Author : Gretchen Brion-Meisels
Release : 2020
Genre : Education
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 755/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis At Our Best by : Gretchen Brion-Meisels

Download or read book At Our Best written by Gretchen Brion-Meisels. This book was released on 2020. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this volume, At Our Best: Building Youth-Adult Partnerships in Out-of-School Time Settings, our authors and contributors reveal how intergenerational partnerships inspire both adults and youth to bring their best selves to programs. In varied ways, the chapters explore how youth-adult partnerships can enable people and programs to develop toward their full potential, while acknowledging the complexities and tensions of these relationships. Together, the authors in this volume suggest that building youth-adult partnerships expands our collective capacity to achieve transformational change in our organizations, schools, neighborhoods, and communities. This volume brings together the voices of over 50 adults and youth. Each of these individuals have thought deeply and critically about youth-adult partnerships; their unique perspectives foster new ways of thinking about the theory and practice of this work in out-of-school time settings. Comprised of 14 chapters, the book represents a mix of empirical research, theoretical and conceptual studies, and engaged dialogue about the complexities of intergenerational partnership work. Several chapters are co-written by intergenerational collectives of youth and adults, or people who began collaborating with one another in the context of a youth-adult partnership; their essays are a direct reflection of the many opportunities for learning and knowledge-building inherent in positive youth-adult relationships. In addition, throughout the book, we have incorporated short essays, poetry, and artwork by 11 young people who offer insights based on their lived experiences of partnership with teachers, youth workers, counselors, family members, and other caring adults in their lives. Through their varied works of creative expression and storytelling, readers can engage in the practice of listening to the voices of youth and learning from the wisdom they have to share. In addition to providing research-based evidence and participant testimonials that illuminate the promise of intergenerational learning in OST spaces, the volume also responds to key questions that scholars, adult practitioners, policymakers, and youth navigate in this work, such as: What role can (or should) adults play in supporting youth learning, voice, and activism? What strategies of (and approaches to) youth-adult partnership are most effective in promoting positive youth development and organizational transformation? What tensions and challenges arise in the process of doing this work? And what are the pressures of the contemporary era that influence youth-adult partnership in OST today? Through highlighting authentic youth-adult partnerships as a central component of quality youth programs, this fourth volume of the IAP series on OST aims to sharpen the field's understanding of positive, intergenerational relationships-an essential what of OST programming. In addition, it aims to articulate how positive youth-adult partnerships are nurtured, such that educators across school and community-based contexts can better enact context-driven, personalized learning, while also enabling processes of healing, empowerment, and transformation. Out-of-school time programs have the potential to model new paradigms of learning, creating, and being. In these spaces, adults and youth have the opportunity to re-envision learning and build social consciousness without the scripts of the classroom. However, OST spaces can also reproduce the adultism, misogyny, and racism from which youth seek refuge, if these systems of oppression go unchecked. When adults partner with youth in driving the mission, approach, and outcomes of learning, OST settings can become sites of resistance and transformation. Thus, we believe that it is imperative to address both the possibilities and the challenges of engaging in partnership work in OST, and we see these youth-adult partnerships as representative of the work we can do at our best. It is our hope that educators begin to draw more readily from the best practices of the OST field; we believe that the power and promise of youth-adult partnerships can become a foundation for this work"--