The Development of After-School Program Educators Through University-Community Partnerships

Abstract

Participation in after-school programs (ASPs) can positively affect the development of young people. However, whether ASPs are beneficial depends on program quality. Although many factors influence the quality of a program, the competencies of adult staff who lead ASPs are a critical determinant. Unfortunately, ASP staff members often do not receive the education and training needed to provide high quality programming. This article discusses how training provided through university-community (U-C) partnerships can help to fill this educational void. After summarizing existing research on staff development for educators, the role that U-C partnerships can play in providing a realistic and viable means to developing the competencies of ASP educators is described and examples of two model programs are provided. Challenges and future directions for the development of the after-school workforce are discussed.

Development of this manuscript was supported, in part, by a grant from University-Community Links (UCL-44919) to the first author.

Notes

¹The number of courses that could be offered through the CASE program was constrained. To distinguish the certificate program from a UCI minor degree program involving six or seven courses, the CASE program was limited to five courses. The CASE faculty steering committee decided that two core courses and three elective courses would provide a good balance of both breadth and content knowledge along with substantive fieldwork experiences while also allowing students to have a choice in their program of study. Thus, although both child/adolescent development and multicultural education are deemed important and students are encouraged to take both courses, the program parameters necessitate that students designate one or other course for purposes of satisfying CASE requirements.