The Complexities of Student Engagement for Historically Marginalized Youth in an After-School Program

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2021.1068

Keywords:

engagement, historically marginalized youth, after-school programs

Abstract

As researchers continue to address issues of equity within educational settings, it is important to also consider the role of equity in high-quality after-school programs. Evidence suggests that families from communities with fewer resources, along with families that identify as Black or Hispanic, report less access to quality after-school programming for their youth (Afterschool Alliance, 2020). This is especially problematic, as after-school programming has been associated with a number of positive outcomes for youth. In this study, researchers highlight youth perspectives to illuminate the challenges related to engaging historically marginalized youth in a school-based after-school program. Findings suggest that youth from marginalized backgrounds typically discuss engagement in terms of behavioral and affective experiences. Further, youth identified a few barriers to engagement, including repetition of program content and disruptive behavior. As a result of these findings, researchers suggest that practitioners integrate youth perspectives, work collaboratively to develop curriculum that fosters growth, and adopt policies and training that support staff in implementing culturally appropriate discipline approaches in after-school programs.

Author Biographies

Ashlee L. Sjogren, University of Virginia, Youth-Nex

Dr. Sjogren earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University where she studied student engagement practices in an out-of-school time network. As an educational psychologist, she often brings both a social context and motivation lens to understanding questions of equity, access, and motivation in our education systems. Her research interests focus on equitable education and student engagement in out-of-school contexts such as afterschool programs. She is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate at Youth-Nex.

Theresa N. Melton, University of Guam

Dr. Melton received her PhD in research, statistics, and evaluation methodology from the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on positive youth development, specifically taking an ecological approach to examining how contexts can promote positive development during adolescence. Dr. Melton is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate at Pennslyvania State University. 

References

Afterschool Alliance. (2020). America after 3PM: Afterschool programs in demand. (https://www.afterschoolalliance.org/documents/AA3PM-2014/AA3PM_Key_Findings.pdf)

Akiva, T., & Horner, C. G. (2016). Adolescent motivation to attend youth programs: Amixed-methods investigation. Applied Developmental Science, 20, 278-293. (https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2015.1127162)

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological models of human development. In International Encyclopedia of Education (Vol. 3, 2nd ed.). Elsevier. Reprinted in: Gauvain, M. & Cole, M. (Eds.), Readings on the development of children, (2nd ed., pp.37-43). Freeman

Carver, P. R., & Iruka, I. U. (2006). National household education surveys program of 2005 After-school programs and activities (NCES 2006-076). U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics.

Clemons, R. L. F. (2020). Leading with youth of color: Organizing for educational change. Journal of Youth Development, 15(5), 110-125. (https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2020.785)

Denault, A. S., & Poulin, F. (2009). Predictors of adolescent participation in organized activities: A five-year longitudinal study. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19, 287-311. (https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2009.00597.x)

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A meta‐analysis of after‐school programs that seek to promote personal and social skills in children and adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 45, 294-309. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9300-6)

Deutsch, N. (Ed.). (2017). After-School programs to promote positive youth development: Integrating research into practice and policy (Vol. 1). Springer.

Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., Midgley, C., Reuman, D., Iver, D. M., & Feldlaufer, H. (1993). Negative effects of traditional middle schools on students' motivation. The elementary school journal, 93(5), 553-574.

Finn, J. D. (1989). Withdrawing from school. Review of Educational Research, 59, 117-142. (https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543059002117)

Finn, J. D. (1993). School engagement and students at risk. (Report No. NCES-93-470). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

Flores, A. (2007). Examining disparities in mathematics education: Achievement gap or opportunity gap? The High School Journal, 91, 29-42.

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59-109. (https://doi-org/10.3102/00346543074001059)

Fredricks, J. A., & McColskey, W. (2012). The measurement of student engagement: A comparative analysis of various methods and student self-report instruments. In S. Christenson, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 763-782). Springer. (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2018-7_37)

García Coll, C. & Szalacha, L. (2004). The multiple contexts of middle childhood. The Future of Children, 14(2), 80-97.

Gast, M. J., Okamoto, D. G., & Feldman, V. (2017). “We only speak English here”: English dominance in language diverse, immigrant after-school programs. Journal of Adolescent Research, 32, 94- 121. (https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558416674562)

Gonzalez, T. E., Hernandez-Saca, D. I., & Artiles, A. J. (2017). In search of voice: Theory and methods in K-12 student voice research in the US, 1990–2010. Educational Review, 69(4), 451–473. (https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2016.1231661)

Gray, D. L., Hope, E. C., & Matthews, J. S. (2018). Black and belonging at school: A case for interpersonal, instructional, and institutional opportunity structures. Educational Psychologist, 53(2), 97-113. (https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2017.1421466)

Hill, S., & Vance, F. (Eds.). (2019). Changemakers!: Practitioners advance equity and access in out-of-school time programs. IAP.

Hughes, D. L., Del Toro, J., & Way, N. (2017). Interrelations among dimensions of ethnic-racial identity during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 53(11), 2139-2153. (https://doi-org/10.1037/dev0000401)

Karcher, M. J. (2007). Cross-age peer mentoring. Youth Mentoring: Research in Action, 1(7), 3-17.

Kena, G., Hussar, W., McFarland, J., De Brey, C., Musu-Gillette, L., Wang, X., Zhang, J., Rathbun, A., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., Diliberti, M., Barmer, A., Bullock Mann, F., & Dunlop Velez, E. (2016). The Condition of Education 2016. (Report No. NCES 2016-144). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016144.pdf)

Kochanek, J. & Erickson, K. (2020). Interrogating positive youth development through sport using critical race theory. Quest, 72(2), 224-240. (https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2019.1641728)

Lauer, P. A., Akiba, M., Wilkerson, S. B., Apthorp, H. S., Snow, D., & Martin-Green, M. (2006). Out-of-school-time programs: A meta-analysis of effects for at-risk students. Review of Educational Research, 76, 275-313. (https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543076002275)

Ma, T., Yu, M., Soto-Lara, S., Simpkins, S. (2020). Latinx adolescents’ peer ethnic discrimination in after-school activities and activity experiences. Journal of Youth Development, 15(6), 1-27. (https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2020.938)

Mahoney, J. L., Vandell, D. L., Simpkins, S., & Zarrett, N. (2009). Adolescent out-of-school activities. In R. M. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (3rd ed., pp. 228-269). Wiley.

Nasir, N. I. S., & Hand, V. M. (2006). Exploring sociocultural perspectives on race, culture, and learning. Review of educational research, 76(4), 449-475.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Leech, N. L., & Collins, K. M. (2012). Qualitative analysis techniques for the review of the literature. The Qualitative Report, 17, 1-28. (http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR17/onwuegbuzie.pdf)

Sjogren, A. L., Bae, C. L., Deutsch, N. L., Zumbrunn, S., & Broda, M. (2021). Afterschool engagement: A mixed methods approach to understanding profiles of youth engagement. Applied Developmental Science, 1-19. (https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2021.1947140)

Sjogren, A. L., Zumbrunn, S., Broda, M., Bae, C. L., & Deutsch, N. L. (2021). Understanding afterschool engagement: Investigating developmental outcomes for adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 1-14. (https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12554)

Skiba, R. J., Michael, R. S., Nardo, A. C., & Peterson, R. L. (2002). The color of discipline: Sources of racial and gender disproportionality in school punishment. The Urban Review, 34(4), 317-342. (https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021320817372)

Spencer, M. B. (2008). Phenomenology and ecological systems theory: Development of diverse groups. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Child and adolescent development: An advanced course (pp. 696-740). Wiley.

Vanneman, A., Hamilton, L., Anderson, J. B., & Rahman, T. (2009). Achievement gaps: How black and white students in public schools perform in mathematics and reading on the national assessment of educational progress. Institute for Education Sciences. (https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED505903.pdf)

Wang, M. T., Fredricks, J. A., Ye, F., Hofkens, T. L., & Linn, J. S. (2016). The math and science engagement scales: Scale development, validation, and psychometric properties. Learning and Instruction, 43, 16-26. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.01.008)

Williams, J. & Deutsch, N. (2016). Beyond between-group differences: Considering race, ethnicity, and culture in research on positive youth development programs. Applied Developmental Science, 20(3), 203-213. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2015.1113880)

Downloads

Published

2021-12-14

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 5 (2021)

Section

Program & Practice Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.