Holding Up the Mic: What youth say they need in order to talk about topics affecting their lives
First Presenter's Institution
Vanderbilt University
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Laura Fittz (she/her) is a third year doctoral student in the Department of Teaching and Learning. After earning her B.A. from Wheaton College (IL), she taught English Literature for seven years at Glencliff High School in Nashville, Tennessee. While teaching, she earned her M.Ed. in the Learning, Diversity, and Urban Studies program at Peabody and began coordinating Restorative Practices at GHS. In 2016, she started the Peace Team, a Restorative Student Leaders team whose model has spread through the district, region, and even nationally and internationally. She is interested in how the mindset and practices of working with students (rather than to them or for them) can bring about transformational change in schools and teacher preparation programs.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
Restorative Practices
Relevance to Primary Strand
The fundamental premise of Restorative Practices is that "human beings are happier, more productive and cooperative, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things WITH them, rather than to them or for them" (Wachtel, 2005). This premise is visually depicted in The Social Discipline Window (Glaser, 1964; Braithwaite, 1989). This presentation provides examples and applications for how all adults in education can work WITH students to listen to student voice and create spaces where students can talk with each other about topics affecting their lives.
Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics
Student Learning and Development
Brief Program Description
This presentation invites participants to listen to what youth say they need in order to talk about topics affecting their lives and to explore how to apply this study's findings into their practice . By actually listening to youth voices and brainstorming with fellow participants how to apply the expertise youth share, participants will not only explore what youth say they need in order to talk about topics affecting their lives, but they will also create plans of how they can incorporate this study's takeaways in to their practice.
Summary
This study aims to hold up a microphone to the voices of four girls (two who identify as Black; one as Middle Eastern, and one as Persian) involved in a Youth Dialogue Initiative to explore what [these] youth say they need to identify and talk about topics affecting their lives. Through the lenses of Restorative Practices and the Social Discipline Window, this study centers and amplifies student voices from semi-structured interviews, dialogue session audio, artifacts, and a focus group interview. Youth report they need safety and comfort, respect and boundaries, and everyone’s voice to be heard in order to talk about topics affecting their lives. Implications from this study point to important transferable design features that can assist in dialogues among youth.
Evidence
I have led and championed youth voice in a large, urban district in the southeastern United States for ten years. I am also a third year doctoral student under a prestigious advisor, who was the Co-PI of this study. In the presentation, I clearly explain my methods (participant sampling, data sources, and data analysis) and guide the reader through the analysis of findings that led to my conclusions.
Learning Objective 1
listen to the voices of youth
Learning Objective 2
explore what youth say they need in order to talk about topics affecting their lives
Learning Objective 3
talk with fellow participants about how these youth's insights could be incorporated into their practice
Recommended Citation
Fittz, Laura, "Holding Up the Mic: What youth say they need in order to talk about topics affecting their lives" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 73.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/73
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Holding Up the Mic: What youth say they need in order to talk about topics affecting their lives
This study aims to hold up a microphone to the voices of four girls (two who identify as Black; one as Middle Eastern, and one as Persian) involved in a Youth Dialogue Initiative to explore what [these] youth say they need to identify and talk about topics affecting their lives. Through the lenses of Restorative Practices and the Social Discipline Window, this study centers and amplifies student voices from semi-structured interviews, dialogue session audio, artifacts, and a focus group interview. Youth report they need safety and comfort, respect and boundaries, and everyone’s voice to be heard in order to talk about topics affecting their lives. Implications from this study point to important transferable design features that can assist in dialogues among youth.
