At Our Best: Building Youth-Adult Partnerships in Out-of-School Time Settings brings together the voices of over 50 adults and youth to explore both the promises and challenges of intergenerational work in out-of-school time (OST) programs.
Comprised of 14 chapters, this book features empirical research, conceptual essays, poetry, artwork, and engaged dialogue about the complexities of youth-adult partnerships in practice.
At Our Best responds to key questions that practitioners, scholars, policymakers, and youth navigate in this work, such as: What role can (or should) adults play in supporting youth voice, learning, and activism? What approaches and strategies in youth-adult partnerships are effective in promoting positive youth development, individual and collective well-being, and setting-level change? What are the tensions and dilemmas that arise in the process of doing this work? And, how do we navigate youth-adult partnerships in the face of societal oppressions such as adultism, racism, and misogyny? Through highlighting contemporary cases of authentic youth-adult partnerships in youth programs, this fourth volume of the IAP series on OST aims to introduce, engage, and sharpen educators understandings of the power and promise of these relationships. Together, the authors in this volume suggest that both building youth-adult partnerships and actively reflecting on intergenerational work are foundational practices to achieving transformational change in our OST organizations, schools, neighborhoods, and communities.
This volume explores youth-adult partnerships in out-of-school programs, featuring diverse voices on collaboration, youth activism, and social challenges. Through research and real-world cases, it highlights strategies for fostering meaningful intergenerational work and transformational change.
Foreword: Intergenerational Solidarity When the House Is on Fire; Maria
Elena Torre.
Acknowledgments.
Introduction; Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Deepa Sriya Vasudevan, and Jessica
Tseming Fei.
Section I. The Foundations Of Partnership.
Chapter
1. Trust Formation in Youth-Adult Relationships in Out-of-School Time
Organizations; Aisha N. Griffith and Xue Jiang.
Chapter
2. Art Education and the Problem-Posing Methodology: A Critical
Approach to Learning From and Working With Students and Their Communities;
Luis-Genaro Garcia.
Chapter
3. Critical Reflections on Tensions in Authentic Youth-Adult
Partnerships; Juan C. Medina, Bianca J. Baldridge, and Tanya Wiggins.
Section II. On Relational Practices.
Chapter
4. Let the Show Begin; Kelsey Tonacatl-Cuatzo.
Chapter
5. Rewind: Ten Years of a Youth-Adult Partnership; Marcellina Angelo
and Deborah Bicknell.
Chapter
6. A Delicate Dance; Sylvia Boguniecki.
Chapter
7. To Pick up a Pen Instead of a Gun: Rewriting Richmond Through RAW
Talent; Donté Clark and Molly Raynor.
Chapter
8. Picture of Jennifer; Arie Dowe.
Chapter
9. Ricans With Pride; Arianna Ayala.
Chapter
10. Care/ful Kinship: An Intergenerational Reflection on the Risks
and Possibilities of Youth Work; Amanda Torres and Anna West.
Section III. On Organizational Practices.
Chapter
11. Profiles, Key Moments, and a Continuum of Youth-Led
Participation: An Inclusive Model of Youth Development Work; Pegah
Rahmanian.
Chapter
12. The Differences; Tianna Davis.
Chapter
13. Better Together: The Promise, Preconditions, and Precautions of a
Youth-Adult Partnership Approach to Collaborative Research; Sarah
Zeller-Berkman, Mia Legaspi-Cavin, Jessica Barreto, Jennifer Tang, and Asha
Sandler.
Chapter
14. To Partner With Us, Trust Our Ideas: Washington Heights
Expeditionary Learning School Educators' Support of Youth
Researchers/Activists; Yohely Comprés.
Chapter
15. Hip-Hop Music-Making as a Context for Relational Equity Among
Youth and Youth Workers; Erica Van Steenis and Ben Kirshner.
Chapter
16. Voila! Latifat Odetunde.
Chapter
17. Building the Beloved Community: Intergenerational Organizing at
the Highlander Research and Education Center; Jessica Tseming Fei with Nayir
Vieira Freeman, Rush George, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, and Allyn
Maxfield-Steele.
Section IV. On The Complex Role Of Adults.
Chapter
18. Failed by the System; Emmylou Nicolle.
Chapter
19. How Do We Heal Together? Unlearning Trauma in a South Asian,
Diaspora, and Indo-Caribbean Youth-Adult Partnership Space; Melissa Kapadia,
Anika Kabani, and Nudar Chowdhury.
Chapter
20. Helping Hands; Gassendina Lubintus.
Chapter
21. Tensions of Purpose: Strategies to Strengthen Partnerships and
Overcome Barriers Between Youth and Adults and Advance Transformative Social
Change; Samantha Rose Hale, Heang Ly, Nathaniel McLean-Nichols, and Carrie
Mays.
Chapter
22. If the Goal is Greatness, Expect Greatness From Everyone; Noelis
Tovar.
Chapter
23. Why Couldn't That Have Been Me? Reflections on Confronting
Adultism in Education Organizing Spaces; Kristy Luk, Noah Schuettge, Keith
Catone, and Catalina Perez.
Chapter
24. Past, Present, Future; Eduardo Galindo.
Chapter
25. Flipping the Script: Leaving Room for Youth to Grow Their Power;
Thomas Nikundiwe.
Section V. Looking Forward.
Chapter
26. At Our Best: Youth-Adult Partnership and the Struggle for
Collective Well-Being; Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Jessica Tseming Fei, and Deepa
Sriya Vasudevan.
About the Editors.
About the Contributors.
Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Jessica Tseming Fei, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Deepa Sriya Vasudevan, Wellesley College
