Sponsor
Portland State University. Social Work and Social Research Ph. D. Program
First Advisor
Tom Keller
Term of Graduation
Winter 2025
Date of Publication
2-3-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Social Work and Social Research
Department
Social Work
Language
English
Subjects
equity, social justice, youth development, youth participatory programs, youth voice, youth-adult partnership
Physical Description
1 online resource (xiii, 174 pages)
Abstract
The youth development field has undergone shifts and reconstructions in how youth are conceived, impacting the approaches of youth-serving programs attempting to facilitate learning, growth, and engagement. Evolving views inform how policymakers, funders, and youth-serving agencies perceive and relate with youth. In turn, these dynamics influence how youth learn to think about themselves, others, and the world. Dominant discourse regarding youth development has been shifting from a deficit-based to an asset-based lens, with the proliferation of Positive Youth Development (PYD) frameworks, which seek to cultivate internal strengths and positive developmental outcomes rather than just prevent negative behaviors and outcomes. Despite the presumed intention of PYD to view youth more holistically, significant youth lived experiences, and environmental influences are still neglected. Youth development researchers and practitioners have criticized the asset-based approach for lacking an awareness of the socio-political forces impacting youth development, including pervasive inequities, oppression, and injustice, particularly for youth of color. This awareness reflects an essential contextualization that drives an applied response. As youth-serving institutions attempt to integrate this awareness many start with creating an equity statement with an intent to review and adjust program policies and practices. However, many struggle with incorporating practices, grounded in critical awareness, that would counter the baseline status quo of youth exclusion via more inclusive and participatory methods.
This constructivist-oriented qualitative dissertation sought to learn from youth experiences of inclusion, participation, and influence as a youth-serving organization implemented an equity and social justice framework, including youth participatory processes. Informed by critical race theory, sociocultural theory, and grounded in the Social Justice Development Model (SJYDM), this study focused on participation, inclusion, and influence as essential indicators of the intersection of critical awareness and participatory approaches. The SJYDM is a developmental framework that integrates critical awareness and relationships as central to the learning process and outcomes for youth. This model focuses on increasing awareness of the dynamics of power and identity, supporting youth to affect social change. The SJYDM highlights the magnitude of relationships with adults and among peers that rest in mutuality, authenticity, and shared power.
With the aim of elevating youth voice, 10 focus groups were conducted across the middle and high school-based programs of a prominent youth-serving organization, as well as the organization's Youth Advisory Council (YAC). Across these focus groups, 35 youth participants discussed their experiences within the program, resulting in transcripts that were analyzed with a qualitative thematic analysis approach. This iterative analysis provided a rich description of youth experiences with regard to participation, inclusion, influence, and related subthemes. Youth repeatedly discussed the significance of how their relationships with adult facilitators impacted their experiences of participation, inclusion, and influence. When an adult was perceived as caring, flexible, supportive, and able to relate reciprocally, youth felt respected, safe, and supported to participate. Youth also shared how important a sense of belonging was to their participation and feelings of inclusion.
Additionally, youth were attuned to the degree to which they perceived adults responding to oppressive actions, across the school. Interestingly, they described minimal opportunities to discuss identity, power, and oppression despite the pervasiveness of these elements in their stories of differential treatment across the school setting. They also expressed hesitance to have more influence or power, relating this to arrogance and punitive methods of engagement. These discussions are contextualized within the presence or lack thereof of critical awareness education and participatory methods.
Analysis of these discussions is considered with regard to the literature on youth-participatory methods and critical awareness. Implications for further research and practice implications are addressed.
Rights
© 2024 Rhen M. Miles
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43146
Recommended Citation
Miles, Rhen M., "Youth Experiences of Participation, Inclusion, and Influence Within a Youth-Serving Organization Implementing Participatory Processes" (2025). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6771.
