Description

New Terrain in Youth Development: The Promise of a Social Justice Approach

Ginwright and Cammarota propose a new “Social Justice Youth Development Model” that addresses structures of power and teaches young people to understand how their opportunities are circumscribed by larger political, economic, and social forces. This model offers a critique of two dominant approaches to youth development: a traditional approach that focuses on individual and psychological outcomes for youth, and a more liberal service learning approach that perpetuates paternalism, but does not change external conditions of power relations. Both models can be, and have been, particularly oppressive for urban youth of color. Instead, the authors’ model views youth as agents of social change and fosters “the praxis of critical consciousness and social action” by taking youth through three stages: self-awareness, social awareness, and global awareness.

youth and child development, social movements, music — hip-hop, racism — United States, reflexivity, social justice, youth of color

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 29, No. 4 (2002): 82-95