Effective practices in alternative education for the social inclusion of marginalized and street-involved youth: an integral systems perspective

• Main Author: Geselbracht, Benjamin J.
• Other Authors: Hoskins, Marie L.
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Marginalized youth; alternative education; street-involved youth; integral systems theory; social inclusion; youth at risk; effective practice; experiential learning; program design; community agriculture; youth development; employment skills
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4254

This study identifies effective practices in the design of alternative education programs; and more specifically, programs that support the positive social engagement and healthy development of adolescents who have left the public education system and are labeled as marginalized or street involved. Effective practices were identified theoretically through a critic of current educational practices within the North-American public system and through the application of an integral systems theory framework of human development that identifies patterns of relationships between seemingly divergent perspectives in order to achieve the broadest breath of understanding through the inclusion of the truths held within each. A case study of a program that applied these practices within a community agricultural context was then analyzed to test their relevancy in the field. Through an analysis applying qualitative descriptive methodologies the following practices were identified as being effective in supporting positive engagement: 1) an experiential curriculum geared towards developing employable skills, 2) program activities that directly contributed to the local community, 3) the provision of a wage for program participants 4) adults facilitating the program trained in providing supportive caring relationships, 5) program peer groups being composed of youth and young adults of mixed ages and socio-economic backgrounds with marginalized youth being a minority, 6) a social co-operative organizational structure to administer the program. Limitations of the study were the small number of youth sampled as a result of the nature of the structure of the program in the case study. === Graduate