An "I" in Teen? Perceived Agency in a Youth Development Program

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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Auteur principal: Frosini, Chelsea
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Langue:en
Publié: 2017
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author Frosini, Chelsea
author_facet Frosini, Chelsea
Frosini, Chelsea
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents An "I" in Teen? Perceived Agency in a Youth Development Program Frosini, Chelsea Youth Programs Youth Agencies Program Descriptions Historians Participatory Research Leadership Training Student Leadership Student Surveys Pretests Posttests Correlation Student Participation Student Projects Museums Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 As she reviewed participant feedback from the out-of-school time (OST) youth development program she managed at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library (N-YHS), the author was excited to recognize a pattern. Many of the teen participants wrote responses like "I am proud of what my team was able to accomplish" and "I enjoyed being able to plan an event on our own and actually see it happen." These participants were reflecting a high level of ownership of their accomplishments in the program. The N-YHS OST program already had assessments to collect the kinds of outcomes research has shown to result from participation in youth development programs: academic success, initiative, personal responsibility, and the like. What they didn't have was a system for measuring whether the program improved participants' sense of agency. Using instruments she designed herself, the author found that participants in the N-YHS program who reported a moderate to high degree of perceived agency also reported improved academic, personal, and social skills over the course of their program--more than their peers who perceived lower levels of agency. Participants who experienced agency also expressed their engagement with the program. In this paper, the author describes the program, provides context from the literature for the significance of agency, outlines the methods used to measure participants' sense of agency, and describes how perceived agency correlated with intended program outcomes and with youth engagement. Finally, she shares lessons learned that OST practitioners can use.
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ1138065
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2017
record_format eric
spellingShingle An "I" in Teen? Perceived Agency in a Youth Development Program
Frosini, Chelsea
Youth Programs
Youth Agencies
Program Descriptions
Historians
Participatory Research
Leadership Training
Student Leadership
Student Surveys
Pretests Posttests
Correlation
Student Participation
Student Projects
Museums
Grade 10
Grade 11
Grade 12
An "I" in Teen? Perceived Agency in a Youth Development Program Frosini, Chelsea Youth Programs Youth Agencies Program Descriptions Historians Participatory Research Leadership Training Student Leadership Student Surveys Pretests Posttests Correlation Student Participation Student Projects Museums Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 As she reviewed participant feedback from the out-of-school time (OST) youth development program she managed at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library (N-YHS), the author was excited to recognize a pattern. Many of the teen participants wrote responses like "I am proud of what my team was able to accomplish" and "I enjoyed being able to plan an event on our own and actually see it happen." These participants were reflecting a high level of ownership of their accomplishments in the program. The N-YHS OST program already had assessments to collect the kinds of outcomes research has shown to result from participation in youth development programs: academic success, initiative, personal responsibility, and the like. What they didn't have was a system for measuring whether the program improved participants' sense of agency. Using instruments she designed herself, the author found that participants in the N-YHS program who reported a moderate to high degree of perceived agency also reported improved academic, personal, and social skills over the course of their program--more than their peers who perceived lower levels of agency. Participants who experienced agency also expressed their engagement with the program. In this paper, the author describes the program, provides context from the literature for the significance of agency, outlines the methods used to measure participants' sense of agency, and describes how perceived agency correlated with intended program outcomes and with youth engagement. Finally, she shares lessons learned that OST practitioners can use.
title An "I" in Teen? Perceived Agency in a Youth Development Program
topic Youth Programs
Youth Agencies
Program Descriptions
Historians
Participatory Research
Leadership Training
Student Leadership
Student Surveys
Pretests Posttests
Correlation
Student Participation
Student Projects
Museums
Grade 10
Grade 11
Grade 12
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1138065