Approximately one in two parents across the province of Ontario, regardless of personal religious beliefs, now choose to enrol their children in a public Roman Catholic secondary school over the public secular school counterpart. The Ontario Roman Catholic school system has historically struggled for recognition and independence as an equally legitimate system in the province. Students in modern schools regard religion and spirituality as critical aspects to their individual identities, yet this study investigates the language and knowledge delivered within the systemic marginalization and colonial framework of a Euro-centric school system and the level of inclusivity and acceptance it affords its youth. Using a critical ethnographic methodology within a single revelatory case study, this study presents the voices of youth as the most critical voice to be heard on identity and identity in faith in Ontario Roman Catholic schools. Surveys with students and student families are complemented with in-depth student interviews, triangulated with informal educational staff interviews and the limited literature incorporating youth identity in modern Ontario Roman Catholic schools. Through the approach of an anti-colonial discursive framework, incorporating a theology of liberation that emphasizes freedom from oppression, the voice of Roman Catholic secondary school youth are brought forth as revealing their struggle for identity in a system that intentionally hides identity outside of being Roman Catholic. Broader questions discussed include: (a) What is the link between identity, schooling and knowledge production?; (b) How do the different voices of students of multi-faiths, educators, administrators, and so forth, contradict, converge and diverge from each other?; (c) How are we to understand the role and importance of spirituality in schooling, knowledge production, and claims of Indigenity and resistance to colonizing education?; (d) What does it mean to claim spirituality as a valid way of knowing?; (e) In what way does this study help understand claims that spirituality avoids splitting of the self?; (f) How do we address the fact that our cultures today are threatened by the absence of community?; and (g) What are the pedagogic and instructional relevancies of this work for the classroom teacher?

Pasifika people are a youthful population group. It is important therefore that Pasifika youth have opportunities to live fulfilling and satisfying lives where they can achieve their dreams, support themselves and their families and make valuable contributions to their local communities, their country and global communities now and in the future. Government and local city councils have become more proactive in developing strategies that will assist young people to be part of an inclusive economy. One of the key areas identified, is the transitioning of low achieving and disengaged school leavers into further education, skills training or employment. Hence the government's and the councils' shared goals of implementing the Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs in 2007, which is to ensure that all youth between 15-19 years of age are in employment, education, training or other activities that lead to their long-term economic independence and wellbeing (Ministry of Youth Development, 2004). Transition courses provide bridging alternatives for youth transitioning from school to employment. They are designed to provide extra help for students who leave school with low or no qualifications. In some cases youth find themselves out of favour with mainstream education and have been forced to end secondary schooling prematurely. Transition learning gives youth a second chance at education by improving their employment marketability. This research highlights the rich stories of Samoan male youths' transitional journeys. The study discusses the critical factors that have contributed either positively or negatively in their ability to transition successfully into the workplace. Eight Samoan male participants were involved in the study ranging from 18-21 years of age. This research topic has evolved from the researcher's involvement in working with South Auckland Pasifika youth for over four years. Some of these youth have been traumatised by their school experiences and have had to face some enormous barriers when transitioning from school into the work place or further tertiary education. After selecting the topic, research frameworks that would be most appropriate for the research were explored. The researcher shares similar cultural and personal experiences to the participants. The framework for the study is therefore aligned to the values of the researcher. Accordingly, the multi-case study approach has been adopted; as such an approach has the potential to reveal what participants feel is significant. The interpretive paradigm underpins this research. The technique for gathering data was through semiformal in-depth interviewing. During the interviews, the participants had the opportunity to discuss the effects that the transitional courses had on them as learners and as Samoan youth. This method of research is culturally appropriate, as it allowed the depth of voices of these young Samoan people to be heard. The themes that have emerged from the findings reflect the broad categories of literature and research findings in the field of transition. The findings also provide new and insightful information about transitional experiences of Pasifika male youth. The research findings from this study focus on key aspects of programme implementation including; the teacher/student relationship, mentoring, student resiliency and the role of the government in youth transition. The research also evaluates the extent to which the transition course curriculum content supports student knowledge and skills in their current work situation. All participants in the study were generally positive about the courses they attended. They discussed the positives in terms of good tutoring, high degree of team cohesion and relevant meaningful learning experiences. The participants cited the negatives as poor teaching, and the low level of some of the literacy and numeracy activities they were expected to complete. Overall they were far more positive about their transitional learning than they were with learning at secondary school. Most felt prepared for work. The study proposes further research in the area of youth transition. Findings from this study will be disseminated to the appropriate government policy makers, city councils, youth services and tertiary providers through presentations at youth development conferences.

Pasifika people are a youthful population group. It is important therefore that Pasifika youth have opportunities to live fulfilling and satisfying lives where they can achieve their dreams, support themselves and their families and make valuable contributions to their local communities, their country and global communities now and in the future. Government and local city councils have become more proactive in developing strategies that will assist young people to be part of an inclusive economy. One of the key areas identified, is the transitioning of low achieving and disengaged school leavers into further education, skills training or employment. Hence the government's and the councils' shared goals of implementing the Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs in 2007, which is to ensure that all youth between 15-19 years of age are in employment, education, training or other activities that lead to their long-term economic independence and wellbeing (Ministry of Youth Development, 2004). Transition courses provide bridging alternatives for youth transitioning from school to employment. They are designed to provide extra help for students who leave school with low or no qualifications. In some cases youth find themselves out of favour with mainstream education and have been forced to end secondary schooling prematurely. Transition learning gives youth a second chance at education by improving their employment marketability. This research highlights the rich stories of Samoan male youths' transitional journeys. The study discusses the critical factors that have contributed either positively or negatively in their ability to transition successfully into the workplace. Eight Samoan male participants were involved in the study ranging from 18-21 years of age. This research topic has evolved from the researcher's involvement in working with South Auckland Pasifika youth for over four years. Some of these youth have been traumatised by their school experiences and have had to face some enormous barriers when transitioning from school into the work place or further tertiary education. After selecting the topic, research frameworks that would be most appropriate for the research were explored. The researcher shares similar cultural and personal experiences to the participants. The framework for the study is therefore aligned to the values of the researcher. Accordingly, the multi-case study approach has been adopted; as such an approach has the potential to reveal what participants feel is significant. The interpretive paradigm underpins this research. The technique for gathering data was through semiformal in-depth interviewing. During the interviews, the participants had the opportunity to discuss the effects that the transitional courses had on them as learners and as Samoan youth. This method of research is culturally appropriate, as it allowed the depth of voices of these young Samoan people to be heard. The themes that have emerged from the findings reflect the broad categories of literature and research findings in the field of transition. The findings also provide new and insightful information about transitional experiences of Pasifika male youth. The research findings from this study focus on key aspects of programme implementation including; the teacher/student relationship, mentoring, student resiliency and the role of the government in youth transition. The research also evaluates the extent to which the transition course curriculum content supports student knowledge and skills in their current work situation. All participants in the study were generally positive about the courses they attended. They discussed the positives in terms of good tutoring, high degree of team cohesion and relevant meaningful learning experiences. The participants cited the negatives as poor teaching, and the low level of some of the literacy and numeracy activities they were expected to complete. Overall they were far more positive about their transitional learning than they were with learning at secondary school. Most felt prepared for work. The study proposes further research in the area of youth transition. Findings from this study will be disseminated to the appropriate government policy makers, city councils, youth services and tertiary providers through presentations at youth development conferences.

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Young people in regional areas of Indonesia are attending school longer, aspiring for degrees and jobs outside of their home community, and learning less about their cultural traditions. In Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, a youth program called Jelajah Budaya, or Culture Exploration, aims to reconnect young people with regional cultural values, motivating them to become actors in preserving their traditions and for positive development. This paper examines the impacts of this program, along with Poso youth identity and aspirations more generally. The project explored these issues with young people in Poso through focus group discussions and Photovoice workshops. Interviews were also conducted with parents, cultural and local leaders, and youth program staff. Participants shared appreciation for how Jelajah Budaya has brought together youth from a wide range of Poso communities, building pride and awareness about regional cultural values. Still, insights from youth participants suggest that building awareness about cultural traditions may not directly translate to community-oriented aspirations or youth seeing their own role in their community's future. The project suggests that Jelajah Budaya should look to engage more directly with youth identities, including as individuals, and to demonstrate the relevance of the region's cultural traditions. Poso youth articulate their identities primarily through communal connections. While they are influenced by the normative ideals of becoming educated and modern, many also have ambitions related to entrepreneurship and some aspire to create jobs in their communities. These insights also echo other studies which demonstrate that regional identity should receive greater attention.

Thesis (MEd)-- University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Migration has been described as “the quintessential experience” of the contemporary period (Berger, 1984). Across the world this global phenomenon has been chiefly driven by conflict, persecution and poverty resulting from destabilisation in the various home countries of millions of individuals. Within the process of worldwide migration, South Africa receives perhaps the largest number of asylum seekers in the world and according to the UNHCR (2010) the majority of migrants entering South Africa are children or youth. Crucially, this increased migration into South Africa is occurring at a time when the majority of South Africa's general populace is still struggling with the aftermath of apartheid and increased levels of poverty and unemployment. In this qualitative, interpretative study I focus on how a group of 20 African migrant youth that live in Cape Town and attend one local school engage with the migratory experience and navigate their way through local receiving spaces. I assert that these spaces, which include both home and school, mark the youth in very particular ways and bring into focus key aspects of identity, culture, social worlds, imagination and aspiration. The main conceptual contribution of the thesis is the idea that we are all migrants in the current world, whether we physically move or whether our lives are moved by the impact of increasing global flows. Consequently, we need to develop, it is argued, a frame of thinking that makes the migrant central, not ancillary, to historical process. For that purpose I utilise the theoretical lenses of Pierre Bourdieu, Arjun Appadurai, and Tara Yosso to argue that the African migrant youth in the study are not passive recipients bombarded by the forces of globalization and migration, but are active agents in the shaping of their local realities. By linking individual biographies to the questions they raise about larger global, social and historical forces I attempt to offer a temporalized account of late-modern life that incorporates the contemporary conditions that the African migrant youth face as they navigate urban social arrangements, and the daily educational challenges of their local school. A further contribution of the thesis is the documenting of the particular internal and external resources that the 20 African migrant youth drew on to motivate and assist them to navigate their schooling and social lives, as they faced up to the growing uncertainties of their new "foreign‟ spaces. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Migrasie is al beskryf as “die wesenservaring” van die moderne tyd (Berger, 1984). Oral ter wêreld word hierdie globale verskynsel hoofsaaklik aangedryf deur konflik, vervolging en armoede wat die gevolg is van destabilisasie in die onderskeie lande van herkoms van miljoene mense. Binne die wêreldwye migrasieproses is Suid-Afrika die land wat waarskynlik die grootste getal asielsoekers ter wêreld ontvang, en volgens die Verenigde Nasies se hoëkommissaris vir vlugtelinge (UNHCR, 2010) vorm kinders of jeugdiges die grootste groep migrante wat Suid-Afrika binnekom. Wat van kardinale belang is, is dat hierdie toenemende migrasie na Suid-Afrika plaasvind op ʼn tydstip waarop die meerderheid van Suid-Afrika se breë bevolking steeds worstel met die nalatenskap van apartheid en verhoogde vlakke van armoede en werkloosheid. Hierdie kwalitatiewe, kwasi-interpretatiewe studie fokus op die wyse waarop ʼn groep van 20 jeugdige Afrika-migrante, wat in Kaapstad woon en dieselfde plaaslike skool bywoon, migrasie-ervarings hanteer en hulle weg deur die plaaslike ontvangsruimtes baan. Ek voer aan dat hierdie ruimtes, wat sowel die huis as die skool insluit, 'n baie duidelike stempel op jeugdiges laat en die aandag op sleutelaspekte van identiteit, kultuur, maatskaplike wêrelde, voorstellings en strewes vestig. Die hoof- konseptuele bydrae van die tesis is die gedagte dat ons almal in vandag se wêreld migrante (van welke aard ook al) is, of ons nou fisiek verskuif en of die impak van toenemende wêreldwye strominge verskuiwings in ons lewe veroorsaak. Daarom, word daar geredeneer, moet ons ʼn denkraamwerk ontwikkel wat die idee van die “migrant” sentraal tot die historiese proses stel, eerder as ondergeskik daaraan. Vir dié doel gebruik ek die teoretiese lense van Pierre Bourdieu, Arjun Appadurai en Tara Yosso om aan te voer dat die jeugdige Afrika-migrante in die studie nie passiewe ontvangers is wat deur die kragte van globalisering en migrasie rondgeslinger word nie, maar dat hulle aktiewe agente is wat hulle plaaslike werklikhede self kan vorm. Deur individuele lewensverhale te koppel aan die vrae wat dit oor groter globale, maatskaplike en historiese kragte laat ontstaan, bied ek ʼn getemporaliseerde weergawe van die laat-moderne lewe, met inbegrip van die eietydse omstandighede wat jeugdige Afrika-migrante in die gesig staar namate hulle hul weg deur die stedelik-maatskaplike organisasie moet vind, asook van die daaglikse opvoedkundige uitdagings van hulle plaaslike skool. Verder lewer hierdie tesis ʼn bydrae deur die interne en eksterne hulpbronne te dokumenteer wat hierdie 20 jeugdige Afrika-migrante gebruik het om hulle te motiveer en te help om hulle skool- en maatskaplike lewe te rig namate hulle die toenemende onsekerhede van hulle nuwe, “uitlandse” ruimtes moes aandurf.

Contributing to the literature on the Muslim experience post-9/11, the purpose of this study was to engage with a group that is often talked about, but not with: Muslim youth. Using an integrative anti-racist and anti-colonial approach with an emphasis on a spiritual way of knowing, this study gives voice to young Muslim activists in Toronto who have made the choice to “do something”. The study aims to understand what motivates these young activists, particularly in the context of post-9/11 Islamophobia, with the goal being to challenge stereotypical perceptions of Muslims, while contributing to the body of knowledge that aims to disrupt dominant notions of what “Canadian” identity is. The following analysis helps answer this question, which includes the role of spirituality, the attachment to Canadian identity and the desire to educate. Key challenges and what these youth prescribe for Canada’s future are also discussed.

For over a decade now, Bongo Fleva has been the dominant category of popular music in Tanzania, surpassing Muziki wa Dansi (dance music) and Taarab in terms of its presence in the media. Bongo Fleva has become deversified in the last years and at present includes elements of traditional music as well as popular dance music, both of African and Western origin (Raab 2006: 43 ff.). As a result, contemporary Bongo Fleva is stylistically complex. Ther lyrics of Bongo Fleva are specifically determined by 1) the use of Swahili youth language and slang expressions. 2) the representation of modern and young lifestyles, and 3) socio-critical contens with pedagocial and moralistic tendencies. The lyrics of Bongo Fleva are marked by youth discourse which is most important for the construction of youth identities. While Bongo Fleva text with dialogic structure seem to continue the older tradition of Muziki wa Dansi, the dramatic texts remind of the way folk narratives are told in Tanzania. As the dramatic Bongo Fleva texts make use of direct speech, often of several characters, and without introduction, it seems that traditional techniques of story-telling have an effect on Bongo Fleva rap lyrics. In this article a rap text of this kind, Mikasi (\"Sex\"), released in 2004 by Bongo Fleva artist Ngwair, will be analysed with regard to its form, content and function. As it conteain different roles and dialogues, it is suitable for the investigation of youths`talk. A special focus will be put on the self-portrayal of the youths in the dialogues of the song, and on the question how boasting and dissing is performed in a dialogic text.

Adults working as teachers and doctors can find it difficult to communicate well with young people about the issues that affect their wellbeing and learning and thus miss opportunities to contribute when their clients experience adversity. Drama is often used as a pedagogical tool to assist people to develop their communication skills. Dramatic portrayals however, can reinforce rather than challenge limiting stereotypes, and there is the potential for learning through drama to contribute to a patronising world-view and lead to the assumption that a set of formulaic approaches can bridge the communication divide. There is thus a need for research that engages both theoretically and technically with the use of drama as a tool for applied learning. In this thesis, a reflective practitioner methodology is used to explore the use of drama as a method in participatory enquiry and as a tool in the professional education of teachers and doctors. Use of the practitioner perspective permits analysis of the alignment between theory and practice. The Learning Partnerships project provides the context within which to conduct this enquiry. In this project the researcher leads drama workshops that bring together classes of school students and tertiary students completing their studies in medicine or education. The adolescents work as co-investigators with the teachers and doctors, exploring how to communicate effectively in the institutional contexts of schools and clinics.

KAVANOVÁ, Blanka. Faith and Christian Education as a Basis of the Youth's searching for Personal Identity and Life Journey. Prague, 2018. Diploma work. Charles University, Catholic Theological Faculty, Department of Theological Ethics and Spiritual Theology. ABSTRACT Key words: Christian education, the youth's identity, Christian identity, discipline, preordination, practised faith, moral education The diploma is concerned with the relation between Christian education provided mainly in the family and the youth's identity construction. The first chapter of the work is focused on the theoretical bases. It outlines the situation of education as a space of meeting of freedom and autonomy of the educator and the child/teenager and shows the factors influencing the future form of the youth's identity. The following chapters demonstrate the role of parents as the primary education providers, the role of the youths themselves as the creators of their own identity and the possible obstacles that can make education more complicated. The work shows that Christian values applied in education and practised in the family life can help children in creating their own meaningful life oreintation and identity. In the process of education, freedom and increasing autonomy of the child and the youth must be taken into account,...