Solid and resilient democracies rest upon an informed citizenry capable of critiquing societal issues and reimagining alternative scenarios. Traditional school-based civic and social justice education, however, often falls short of addressing the diverse needs of today's youth, often relying on instructionist pedagogies focused on factual…

4-H provides meaningful opportunities for all youth by connecting them with caring adult mentors and programs to develop relevant life skills to make changes in their own lives and communities. As the opportunity gap widens for youth and their needs change, the goal is that the 4-H system's 3,500 professionals and 500,000 volunteers will be…

Apprenticeship programs can be the one key solution to preparing young people and adults with the skills to earn a good income without acquiring high long-term student loan debt. A strong apprenticeship program is desirable because of its possible ability to reduce youth unemployment, improve the transformation from school to career by elevating…

For over 100 years, youth mentoring has grown to be an evidenced based prevention strategy for youth, demonstrating positive youth outcomes through strong relationships with caring adults. While trusting relationships are the mainstay of the positive impacts achieved through mentoring, the difficulty in recruiting volunteer adults has not met the…

This qualitative research aimed to identify factors contributing to the formation and development of effective partnerships that foster positive youth development. The study involved interviews with eight adult military mentors and nine youth cadet mentees to gain various perspectives regarding mentoring relationships within the youth leadership…

This qualitative study combined critical youth participatory research and ethnographic methods to investigate rural youth relationships to race and racism, which are currently undertheorized. The research question guiding this inquiry was: How do rural youth describe the salience of race and racism in the United States (U.S.) for themselves…

The spring of 2020 began with an event that would change lives in every corner of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic created a "public health emergency of international concern (World Health Organization, 2020a), and began to alter the social, economic, and political structures in nations big and small. With such change came many challenges and…

Although coaching has a long history guided in the apprenticeship or mentorship model (Taylor & Garratt, 2013), research has primarily focused on the athlete, rarely on the coach, and almost never on whom the coach is serving as an apprentice to, or being mentored or supported by. Internationally, this role has been termed a 'coach developer,'…

This dissertation examines the impact of Skyhawks Sports Academy camps on youth participants' social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies using an intrinsic case study approach. The study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were gathered through SEL competency surveys administered on the first and fifth days of…

There is an inadequacy in strategies to address homeless and vulnerable youth "Zogos" in post-war Liberia. Homelessness among youth is a severe problem in post-war Liberia, with many sleeping in Palm Groove Cemetery and other informal housing settings in Monrovia and other parts of the country. This qualitative study explored post-war…

As the world contends with a global pandemic, climate catastrophes, white supremacy, coloniality, and concurrent genocides my attention splinters. In an act of futurity, or future making, I ask myself: "What is needed to move from this place toward softer, more liberatory futures?" This body of work finds its answer in exploring two…

With the development of increasingly advanced technologies, interactions with and via these technologies have become even more central to human activity. Technology is utilized in both sanctioned and unsanctioned ways within language and literacy classrooms around the world making questions, concerns, and curiosities around educational potentials…

The scholarly study of punk is a growing interdisciplinary field. Within that already specialized group, research into punk pedagogy is emerging as a vital component of punk scholarship. However, no study in punk pedagogy has narrowed its scope to any one influential punk band to determine what constitutes its punk pedagogy. This dissertation…

The inclusion of autistic youth within the faith community appears to be a challenge for churches. The problem addresses the lack of inclusion for individuals identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who attend church services, specifically Sunday school. Individuals impacted by this problem are ASD individuals, their parents, and Sunday…

During the second week of March 2020, work shifted from the county extension office to home during the Coronavirus pandemic. During COVID-19, workers were shifted into new all-digital work environments without establishing boundaries that melded the work and home environment into one (Katsabian, 2020). While this shift to remote work was possible…