmental stewardship and related interest in future career pursuits. However, research is limited on how youth perceive the varied skills and capacities needed in environmental careers, which could impact their ability to contribute to environmental work. We describe findings from a…

Since 1999, the Kansas K-12 Initiative has generated almost $21 million from university, school district, private foundations, and federal sources to support the development of multiple STEM programs in Kansas City, Kansas. Program goals were to engage urban minority youth in STEM education, increase college readiness, and provide motivation for…