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A Review of "The Roles of Youth in Society: A Reconceptualization."
Originally
published in
Meaningful Student Involvement Research Review by Adam Fletcher.
In
the article Roles of Youth Kurth-Schai offers an eloquent argument that proposes a major
realignment of the purpose of schooling, and consequently, the roles
of students in schools. She explores the current perceptions of young
people according to educational practices; a variety of literature;
and the ways that society’s perception of children and youth are
changing today. This document climaxes in an exciting exploration of
potential roles for all young people in schools.
In 1988 very few education
experts were considering the potential of student involvement as a
lever in school change, let alone engaging students in meaningful
activities and powerful relationships that would actually renegotiate
the purpose and possibilities of the modern school. In
an
a
literary environment that focused on dissecting national reports about
school failure and student apathy, Kurth-Schai created a powerful
proposal that continues to impact schools today. This article
summarizes her vision, and provides significant research to support
it. The proposition that students can be powerful contributors to
schools and society is relentlessly justified throughout this piece.
Every paragraph reconsiders the necessity, the rationale, or the
possibilities of Meaningful Student Involvement. Kurth-Schai proposed
that reconceptualizing the roles of young people in society has
powerful implications on schools. She offered three parallel
processes for that action:
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Reconceptualizing the
role of youth in the classroom. Where perceiving students as
“receptacles of knowledge” was appropriate in a past workforce that
relied on standardization and specialization, today it is not. To
achieve the flexibility and innovation that today’s marketplace
values, students should be engaged as creators, disseminators,
and implementers of knowledge. Specific roles should
reflect the need for the educatorchild, a student who learns
the responsibility of designing, selecting, and implementing
curriculum, evaluation procedures, and motivational strategies for
the purpose of learning about teaching, and for successfully
teaching their peers.
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Reconceptualizing
areas of curricular emphasis. Subject matter and
instructional methods should be selected to emphasize 1)
student-directed learning experiences; 2) cross-generational
learning experiences; 3) exploratory learning experiences; 4)
integrative learning experiences; 5) cooperative learning
experiences, and; 6) action-oriented learning experiences. Students
should also have the opportunity to A) determine the areas of
freedom, responsibility, and service in which they would like to
participate; B) assume primary control of administrative processes,
and; C) receive recognition and/or compensation for the services
they provide.
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Reconceptualizing the role of
the school in society. If schools are going to
support young people as they exercise higher levels of personal
freedom and social responsibility, schools cannot continue to move
towards the academic “right.”
Roles of Youth
can offer a comprehensive outline to people looking for more
substantive theoretical information to support Meaningful Student
Involvement in their classroom and throughout their schools.
Available online at http://www.macalester.edu/~kurthschai/
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