http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7236-2049
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Abstract
We explore the experiences of youth who disconnected from their local high schools and resumed their educations in community-based education (CBE) programs offering high school equivalency instruction. Drawing on focus-group interview narratives (N = 59) where youth describe the ‘second chances’ offered to them, we document supportive, encouraging relationships with adults in the CBEs that stand in contrast to their experiences in school. Simultaneously, we suggest that in the face of program narratives that emphasized individual responsibility and success, any critical read of their world articulated earlier by the youth was no longer evident. In essence, they moved from one institution framed by neoliberal tenets to another but in the process, they traded the resistance they exhibited in their public high schools to accommodation in the CBEs. We problematize the discourse of ‘second chances’ if and when it remains uncoupled to analyses of societal and institutional inequity and injustices.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their careful read and helpful suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
David T. Lardier
David T. Lardier is an assistant professor of Family and Child Studies at the University of New Mexico. He is also an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. Dr. Lardier examines youth and community empowerment and the role of community-based programs that serve youth of color in marginalized communities. He also evaluates the effectiveness of substance use and wellness-based prevention-intervention programs. Dr. Lardier has evaluated federally funded prevention intervention grants, funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Kathryn G. Herr
Kathryn G. Herr is a professor in Educational Foundations at Montclair State University. Her research interests focus on qualitative and action research methods, as well as issues of youth, youth violence, and the fit/lack of fit between diverse youth and institutions of education.
Carrie Bergeson
Carrie Bergeson is a doctoral candidate in the Family Science and Human Development department at Montclair State University. She is a critical qualitative community-engaged researcher who focuses on social justice and programming with vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Pauline Garcia-Reid
Pauline Garcia-Reid is a professor in Family Science and Human Development, with an affiliate appointment in the Center for Child Advocacy and Policy at Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ. Dr. Garcia-Reid’s research interests include youth substance use and violence prevention, social justice and advocacy within a culturally-grounded social work lens, and practice and research with racial and ethnic minority children and families. Dr. Garcia-Reid is also the Co-Primary Investigator (Co-PI) on two federally funded prevention-intervention grants, funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Robert J. Reid
Robert J. Reid is a professor in Family Science and Human Development at Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ. Dr. Reid’s research focuses on the development, coordination, and testing of community-wide prevention initiatives to reduce risk and to promote protective factors associated with various health behaviors, such as adolescent substance abuse, sexual risk, and youth violence. Dr. Reid also serves as Primary Investigator (PI) on two federally funded prevention-intervention grants, funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).