This response identifies several strengths of the article, "Pushing the Boundaries: What Youth Organizers at Boston's Hyde Square Task Force Have to Teach Us about Civic Engagement" and draws connections to recent developments in sibling fields, including social and emotional learning and internet activism. These developments offer ideas…

This chapter explores how youth organizers have injected themselves into education policy conversations in Philadelphia, asserting their agency and using their voices to shape how policymakers view them as well as the problems that confront them.

For youth who are the most vulnerable to challenging community conditions, more limited opportunities, and poor health, educational and economic trajectories derive especially strong benefits from engagement in community youth development efforts. Although communities can benefit in powerful ways from the knowledge and insight of these youth…

Herein, Tricia Tunstall presents a critique of the article by Melissa Lesniak published in the December 2012 "Music Educators Journal," and offers a new perspective on the Venezuelan youth orchestra program known as "El Sistema." The program, which began in Caracas thirty-eight years ago, is dedicated to changing the lives of…

Our nation's prospects hinge on how well it responds to demographic change. The future of U.S. leadership in technology and innovation will increasingly depend on young women and people of color. If current trends persist, we are in for a world of trouble. Researchers have long known that women and people of color are scarce in STEM jobs, but…

This article argues that technological innovation is transforming the flow of information, the fluidity of social action, and is giving birth to new forms of bottom up innovation that are capable of expanding and exploding old theories of reproduction and resistance because "smart mobs," "street knowledge," and "social…

While policy-makers in Britain can justifiably lay claim to creating the term NEET to define young people who do not engage in formal learning, training or employment, the high number who fall into, and remain in, this category continues to challenge them. This, in part, is attributable to the extended use of the term NEET to capture all young…

During her time at the Kellogg Honors College at Cal Poly Pomona, Suketu Bhavsar has encountered several high-achieving students who, after coming to trust her, have revealed themselves to her as undocumented. These students came to the United States as children through non-legal channels, generally brought by their families, who were searching…

This article presents a brief history of organized child and youth care in North America, reviews contributing factors to the growth of the field as a profession, and explores the motivation of practitioners and organizations to contribute to the ongoing development of the field. Included is a panel discussion with four leading experts on…

This chapter examines the factors that contribute to a sense of school belonging for immigrant and immigrant-origin youth. Through a review of the education research on critical care, the authors propose a framework informed by "cariño conscientizado"--critically conscious and authentic care--as central to reconceptualizing notions of…

This article calls for research on the expertise of youth development practitioners. We argue for studies focused on understanding youth practice from practitioners' points of view--as they experience and enact it--with the aim of contributing findings and frameworks that are helpful to their work and learning. To improve youth programs, first, it…

The largest population of youth at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system are those with disabilities and mental illness. There has been scant research into the pathways that these students take from home, school and the community to involvement in the justice system in Australia. This paper utilises insights from critical disability…

Across the United States, researchers and youth workers alike have identified an increasing number of civically engaged youth who are organizing to improve their communities and schools. By taking an action-oriented approach, these youth are speaking back to the notion that they are uninvolved in society. This interview-based study explores the…

Purpose: This article provides an overview of emerging adulthood, recentering, and resilience of youth with disabilities. Emerging adulthood is a developmental period during which individuals experience delays in attainment of adult roles and social expectations. Recentering is a process that emerging adults experience as they make distinct shifts…

This discussion paper presents the findings of a situational appraisal undertaken by National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) for the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and explores whether and how Traineeships can work for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) within the context of a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)…