Critical Consciousness Building in out of School Time

Background and Purpose: Youth workers in community-based out of school time (OST) programs undertake a variety of roles for youth participants of color, including teacher, mentor, counselor, cultural worker, mediator, negotiator, and social support as youth construct their identities whilst living under violent and oppressive systems. Researchers have documented the positive potential for OST spaces to provide opportunities for critical consciousness building, radical healing, and engagement in social action to change their environments. Even so, a dearth of research examines how critical consciousness building is best facilitated in these spaces. This study highlights a youth participatory action (YPAR) project within an OST program using photovoice (PV) seeking to describe the interactions between youth engagement in YPAR and internal transformations from second sight to critical consciousness.

Methodology: Photovoice (PV) uses photography as a mechanism to foster discussions and critical examination of issues impacting healthful outcomes. The photovoice process served to give youth an opportunity to engage and reflect individually, while also building a collective understanding of similarities in their lived experiences. At the conclusion of PV, youth and staff worked together to summarize their primary findings from the project: identifying themes of importance, prioritizing themes, and identifying field trips to supply youth with experiences to enhance their understanding of neighborhood-level differences within the larger city. Youth engaged in three field trips in the spring semester: 1) an environmental tour of the city’s most polluted areas 2) a food access and equity trip and 3) a social and recreation scan. Artmaking was used as a facilitation tool to invite youth to create reactionary pieces to the photovoice process, engagement with the research team, and/or messages they wished to share with the broader community via an art exhibit.

Results: The process of engaging in field trips and artmaking helped move youth from theoretical discussions about community differences stemming from structural and systemic concerns to practical understanding of the need for social action. The primary theme identified was “Peeling back the layers”. This theme encompassed the evolution of youth understanding individual level experiences of racism as manifesting from broader community level inputs. Youth described being less safe in their community due to gun and police violence, as well as environmental injustices related to pollution and toxins in the built environment. Youth participants experienced growth in their understanding of the interplay between community and systemic policies and practices and their individual experiences as Black and Latino youth. They also engaged in praxis and critical consciousness development through the combined YPAR, PV, and SJYD programming strategies.

Conclusions and Implications: Youth repeatedly described violence perpetrated against them and their communities. Youth recognized and named power, as well as the grief of feeling powerless in various contexts. Youth possessed second sight at the outset of YPAR, but the experiential nature of field trips allowed them to contextualize experiences. This process, in conjunction with intentional redistribution of power in YPAR space created opportunities for praxis.