The prevailing cultural narrative about middle school is that those years are extremely difficult, and the best students can hope for is to endure them until finding relief in high school. Nancy Deutsch argues that these years are, in fact, a time of great potential if schools can abandon their stereotypes about young adolescents and create school…

Human beings construct narratives about the world and their experiences in it--whether in math class or at the dinner table, people tell themselves stories about who they and others are, how the world works and why. Among teenagers, these meaning-making narratives are related to the activity and changing connectivity of the networks in their…

In this talk, Linda Davis discusses observation at the adolescent level. She explains that we must "adjust our approach for the third plane of development, for when they are becoming adults." Using examples, she discusses the characteristics of this plane, which are helpful to recall when thinking about what to expect when observing…

The purpose of this manuscript is to highlight several practical classroom examples of asset-driven acts of reciprocal care and content-driven community builders and icebreakers that highlight ways to "find the prize" inside each student by fostering an adolescent-centered community of care that is committed to both relationships and…

Young people face financial issues at an earlier age than their parents. Decisions about higher education, the need to be able to manage online payment facilities or even mobile phone plans require a level of financial literacy. PISA 2012 offered an opportunity to collect information about the financial literacy of Australian 15-year-old students,…

Children must be empowered to find their unique path to personal pride and respect. The concept of empowering youth is widely touted but often misunderstood and underutilized. Young people cannot fully develop their strengths and independence without being empowered to take charge of their lives. The polar opposite of coercion, empowerment is…

Family leisure involvement may provide the first and most essential context for positive youth development in today's society. Similar to the broader ecological perspective used in the youth development literature, family systems theory suggests that each individual in the family influences the whole, while the whole family also influences each…

This article examines children's moral judgments and emotional evaluations in the context of social exclusion. As they age, children and adolescents face increasingly complex situations in which group membership and allegiance are in opposition with morally relevant decisions, such as the exclusion of an individual from a group. While adolescents…

Self-determination is essential to promoting successful transitions for students with and without disabilities. Numerous studies have found that positive relationships are central to the ability to be self-determined, thus making relationship building a key area to address to promote successful transitions. This article provides information on…

Using contemporary research methodologies with young people can, and does, pose many ethical challenges for researchers keen to fully incorporate principles of participation and voice into their research endeavours. Adding to the challenge, when the project is grounded outside of an academic context in a not-for-profit community setting, ethical…

Stereotypes about teenagers typically result in negative views of young people and contribute to the age-old idea that every new generation of teenagers is somehow inferior to previous ones. One of the reasons for the prevalence of inaccurate stereotypes about teenagers in Canada is that people have not been having very many national conversations…

Long-term studies monitoring the process of young people adopting new media patterns of social interaction and communication with parents and peers are needed to better understand how young people cope with perpetual peer communication, how parents and adolescents deal with intergenerational conflicts, and the outcomes of these practices and…

Teenagers, and many preteens, can't get away from their hormone-filled bodies; therefore, they spend lots of time during school contending with issues of sexuality--from profound questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to more mundane issues such as whom a particularly cute classmate will choose to sit next to in English. Like it or…

4-H Bloco Drum and Dance is an afterschool program that teaches adolescents drumming, dancing, and theater arts in the rich traditions of Brazilian Carnaval. Teens learn to express themselves in a variety of modalities and perform at community events. The program was developed by a community coalition that included 4-H, other youth programs, and…

This article was meant to familiarize readers with ways in which the media and popular culture sexualize and stereotype girls and women and to raise awareness about the extent to which girls in the middle graders may be impacted by the sexualized media content they view. By framing the problem and its consequences through self-objectification…