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 paper examines how community-based civic action research can cultivate civic engagement, civic belonging, and shifts in civic stakeholders' perceptions of racially and economically minoritized youth's civic agency. Specifically, this paper examines the implementation of Youth, Research and Plan (YRP) -- a community-based research methodology…

The present study investigated developmental differences and stability in possible selves within the educational and occupational domain among a diverse sample of urban youth (N = 319). A secondary aim was to test the "aspiration-expectation gap" while exploring the role of subjective social class and gender differences. Results did not…

Black male adolescents face unique barriers in schools that may contribute to racial disparities in educational outcomes. Their social-cognitive strengths, however, influence their confidence to be academically successful despite these barriers. This study explored whether racial academic stereotypes and racial centrality were associated with and…

The college and career readiness movement figures prominently in the nation's educational reform and policies, including strategies to increase graduation rates among disadvantaged students in urban schools. As part of a multi-pronged approach to help youth transition to post-secondary education and the workforce, the present study evaluated a new…

Breaking down the social, political, and cultural processes through which race, class, and gender worldviews are established, ideological literacies help students look closely at the intricate, contradictory meanings in texts. The purpose of developing ideological literacies in urban youth is so they become more socially conscious of the…

In her ethnographic study of Lao American students at an urban, public high school, Bic Ngo shows how simplistic accounts of these students smooth over unfinished, precarious identities and contested social relations. Exploring the ways that immigrant youth identities are shaped by dominant discourses that simplify and confine their experiences…

This study explores the relationship between the social cognitive construct of career decision-making self-efficacy and the outcome variables of vocational identity and career exploration behaviors in a sample of 72 urban African American high school students. The results indicate that higher levels of career decision-making self-efficacy are…

Recent studies undertaken with sociocultural perspectives on literacy offer a framework through which to explore poetry in youth's lives. This article draws upon works within New Literacy Studies to provide a glimpse of urban high school youth's experiences in a unique program called Poetry for the People (P4P). It identifies some ways in which…

Responses were sought to the following questions: (1) Are there differences between self concepts of disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged students? (2) Do these differences, if any, occur within and/or among different types of communities? A total of 373 students were selected from Maine communities designated "rural depressed,""rural…

This study explores questions of identity and culture in an urban high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It draws on personal observations, conversations with teachers and students, experimental work in drama, use of video, and student writings to show how race and identity are negotiated among the diverse students of a high school that…

This study compared the self-concept of 112 gifted urban and 99 gifted rural students in grades 9-12, as reported by students themselves and as perceived by their teachers. The students and their teachers were administered the Florida Key Self-Concept Scale, which comprises 23 items with four subscales: relating, asserting, investing, and coping.…

The 1968-69 winter session of the Program to Excite Potential (PEP), funded by the New York State Urban Education Program, included 45 ninth and tenth grade New York City students who were identified as underachieving, disadvantaged, and having sufficient talent to warrant further musical instruction. The program, housed at the Riverdale School of…

A study examined changes in self-concept of adolescents enrolled in outdoor adventure education courses offered at a private college-preparatory high school in New York City. Surveys were completed by 94 students, 36 of whom were enrolled in outdoor adventure education courses; 25 of these were males and 11 were females. Results found no…

This study examined the relationship between self-concept variables and academic achievement in 72 African American inner-city high school students. The self-concept variable of particular interest was racial self-concept, those perceptions about the self that develop as a result of racial identity. The hypothesis that racial and global…