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This dissertation explores how afterschool programming shaped New York City children’s experiences from the 1930s-1960s. Centering the many organizations that planned activities for children, I explore the beliefs and institutional dynamics that determined what the work of afterschool involved. With purposes spanning education, recreation, physical and mental health, childcare, assimilation, racial equity, and more, afterschool was both a practical resource and a place to imagine what urban childhood should look like. It became part of the landscape of New York City neighborhoods, inhabiting schools, settlement houses, community centers, storefronts, churches, and housing. By framing afterschool as a resource and investigating how it was administered and operated, we see that it could provide unprecedented opportunities, but it was not distributed fully and equitably. Designated as a supplemental service for parents and schools that lacked other options, afterschool has long been called upon to fix social and educational problems without sufficient funding or attention.

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“What does it mean to be a person in the world?” has been a question that initiated this study with young people in an alternative-to-detention afterschool program. I used a participatory ethnographic approach to explore how a group of young people identify themselves by negotiating the labels placed on them. This study engaged with the philosophical reflections of Du Bois’s double consciousness and Greene’s continuous being to offer a conceptual framework of multi-consciousness. This multi-consciousness framework offered a way to examine young people’s geographical, ideological, linguistic, social, economical, and other representational boundaries. Similar to the intrinsically intertwined banyan tree, young people's lives intertwined through their demographic identities, their involvement in the digital and physical spaces, and their status in the justice system. The data for the study were collected through a participatory ethnographic approach using traditional ethnographic methods, such as conducting interviews, making participant observant, and co-producing artifacts with young people. These artifacts provided insight into the intricate relationships of how young people practice everyday citizenship in their daily lives. This study called for the embodiment of humane citizenship that included young people—particularly those in the juvenile justice system—to engage not as ornamental collaborators, but rather as genuine contributors who shape how we freely include and participate across the multiple networks in which we live and exist.

Levels of participation in physical activity and sport by the New Zealand population are in decline, whilst the levels of sedentary behaviours are rising. Developing positive physical activity experiences, perceptions and habits in childhood may provide an effective approach to decrease the burden of inactivity. The purpose of this thesis was to improve knowledge of the efficacy of a sport-based intervention to increase physical activity levels of New Zealand children from a low socio-economic background. This was achieved by implementing an after-school soccer intervention at two low decile schools in Auckland, New Zealand. To determine current levels of physical activity, fifty-eight children wore a NL-2000 pedometer for four consecutive days (three weekdays and one weekend). Mean step counts (± SD) for boys were 17018 (± 4640) and for girls 12415 (± 4329) on weekdays, and for boys 12507 (± 4338) and girls 9537 (± 4421) on weekends. Nearly 50% of girls and 37% of boys were not reaching previously published daily step count recommendations of 15,000 for boys and 12,000 for girls during weekdays. The feasibility and efficacy of a six-week after-school soccer programme (2/hr.wk-1) on physical activity levels of 70 children (43 boys, 27 girls) compared to a control group of 25 children (23 boys, 2 girls) was determined in a randomised controlled trial. Measures of physical activity (4 day sealed pedometry), mass and height were completed at baseline, Week 6 (end of the intervention), and at three-month post-intervention. Compared to control, participants in the soccer programme attained higher weekday step counts after 6 weeks (treatment 16980 ± 4515; control 15021 ± 3783) and these were sustained three months post-intervention (treatment 16218 ± 4591; control 14591 ± 3488). However, these step count differences were not statistically significant. When children were grouped into activity tertiles (low, moderate and highly active) the intervention effect was more evident in the low to moderately active children. Further analysis revealed that the treatment groups’ moderate activity tertile was significantly more active than the control at follow up (p = 0.0399). This programme may offer a viable alternative to traditional physical activity interventions which concentrate on other forms of physical activity accumulation such as active transport and physical education. However, additional research needs to be carried out to determine whether the absence of statistical differences is simply a lack of statistical power.

In 2009 alarming rates of childhood obesity resulted in the Government of Ontario launching a province-wide initiative through the Ministry of Health Promotion & Sport. This study focused on Eastview Boys and Girls Club (Eastview unit) in Oshawa, Ontario and examined immediate impacts of an after-school snack program involving close to 100-children daily. Data collection included key informant interviews (n=7); one focus group interview with parents (n=8); three interactive children‟s sessions, and document review. Findings identified changes in children‟s eating behaviours (e.g., willingness to try new foods) and shifts in staff attitudes (e.g., role-modelling). Facilitators included staff commitment, strong partnerships, and previous program accreditation. Organizational barriers included gaps in nutrition-related knowledge/skills of staff and insufficient program-specific training and resources. Recommendations call for building capacities at individual-, organizational- and community-levels to strengthen the nutritional component of the after-school initiative. Future research should evaluate long-term outcomes of the snack program. / UOIT

The purpose of this intense case study was to explore the factors that affect implementation of quality physical activity (PA) and healthy snacks that are provided to school-aged children (kindergarten to grade 8) attending after-school child care in British Columbia. Using an orientational approach that was guided by the implementation literature, 16 staff (n = 9 managers; n = 7 frontline staff) completed surveys and participated in semi-structured interviews. The majority of the data contributed to the emergence of the primary theme “Being confined” which contains three sub-themes: “It’s a moving target”; “We have to make do”; and “Centre rules and routines dictate practice”. This theme contextualizes two related but distinct primary themes: “Working together to pull it off” and “It takes skill”. The study contributes to our understanding of what facilitates or impedes implementation, according to staff working in typical after-school child care programs. This information can contribute to the refinement of guidelines and development of resources to help meet staff needs. Further, it will ensure that future research efforts are directed appropriately. / Graduate / 0573 / 0680 / kmmacfar@uvic.ca

After – school education allows obtaining one of the most important aims of education – to ensure qualitative and continues education while a child with his needs is in the centre of the process. Professional organization of educational process is constant improvement of school and item of qualitative education. After – school education is understood like a permanent process intended for a child’s socialization, creativeness, development of abilities, expansion of leisure time, recreation. All after – school activities have to help a child to spread his individual abilities of creativity, to satisfy his natural demands of self – expression, love and deference, purport, creativeness, orderliness and harmony. After – school education is a component of educational process, which determines individual formation and even has decisive stress for it. Therefore it is very important to anlyze this process systematically. Research object: organization of after – school education. Research objectives: To analyze the structure, organization of after – school activities, to establish expedience, usefulness, varieties of forms, initiative using after – school activities.