This book presents the experiences and ideas of a leading black educator, interweaving his autobiography with the stories of contemporary street gang members and former members. Their own words illustrate Gentry's thesis that even the hardest gang members want to get an education and want to find The Hope Factor. In addition, the book offers an approach for dealing with the greatest challenges facing the nation today: urban violence and the miseducation of minority youth.

Gentry begins by outlining his major themes and then examines American urban education, using his own personal history as well as his more than 25 years of experience in the field. He then provides exemplary case studies and proposes practical solutions. The book is addressed to future teachers and administrators as well as to those now in urban schools, and to all concerned with the state of urban and minority education.

As a master teacher, John Santrock connects current research with real-world application, helping students see how developmental psychology plays a role in their own lives and future careers. Through an integrated learning goals system, this comprehensive approach to adolescent development helps students gain the insight they need to study smarter, stay focused, and improve performance.

This book analyses the various ways and the extent to which young people participate in politics, focusing primarily on the UK and including cross-national comparisons where relevant. It covers topics including: what is meant by political participation; youth political participation on a pan-European basis; new social media and youth political participation; whether the voting age should be lowered to 16; youth participation at the local level; and young women and political participation. Written in a lively and engaging style, the book provides a detailed investigation into the extent to which young people in the twenty-first century are interested and participate in politics. The author has included interviews with many young people, as well as with academics and specialists in the field. The book's greatest contribution is to the debate surrounding whether or not the voting age should be lowered to 16 - a timely and thought-provoking analysis.

This book gathers international and interdisciplinary work on youth studies from the Global South, exploring issues such as continuity and change in youth transitions from education to work; contemporary debates on the impact of mobility, marginalization and violence on young lives; how digital technologies shape youth experiences; and how different institutions, cultures and structures generate a diversity of experiences of what it means to be young. The book is divided into four broad thematic sections: (a) Education, work and social structure; (b) Identity and belonging; (c) Place, mobilities and marginalization; and (d) Power, social conflict and new forms of political participation of youth.

Adolescence in India: An Interdisciplinary Perspective highlights the need and importance of studying adolescence in the domain of education. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it discusses adolescence from the perspective of sociology, psychology, education and health studies. Against the backdrop of economic development and globalization, the book looks at adolescence in the changing social milieu. It offers an understanding of adolescence by exploring the socio-cultural influences on adolescents and their interactions in various spaces like the school, among peers, family and the media. The book reflects on classroom group processes and instructional practices for better psychosocial growth of adolescents as well as discusses the need for a greater emphasis on making resources available for adolescents to realise and strengthen their skills and agency. The book outlines various life-skills policies and programmes in India and uses vignettes, anecdotes, emerging classroom discussions, case studies, activities, and self-assessment tools and questionnaires to facilitate a deeper understanding of the concept. The book will be of interest to students, teachers, and educators in teaching programmes including educational psychology, adolescent psychology, and human development. It will also be useful for policymakers, NGOs, and public and private sector bodies who work in the field of adolescent psychology.

Adolescence in India: An Interdisciplinary Perspective highlights the need and importance of studying adolescence in the domain of education. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it discusses adolescence from the perspective of sociology, psychology, education and health studies. Against the backdrop of economic development and globalization, the book looks at adolescence in the changing social milieu. It offers an understanding of adolescence by exploring the socio-cultural influences on adolescents and their interactions in various spaces like the school, among peers, family and the media. The book reflects on classroom group processes and instructional practices for better psychosocial growth of adolescents as well as discusses the need for a greater emphasis on making resources available for adolescents to realise and strengthen their skills and agency. The book outlines various life-skills policies and programmes in India and uses vignettes, anecdotes, emerging classroom discussions, case studies, activities, and self-assessment tools and questionnaires to facilitate a deeper understanding of the concept. The book will be of interest to students, teachers, and educators in teaching programmes including educational psychology, adolescent psychology, and human development. It will also be useful for policymakers, NGOs, and public and private sector bodies who work in the field of adolescent psychology.

This book highlights the developmental changes in aggression and violence during adolescence from a uniquely psychological perspective. Developmental changes and risk factors as direct causes for violence and psychopathy have started to receive increased recognition over the last few years, and in this volume Marcus charts these changes against criminological activity. A meta-theoretical model consisting of developmental, personality, and situational factors which are common, or unique, to each form of aggression and violence are offered with research support. Empirically supported by rigorous data studies, this innovative work goes a long way towards addressing the methods of prevention by which we might lower the frequency and prevalence of aggression and violence. Well-researched and timely in its findings, this book will be of special interest to scholars of violence and crime, as well as developmental psychologists.

The language of young people is central in sociolinguistic research, as it is seen to be innovative and a primary source of knowledge about linguistic change and the role of language. This volume brings together a team of leading scholars to explore and compare linguistic practices of young people in multilingual urban spaces, with analyses ranging from grammar to ideology. It includes fascinating examples from cities in Europe, Africa, Canada and the US to demonstrate how young people express their identities through language, for example in hip-hop lyrics and new social media. This is the first book to cover the topic from a globally diverse perspective, and it investigates how linguistic practices across different communities intersect with age, ethnicity, gender and class. In doing so it shows commonalities and differences in how young people experience, act and relate to the contemporary social, cultural and linguistic complexity of the twenty-first century.

Youth Culture and Identity in Northern Thailand examines how young people in urban Chiang Mai construct an identity at the intersection of global capitalism, state ideologies, and local culture. Drawing on over 15 years of ethnographic research, the book explores the impact of rapid urbanisation and modernisation on contemporary Thai youth, focusing on conspicuous youth subcultures, drug use (especially methamphetamine use), and violent youth gangs. Anjalee Cohen shows how young Thai people construct a specific youth identity through consumerism and symbolic boundaries - in particular through enduring rural/urban distinctions. The suggestion is that the formation of subcultures and "deviant" youth practices, such as drug use and violence, are not necessarily forms of resistance against the dominant culture, nor a pathological response to dramatic social change, as typically understood in academic and public discourse. Rather, Cohen argues that such practices are attempts to "fit in and stick out" in an anonymous urban environment. This volume is relevant to scholars in Thai Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Urban Studies, and Development Studies, particularly those with an interest in youth, drugs, and gangs.

This book explores the significance and meaning of the countryside within mid-twentieth century youth movements. It examines the ways in which the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Woodcraft Folk and Young Farmers' Club organisations employed the countryside as a space within which 'good citizenship' - in leisure, work, the home and the community - could be developed. Mid-century youth movements identified the 'problem' of modern youth as a predominantly urban and working class issue. They held that the countryside offered an effective antidote to these problems: being a 'good citizen' within this context necessitated a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with the rural sphere. Avenues to good citizenship could be found through an enthusiasm for outdoor recreation, the stewardship of the countryside and work on the land. However, models of good citizenship were intrinsically gendered.

This book is about how to trigger the capacity to aspire among black youth. Examining the transition out of adulthood and imagined futures of black youth, Maja helps us understand how black youth aspirations might be raised, and how a better future for young people can be achieved. Black Youth Aspirations tracks the journeys of nine black teenagers in South Africa, and how they navigate their way through the final two years of schooling. Maja explores and discovers the maps of the future that youths envision, and investigates how their immediate environments in and out of school serve as instruments that help them interpret, navigate, and manifest those aspirations. Presenting a new conceptual tool, OATS (Objects, Agency, Tools, and Spaces), seeks to provide practical meaning on how to best develop young people's capacity to aspire. Filling it gap in the scholarly literature, and digging deeper than the statistics ever could, this book is a dynamic interaction between research among youth and the application of concepts to make sense of their stories. As the first book that discusses the aspirational pathways of working class black youth in the context of the global south, the theoretical and research approaches on which the book is based make it an exciting and novel addition to the global literature in the area of youth studies.

This book brings together thirteen timely essays from across the globe that consider a range of 'mediated youth cultures', covering topics such as the phenomenon of dance imitations on YouTube, the circulation of zines online, the resurgence of roller derby on the social web, drinking cultures, Israeli blogs, Korean pop music, and more.

Heavy Metal Youth Identities critically examines the significance of heavy metal music and culture in the everyday lives of metal youth. Historically, young metal fans have been portrayed in popular and academic literature as delinquent, mentally unwell, demotivated, and destined for low-achieving futures and poor educational outcomes. So why would young people sign up for this? What's the specific appeal of metal, and why start embodying a metal identity that others can see and know? And is metal really such a problem for youth development, as some have speculated? To explore these questions, this book draws on narrative research with metal youth that invited them to reflect, in their own words, on the role of metal in their everyday lives. They share their early memories of forming a metal identity during high school years and ways that metal helped them cope with things like bullying, bereavement and challenging family circumstances. They also give us rare insight into ways that metal influenced (and even assisted) their transitions through education and career paths post-school. This book highlights ways that youth workers, educators and parents can work positively to support young people forming subcultural identities and capitalise on their unique strengths and skill-sets. As the globalisation of youth cultures continues to expand against the backdrop of a changing workforce, it is crucial that we learn how to better facilitate the preferred pathways of young people with interests that might be considered 'against the grain' by normative standards. This book takes us a step forward in that direction.

A woman is incomplete without a man, motherhood is a woman's destiny, and a woman's place is in the home. These conservative political themes are woven throughout teen romance fiction's sagas of hearts and flowers. Using the theory and interpretive methods of feminism and cultural studies, Christian-Smith explores the contradictory role that popular culture plays in constructing gender, class, race, age and sexual meanings. Originally published in 1990, Becoming a Woman through Romance combines close textual analyses of thirty-four teen romance novels (written in the United States from 1942-1982) with a school study in three midwestern American schools. Christian-Smith situates teen romance fiction within the rapidly changing publishing industry and the important political and economic changes in the United States surrounding the rise of the New Right. By analysing the structure of the novels in terms of the themes of romance, sexuality and beautification, and the Good/Bad and Strong/Weak dichotomies, she demonstrates how each has shaped the novels' versions of femininity over forty years. She also shows that although romance fiction is presented as a universal model, it is actually an expression of white middle class gender ideology and tension within this class. This high readable, comprehensive and coherent work was the first to combine in one volume three vital areas of cultural studies research: the political economy of publishing, textual analysis, and a study of readers. The first full-scale study of teen romance fiction, Becoming a Woman through Romance establishes the importance of the study of popular culture forms found in school for understanding the process of school materials in identity formation.

Sian Lincoln considers the use, role and significance of private spaces in the lives of young people. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, she explores the place of 'the private' in youth cultural discourses, both historically and contemporarily, that until now have remained largely absent in youth cultural research.

This book examines patterns of political engagement of long-term unemployed youth. The authors show how unemployment affects the personal, social, and political life of young people. Focusing on the case of Geneva in Switzerland, the study shows the importance of socioeconomic, relational, psychological, and institutional resources for the political engagement of unemployed youth. The book shows specifically how the relationship between unemployment and the political engagement of unemployed youth is mediated by a number of factors: their socioeconomic status and more generally their individual background, their level of deprivation and the associated degree of subjective well-being; the social capital that unemployed youth draw from involvement in voluntary associations and interpersonal networks and relations, and the political learning stemming from interactions with welfare institutions and their perception of such interactions. Students and scholars in areas including Sociology, Political Science, Economics, Youth Studies and Social Policy will find this study of interest.

This book revolves around neoliberal notions governing children and youth - a trend that permeates and dominates contemporary perceptions of "the young." In fact, given how the disciplinary power of neoliberalism swiftly becomes a common conceptual currency across national and cultural borders, discussing the way in which neoliberal self-governance permeates the cultures of childhood and youth is even more pertinent. This is followed by research on media discourses of children and their cultural practices in Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Serbia, Greece, and the US.

Middle school and early high school dropouts have long troubled educators. However, research on this sad phenomenon has been far less than definitive as to the causes. In this research-based book, Roderick examines two critical factors impacting graduation or dropping out. They are school transition to middle school and from there to high school and, secondly, grade retention. The subjects of the study were students from an urban Massachusetts public school system. The author contends the notion that middle and high school dropouts can be predicted based on their grades and attendance in 4th grade. She also provides the strongest evidence to date that the experience of being retained in grade increases a student's chances of dropping out. This book gives us a new conception of the nature of school dropout in schools with high dropout rates.

What shapes the cultural, political and ideological values of young people living in Southeastern Europe? Which identities matter to them? How are their values changing, and how can they be changed? Who is changing them? Europe's periphery is the testing ground for the success of European values and identities. The future stability and political coherence of the Union will be determined in large measure by identity issues in this region. This book examines the ways in which ethnic and national values and identities have been surpassed as the overriding focus in the lives of the region's youth. Employing bottom-up, ethnographic, and interview-based approaches, it explores when and where ethnic and national identification processes become salient. Using intra-national and international comparisons of youth populations of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Vojvodina, contributors uncover the mechanisms by which ethnic identities are evoked, reproduced and challenged. In addition to exploring political, regional cultural generational and class identities, the contributors examine wider questions of European unity. This volume offers a corrective to previous thinking about youth ethnic identities and will prove useful to scholars in political science and sociology studying issues of ethnic and national identities and nationalism, as well as youth cultures and identities.

During China's Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong's "rustication program" resettled 17 million urban youths, known as "sent downs," to the countryside for manual labor and socialist reeducation. This book, the most comprehensive study of the program to be published in either English or Chinese to date, examines the mechanisms and dynamics of state craft in China, from the rustication program's inception in 1968 to its official termination in 1980 and actual completion in the 1990s. Rustication, in the ideology of Mao's peasant-based revolution, formed a critical component of the Cultural Revolution's larger attack on bureaucrats, capitalists, the intelligentsia, and "degenerative" urban life. This book assesses the program's origins, development, organization, implementation, performance, and public administrative consequences. It was the defining experience for many Chinese born between 1949 and 1962, and many of China's contemporary leaders went through the rustication program. The author explains the lasting impact of the rustication program on China's contemporary administrative culture, for example, showing how and why bureaucracy persisted and even grew stronger during the wrenching chaos of the Cultural Revolution. She also focuses on the special difficulties female sent-downs faced in terms of work, pressures to marry local peasants, and sexual harassment, predation, and violence. The author's parents were both sent downs, and she was able to interview over fifty former sent downs from around the country, something never previously accomplished. China's Sent-Down Generation demonstrates the rustication program's profound long-term consequences for China's bureaucracy, for the spread of corruption, and for the families traumatized by this authoritarian social experiment. The book will appeal to academics, graduate and undergraduate students in public administration and China studies programs, and individuals who are interested in China's Cultural Revolution era.

The tenth anniversary edition of this national bestseller goes beyond raging hormones and peer pressure to explain why adolescents act the way they do and what parents and teachers can do about it--and it's now thoroughly revised and updated to address the issues facing kids today: social media, online bullying, prescription drug abuse, stress, and nutrition.
"Why Do They Act That Way?" was the first book to explain the scientific, brain-based reasons behind teens' impulsive behavior, lack of focus, self-consciousness, territoriality, fatigue, and their quickness to anger and take risks--to name just a few common teen problems. All these behaviors are linked to physical changes and growth in the adolescent brain. Ten years ago, there was no Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. Now every kid has a smartphone and a Twitter account. Award-winning psychologist Dr. David Walsh has now updated his 2004 classic with the most current research into the adolescent brain, and he's also updated his guidance for parents and teens on navigating the new challenges of the 24/7 online world.
With real-life stories and reassuring guidance, Walsh provides realistic solutions for dealing with everyday and major challenges. Sample dialogues help teens and parents talk civilly and constructively with one another; behavioral contracts and Parental Survival Kits provide practical advice for dealing with issues like curfews, disrespectful language and actions, and bullying. As a parent, psychologist, coach, and trusted expert, Dr. Walsh offers the best advice to help adolescents thrive and parents survive.

This volume focuses on the theme of Technology and Youth; advancements in communication and leisure technologies over the past decade have radically transformed the role of technology in the lives of youth. Around the globe, children and adolescents are often seen as being the first to embrace new technologies, such as new forms of social media. Having a cell phone, once regarded as an adult technology, has become a necessity within youth culture in many societies. Even video games, once limited to stand-alone computers, have become a venue for social gatherings of youth. The rapid pace of technological advancement has brought about profound changes in the very nature of childhood and adolescence.This volume of examines the role of technology in the lives of children and adolescents. Topics addressed include: cyberbullying, video games and aggressive behavior, online gaming and the development of social skills, sexuality, child pornography, virtual communities for children, social networking and peer relations, and other related issues.

This non-fiction story is about 17-year-old Jewels Odom and 13 other ex-teen prostitutes, drug dealers and gang bangers, a story that is now still being relived by thousands of girls throughout our inner cities and towns. There are an estimated 900,000 girls, ages from 10 and older, nationwide and 20 million worldwide who are involved in prostitution and sex trafficking, This story gives Jewels and her 13 "sisters" a pulpit to speak to other lost girls looking for an escape from what they call "streets of hell." What separates Jewels from her "street sisters" is her ability to survive and succeed -- actually going to college to return as a teacher at "juvie." This true story ends with a mixture of successes and failures, but as always, Jewels is the one who has the final say when she tries to connect with Maya Angelou, the famous poet, to be the graduation speaker.

What does it mean to be a young undocumented immigrant? Current public debate on undocumented immigration provokes discussion worldwide, and it is estimated that there are more than 11.1 million undocumented immigrants in the US, yet what it really means to be an undocumented immigrant appears less explicitly delineated in the debate. This interdisciplinary volume applies theories from Media, Cultural, and Literary Studies to investigate how undocumented immigrant youth in the United States have claimed a public voice by publishing their video narratives on YouTube. Case studies show how political protest significantly shapes these videos as activists narrate and perform their 'dispossession', redefining their understanding of the mechanisms of immigration in the Americas, and of home, belonging, and identity. The impact of the videos is explored as the activists connect them to Congressional bills and present their activities as a continuation of the legacy of the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students involved in debates on migration, communication, new media, culture, protest movements and political lobbying.

The notion of 'vulnerability' is now a prominent motif in social policy in the UK and beyond, with important implications for those deemed 'vulnerable'. Yet the effects of recalibrating welfare and criminal justice processes on the basis of vulnerability often escape attention. This distinctive book draws together lived experiences of vulnerability with academic and practical applications of the concept, exploring the repercussions of a 'vulnerability zeitgeist' in UK policy and practice. Through a focus on the voices and perspectives of 'vulnerable' young people and the professionals who support them, it questions how far the rise of vulnerability serves the interests of disadvantaged citizens. Illuminating where support shades into more controlling practices, the book is important reading for scholars, students and policy-makers interested in exclusion, precariousness, deviance and youth.