Adequately preparing youth to enter the civic spheres of adulthood has emerged as an issue of concern in recent years due to widening civic empowerment gaps that track along race and class lines. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Homeward Bound (pseudonym), a program for Vietnamese youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we show how immigrant youth organizing functions as civic preparation. We identify three processes. Organizing has the potential to (a) develop the critical orientation of immigrant youth participants and prepare them to (b) navigate the unique political dynamics within their local communities and (c) work cooperatively and productively with other communities. The study demonstrates the capacity of immigrant youth organizing to help close civic empowerment gaps.
Abu El-HajT. R. (2007). “I was born here, but my home, it’s not here”: Educating for democratic citizenship in an era of transnational migration and global conflict. Harvard Educational Review, 77(3), 285–316.
2.
BeharR. (2003). Ethnography and the book that was lost. Ethnography, 4(1), 15–39.
3.
BloemraadI.TrostC. (2008). It’s a family affair: Intergenerational mobilization in the spring 2006 protests. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(4), 507–532.
4.
BoyatzisR. E. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
5.
ChenC.LeongA. (2012). We have the power to make change: The role of community lawyering in challenging anti-Asian harassment at South Philadelphia High School. Asian American Law Journal, 19(61), 61–115.
6.
ChhuonV.HudleyC. (2010). Asian American ethnic options: How Cambodian students negotiate ethnic identities in a US urban school. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 41(4), 341–359.
7.
ChristensB. D.DolanT. (2011). Interweaving youth development, community development, and social change through youth organizing. Youth & Society, 43(2), 528–548.
8.
ChristensB. D.KirshnerB. (2011). Taking stock of youth organizing: An interdisciplinary perspective. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 27–41.
9.
ConnerJ.ZainoK.ScarolaE. (2013). “Very powerful voices”: The influence of youth organizing on educational policy in Philadelphia. Educational Policy, 27(3), 560–588.
10.
CreswellJ. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
11.
DangT. V. (2005). The cultural work of anticommunism in the San Diego Vietnamese American community. Amerasia Journal, 31(2), 64–86.
12.
DudleyR.GitelsonA. (2002). Political literacy, civic education, and civic engagement: A return to political socialization?Applied Developmental Science, 6(4), 175–182.
13.
FlanaganC. A.ChristensB. D. (2011). Youth civic development: Historical context and emerging issues. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2011(134), 1–9.
14.
FreireP. (2013). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th Anniversary ed). New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.
GilesJ. T. (2010). Report to the School District of Philadelphia of an independent investigation into possible racial/ethnic conflicts at South Philadelphia High School on December 2–3, 2009. Retrieved from http://aaunited.org/downloads/sphs/2010/201002_giles_report.pdf
18.
GinwrightS.CammarotaJ. (2006). Introduction. In GinwrightS.NogueraP.CammarotaJ. (Eds.), Beyond resistance! Youth activism and community change (pp. xiii–xxii). New York, NY: Routledge.
19.
GirouxH. A. (2011). On critical pedagogy. New York, NY: Continuum.
GouldJ.HallK.JamiesonK.LevineP.McConnellT.SmithD. B. (Eds.). (2011). Guardian of democracy: The civic mission of schools. Philadelphia, PA: Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.
22.
GutmannA. (1987) Democratic education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
23.
HallK. (2002). Lives in translation: Sikh youth as British citizens. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
24.
HosangD. (2006). Beyond policy: Ideology, race, and the reimagining of youth. In GinwrightS.NogueraP.CammarotaJ. (Eds.), Beyond resistance!: Youth activism and community change (pp. 3–20). New York, NY: Routledge.
25.
HoweE. R. (2005). Japan’s teacher acculturation: Critical analysis through comparative ethnographic narrative. Journal of Education for Teaching, 31(2), 121–131.
26.
Human Rights Watch. (2017). World report, 2017. New York, NY: Author.
KahneJ.MiddaughE. (2008). Democracy for some: The civic opportunity gap in high school. Medford, ME: Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).
31.
KirshnerB. (2008). Guided participation in three youth activism organizations: Facilitation, apprenticeship, and joint work. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(1), 60–101.
32.
KirshnerB. (2009). Power in numbers: Youth organizing as a context for exploring civic identity. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19(3), 414–440.
33.
KirshnerB. (2015). Youth activism in an era of education inequality. New York, NY: New York University Press.
34.
KirshnerB.GinwrightS. (2012). Youth organizing as a developmental context for African American and Latino adolescents. Child Development Perspectives, 6(3), 288–294.
35.
KirshnerB.StrobelK.FernándezM. (2003). Critical civic engagement among urban youth. Perspectives on Urban Education, 2(1), 1–20.
36.
KnightM. G.WatsonV. W. M. (2014). Toward participatory communal citizenship: Rendering visible the civic teaching, learning, and actions of African immigrant youth and young adults. American Educational Research Journal, 51(3), 539–566.
KwonS. A. (2013). Uncivil youth: Race, activism, and affirmative governmentality. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
39.
LandlerM. (2017, January13). Report says U.S. rights are at risk with Trump. The New York Times, p. A18.
40.
LeL. S. (2011). Exploring the function of the anti-communist ideology and identity in the Vietnamese American diasporic community. Journal of Southeast Asian American Education & Advancement, 6, 14.
41.
LeeS. J. (2005). Up against Whiteness: Race, school, and immigrant youth. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
LevinsonM. (2012). No citizen left behind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
44.
LevyB. L.SolomonB. G.Collet-GildardL. (2016). Fostering political interest among youth during the 2012 presidential election: Instructional opportunities and challenges in a swing state. Educational Researcher, 45(9), 483–495.
45.
Lewis-CharpH.YuH. C.SoukamneuthS. (2006). Civic activist approaches for engaging youth in social justice. In GinwrightS.NogueraP.CammarotaJ. (Eds.), Beyond resistance! Youth activism and community change (pp. 3–20). New York, NY: Routledge.
46.
LyD. N. (2014). Spiral of consciousness: A theoretical framework on youth political development (Unpublished undergraduate thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
47.
MaG. X.FangC. Y.ShiveS. E.ToubbehJ.TanY.SiuP. (2007). Risk perceptions and barriers to hepatitis B screening and vaccination among Vietnamese immigrants. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 9(3), 213–220.
48.
McFarlandD. A.ThomasR. J. (2006). Bowling young: How youth voluntary associations influence adult political participation. American Sociological Review, 71(3), 401–425.
49.
McGinnisT. A. (2009). Seeing possible futures: Khmer youth and the discourse of the American dream. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 40(1), 62–81.
50.
NguyenG. T.BargF. K.ArmstrongK.HolmesJ. H.HornikR. C. (2008). Cancer and communication in the health care setting: Experiences of older Vietnamese immigrants, a qualitative study. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23(1), 45–50.
51.
NguyenC.QuinnR. (2016). “We share similar struggles”: how a Vietnamese immigrant youth organizing program shapes participants’ critical consciousness of interracial tension [Advance online publication.]Race Ethnicity and Education. doi:10.1080/13613324.2016.1248833
52.
Nguyen-VoT.-H. (2005). Forking paths: How shall we mourn the dead?Amerasia Journal, 31(2), 157–175.
53.
NichollsW. (2013). The DREAMers: How the undocumented youth movement transformed the immigrant rights debate. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
54.
NiemiR. (2012). What students know about civics and government. In CampbellD. E.LevinsonM.HessF. M. (Eds.), Making civics count: Citizenship education for a new generation (pp. 15–36). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
RogersJ.MedirattaK.ShahS. (2012). Building power, learning democracy: Youth organizing as a site of civic development. Review of Research in Education, 36(1), 43–66.
57.
RubinB. C. (2007). “There’s still not justice”: Youth civic identity development amid distinct school and community contexts. Teachers College Record, 109(2), 449–481.
58.
RubinB. (2012). Making citizens. Transforming civic learning for diverse social studies classrooms. New York, NY: Routledge.
59.
RubinB. C.Abu El-HajT. R.GrahamE.ClayK. (2016). Confronting the urban civic opportunity gap: Integrating youth participatory action research into teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 67(5), 424–436.
60.
RubinB. C.HayesB.BensonK. (2009). “It’s the worst place to live”: Urban youth and the challenge of school-based civic learning. Theory Into Practice, 48(3), 213–221.
SchlozmanK. L.VerbaS.BradyH. E. (1999). Civic participation and the equality problem. In SkocpolT.FiorinaM. P. (Eds.), Civic engagement in American democracy (pp. 427–459). New York, NY: Brookings Institution Press.
64.
SherrodL. R.FlanaganC.YounissJ. (2002). Dimensions of citizenship and opportunities for youth development: The what, why, when, where, and who of citizenship development. Applied Developmental Science, 6(4), 264–272.
65.
ShirleyD. (1997). Community organizing for urban school reform. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
66.
SpradleyJ. (1979). The ethnographic interview. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
67.
StepickA.StepickC. D. (2002). Becoming American, constructing ethnicity: Immigrant youth and civic engagement. Applied Developmental Science, 6(4), 246–257.
68.
StepickA.StepickC. D.LabussiereY. (2008). South Florida’s immigrant youth and civic engagement: Major engagement: Minor differences. Applied Development Science, 12(2), 57–65.
69.
Suárez-OrozcoM. (2001). Globalization, immigration, and education: The research agenda. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 345–366.
70.
Torney-PurtaJ. (1990). Youth in relation to social institutions. In FeldmanS. S.ElliottG. R. (Eds.), At the threshold: The developing adolescent (pp.457–477). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
71.
Torney-PurtaJ. (2002). The school’s role in developing civic engagement: A study of adolescents in twenty-eight countries. Applied Developmental Science, 6(4), 203–212.
WarrenM. R. (2001). Dry bones rattling: Community building to revitalize American democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
74.
WarrenM. R.MappK. L. (2011). A match on dry grass: Community organizing as a catalyst for school reform. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
75.
WarrenM. R.MiraM.NikundiweT. (2008). Youth organizing: From youth development to school reform. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2008(117), 27–42.
76.
WongN. W. A. (2008). “They see us as resource”: The role of a community-based youth center in supporting the academic lives of low-income Chinese American youth. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 39(2), 181–204.
77.
ZhouM.BankstonC. (1998). Growing up American: How Vietnamese children adapt to life in the United States. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
78.
ZimmermanD. (2010). South Philadelphia’s Vietnamese community tackles hunger. Philadelphia Neighborhoods. Retrieved from http://www.philaplace.org/story/764/
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
