UCLA

This qualitative dissertation study aims to examine the role that social justice-based After-School (AS) programs play in the development of asset-based oppositional behaviors that express critical agency and social action among urban Chicanx-Latinx youth. Research has proven that youth developmental models that cultivate agency among youth of color directly contributes to Positive Youth Developmental (PYD) outcomes. However, few studies have explained how or outlined specifically what engaged Chicanx-Latinx AS youth participants to develop a resistance behavior that reflects a critique of social oppression and motivation of social justice—Transformational Resistance (Solorzano & Bernal, 2001). Simultaneously, the study investigates the potential PYD impacts that transformational resistance behaviors has on their social, emotional, and mental well-being. Utilizing Latina/o Critical Theory (Delgado Bernal, 2002) and Chicana/o school resistance frameworks, the study sought to understand how Chicanx-Latinx youth make meaning and theorize on their process of developing a critique of social oppression and motivation for social justice.

Employing qualitative case study methods, the study focused on 16 Chicanx-Latinx youth participants, ages 15 to 24, who participated in a social justice-based AS program in the inner city of Los Angeles. At two school-based research sites, 18 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were conducted: 8 interviews with AS youth participants from a youth leadership and mentoring program, 8 interviews with AS youth participants from a youth leadership Hip Hop program, and 2 interviews with the program directors of the social justice-based community youth program, Advancing Justice (pseudonym). In terms of data collection and analysis, in-depth individual and focus group interviews, participant observations and youth-generated projects were collected and preliminarily coded. Preliminary themes were identified and presented to youth participants and staff as a reflexive and collaborative process. Following this collaborative process, final themes were identified. Study findings indicated that the intentional role that creating safe spaces that focused on healing circles contributed to the development of Transformational Resistance outcomes. Youth in the study reported that ethnic studies curriculum and pedagogical approaches contributed to transformational resistance and PYD outcomes such as increased self-efficacy. Finally, the study’s findings and recommendations will be utilized in a Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) strategy to directly support a youth-led, grassroots organizing campaign for the establishment of a Department of Youth Development and Services in Los Angeles County.