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Youth & Society
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Strengthening Student Voice Initiatives in High Schools

An Examination of the Supports Needed for School-Based Youth-Adult Partnerships

Dana L. Mitra

The Pennsylvania State University

School environments offer a particularly difficult setting for fostering youth-adult partnerships because of the sharp power and status distinctions among students, teachers, and administrators. Drawing on interview and observational data examining 13 student-voice initiatives in northern California, this research examines the type of supports that can enable the development of strong school-based youth-adult partnerships. The data demonstrate that efforts to reshape student roles face great resistance and require intentional effort on the part of adults and youth to sustain partnerships. Specifically, the institutional constraints of schools required extra attention to fostering more equitable relationships between youth and adults within school walls, establishing the legitimacy of these new relationships through the completion of specific and yet meaningful objectives established by the partnership, and finding sufficient time to engage in the work of building these partnerships.

Key Words: student voice • youth-adult partnerships • youth development • educational change • educational reform

This version was published on March 1, 2009

Youth & Society, Vol. 40, No. 3, 311-335 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0044118X08316211
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