Fostering Youth Leadership in Urban Places is one of the two articles published by Green Teacher in its Summer 2016 edition that is freely available to read. We are highlighting it here to draw your attention both to the article, and to Green Teacher itself, as this is a journal that NAEE finds to be consistently informative and interesting. The article begins …
In place-based education (PBE), youth have the opportunity to shape their realities and determine the course of their learning as they build their capacities as community leaders. Our team of Youth Ambassador students and teachers at the Detroit Institute of Technology (DIT) at Cody H.S., work together with staff from the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition to build community and infuse place-based education into the school curriculum. Students are engaged in a number of leadership roles as they engage with the community to identify its needs. They help decide the direction of class projects, mentor new students, and co-facilitate stewardship activities with adults. In this article we aim to share the ideas, tools, and processes that we’ve found useful. This article was written by both youth and adults as part of a year-long intergenerational dialogue on youth voices. In it we purposefully highlight when youth speak so that their voices ring loud and clear. We are continually inspired by the belief that youth have a lot to teach us and together we have a lot to learn. At DIT, students speak from a lived experience that many educators across North America do not have, but would be wise to better understand.
To read the rest of the article, go to the Green Teacher website where you will also find details about how to subscribe. The picture at the top of this feature shows a Canadian lake scene.