Framing Youth within the Politics of Foreign Assistance

Ignatowski, Clare A.

doi:10.2304/rcie.2007.2.3.222

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…For example, Hart (1992) adapted Arnstein’s (1971) adult-oriented “ladder of participation” to classify manipulation, decoration, and tokenism as forms of nonparticipation , distinct from ideas initiated and directed by young people. However, there has been limited exploration of ways in which young people—particularly displaced youth—have been included in research and planning processes or the extent to which these processes reflect issues that are meaningful and relevant to young people’s everyday lives (Ignatowski, 2007).…”

Section: Democratizing Youth-oriented Research and Development: Youth...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Slowly by Slowly”: Youth Participatory Action Research in Contexts of Displacement

Bellino¹,

Chopra²

2021

Teachers College Record

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Background/Context: Despite substantial evidence documenting the benefits of community involvement in the decisions that impact their lives, much humanitarian action in settings of displacement continues to be driven by the interests and funding streams of donors and international agencies. These dynamics particularly marginalize youth, who fall between interventions designed for children and opportunities for voice and agency that are reserved for adults. As youth-centered approaches have proliferated across diverse fields, pointing to the important insights gleaned from positioning young people as experts on their own lives, we rarely have a sense of how young people were included in the research or planning processes carried out, or the extent to which these processes reflect issues that local youth populations consider meaningful and relevant to their everyday lives. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) aims to redress the limitations of traditional approaches, recognizing youth as co-researchers with the agency to shape the inquiry process, positioning them as both knowledge producers and agents of social justice beyond the research context. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Youth agency is central to YPAR, but interpretations and enactments of this agency are often implicitly bounded by nation-state constructs of legality and citizenship. How do we apply this approach in contexts where youth populations lack legal citizenship status and experience habitual threats to spatial movement, freedom of expression, and social belonging? In this paper we explore how youth locate openings to enact the agency that YPAR assumes of them, and the dilemmas that emerge as they aspire to address local challenges and contribute to the common good in contexts of forced displacement. Research Design: We examine these questions in the context of YPAR collaborations we carried out with displaced youth living in refugee camps and urban settlements in three country contexts: Burundi, Jordan, and Kenya. We approached YPAR collaborations with distinct research methods, positionalities, timelines, and varying levels of resources and institutional support. In each case, granting youth agency as co-researchers, we implicitly and explicitly raised questions about how young people come to understand the limits to their rights and agency, when forcibly displaced by conflict. Conclusions/Recommendations: Across the three collaborations detailed in this text, we underscore the ways that YPAR became a novel, and at times a radical, form of democratic citizenship education for a youth population traditionally positioned as passive recipients of both school curriculum and humanitarian aid. Notwithstanding significant challenges, we point to ways that this approach “slowly by slowly” created openings for young people to make claims on their rights and organize towards changes. It underscores the empowering potential of developing young people’s civic capacity and instilling their rights to understand and interact with their communities in exile.

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Section: Democratizing Youth-oriented Research and Development: Youth...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Slowly by Slowly”: Youth Participatory Action Research in Contexts of Displacement

Bellino¹,

Chopra²

2021

Teachers College Record

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“…This coincides with a growing awareness in the international community of the relationship between conflict, development, and lack of participation in school. A number of projects focus on education in contexts affected by conflict, and which have a high strategic importance to U.S. interests (Ignatowski, 2007). Projects also focus on youth, working to enhance their employability and civic engagement (Butler, Taggart, & Chervin, 2014).…”

Section: Current Education Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

The United States – A “Traditional” Outlier in Transition

Williams¹

2016

Post-Education-Forall and Sustainable Development Paradigm: Structural Changes With Diversifying Actors and Norms

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“…A second dynamic is well‐known in the youth field: the tendency toward sectoral stove‐piping and the importance of “framing” in positioning youth work (Ignatowski, ). In response to these challenges, we are turning increasingly to a common, foundational lexicon of youth development that allows greater coordination across technical sectors.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%