Exploring Program Process at Movimiento La Libertad: Examining Nuances of Youth Programs That Develop Latinx Critical Consciousness Toward Educational Injustice and Anti-Immigrant Politics

ABSTRACT

In the midst of political attacks on public schools to prevent discussions on social injustice and Latinx youth culture, there are after-school programs that nurture Latinx youth critical consciousness and social justice activism. This study uses agencies of transformational resistance (ATR) as a framework to explore one after-school program’s organizational processes that foster Latinx critical consciousness and social justice activism. Using semi-structured interviews, the data revealed the (a) curriculum, (b) pedagogy, and (c) co-conspirators are three organizational processes that nurtured Latinx youth critical consciousness. This study contributes to the critical youth development scholarship by highlighting nuances of three program processes of one Latinx youth afterschool program in an urban city in Iowa. This study suggests afterschool programs afford Latinx with organizational processes that nurture their critical consciousness. The Midwest, and specifically Iowa, have a growing Latinx population that is understudied.

KEYWORDS:

• Agencies of transformational resistance
• Latinx youth
• out-of-school programs
• afterschool programs
• liberating pedagogy

Acknowledgments

We want to recognize the strength and assets of Movimiento La Libertad for co-creating a space where adults and youth come together to cultivate a space that promotes social justice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ In the rest of the article adult/community members will be replaced with the concept, co-conspirators – adults who are willing to use their intersections of privilege, leverage their power and support, and stand in solidarity with young people (Love, 2019)