Perspective Chapter: Understanding Young People’s Experiences – An Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

A developed conceptual model to understanding experiences of young people with ethnic heritage is explored in this chapter. Through a synthesis of some of the traditional approaches to identity and personality, the author argues for the move towards a more comprehensive, extensive, and evolving approach to understanding lived experiences: the conduct of everyday life. Coupled to that is an understanding of the continuity of experiences using the concept of Personhood in Practice to articulate young people’s learning and development in the context of lived experiences. Bringing together such approaches, the chapter presents an integrative review showing the development of a conceptual model. It gives an example of how such model was used in my PhD research to draw findings to understand the experiences of an under-researched and overlooked community: the British Yemenis.