University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1984 A qualitative examination through in-depth interviews of the nature and meaning that adolescents from various social-racial- ethnic backgrounds make of their involvement in a youth participation project. Dennis M. Corso University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Corso, Dennis M., "A qualitative examination through in-depth interviews of the nature and meaning that adolescents from various social-racial-ethnic backgrounds make of their involvement in a youth participation project." (1984). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 3940. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/3940 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A QUALITATIVE EXAMINATION THROUGH IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS OF THE NATURE AND MEANING THAT ADOLESCENTS FROM VARIOUS SOCIAL-RACIAL-ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS MAKE OF THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN A YOUTH PARTICIPATION PROJECT A Dissertation Presented By DENNIS MICHAEL CORSO Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION February 1984 School of Education A QUALITATIVE EXAMINATION THROUGH IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS OF THE NATURE AND MEANING THAT ADOLESCENTS FROM VARIOUS SOCIAL-RACIAL-ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS MAKE OF THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN A YOUTH PARTICIPATION PROJECT A Dissertation Presented By DENNIS MICHAEL CORSO Approved as to style and content by: Patrick J. Sullivan, Chairperson of Committee Mario D. Fantirli, Dean School of Education n ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank the members of my committee: Phil Eddy for his long and constructive support, Mickey Glazer for sharing his deep insight and compassionate criticism, and especially my chairman Patrick Sullivan who over the long process provided me with the intellectual challenge. But of even more significance, through his actions he helped me to understand the following: There is no need to run outside For better seeing. Nor to peer from a window. Rather abide At the center of your being: For the more you leave it, the less you learn. Search your heart and see If he is wise who takes each turn The way to do is to be. Laotzou Finally, I owe my greatest debt to my wife. Without her help, skills and love, this document would not have been completed. Dennis Michael Corso All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT A Qualitative Examination through In-Depth Interviews of the Nature and Meaning that Adolescents from Various Socio-Racial-Ethnic Backgrounds Make of their Involvement in a Youth - Participation Project February 1984 Dennis Michael Corso, B.S., Central Connecticut State College M.Ed., University of Massachusetts Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Directed by: Patrick J. Sullivan \ The purpose of this study was to explore the thoughts, impres¬ sions, and meaning a group of adolescents made of their shared involve¬ ment in a youth participation project. The youths were drawn from dif¬ ferent socio/racial/ethnic backgrounds. Youth participation projects provide adolescents with an alternative educational activity which re¬ flects their concerns. This study offers a unique opportunity to learn how youth from various backgrounds view the nature of their involvement. A series of three in-depth interviews were conducted with four¬ teen inner-city and suburban youths, ten were presented in profiles based upon their own words. The data from the interviews was analyzed in light of the pertinent literature and the researcher's reconstruc¬ tion of the social dynamics which shaped the participants' lives. The data indicates that the youths, regardless of their back¬ grounds, viewed their involvement and the meaning they made of it in a positive way. All the participants corroborated the stated educational v and social goals of youth participation projects. Despite the fact that these youths varied greatly in their home surroundings and their attitudes toward school and society, they shared a capacity to identify collectively with a youth participation project which concerned their needs and which amplified their powers. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Chapter I. INTRODUCTION Background of the Study. 1 The Nature of the Study. 11 The Significance of the Study. 14 Overview of the Study. 17 Limitations of the Study and Select Review of the Literature. 19 II. THE METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY. 23 Rationale. 23 The Methodology. 29 Selection of the participants. 29 Contact and access. 30 Interviewing process. 31 Working with the material. 33 III. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROFILES AND COMMENTARIES . 35 Profile - David Chapdelaine . 39 Profile - Luis Lopez. 51 Profile - Richard Carter. 62 Commentary: Group I . 71 Profile - Michelle Warren . 80 Profile - Victoria Brown. 90 Profile - James Wheeler . 103 Profile - Brian McDonald. 117 Commentary: Group II. 129 Profile - Terrance Milliner . 138 Profile - Anthony Hill. 148 Profile - Edelmyra Perez. 156 Commentary: Group III ... 167 IV. WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWING Introduction. 176 Background. 177 Locating the participants .. 182 Strategies for locating inner-city participants . 183 184 Acceptance. 188 Inner-city parents. Interviewing in the inner city. 189 Interviewing--what I learned.193 Working with the data.197 V. CONCLUSIONS.202 A Youth Participation Project: What I Learned . 204 Suggestions for Further Research.220 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.223 APPENDIX.230 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background of the Study This dissertation originally set out to shed new light on the relationship between a youth participation project and the nature of the involvement of its key participants, both adult and youth. The first approach focused on the organizational nature of a youth parti¬ cipation project. This writer had the advantage of being a key advisor to a youth participation project for nearly three years. I was in a position to conduct a study as a participant observer with the addi¬ tional knowledge of the history of the project, its personnel, leader¬ ship, and decision-making apparatus. To begin, I drafted a history of the program based upon a journal, official correspondence, internal memorandums, and other documents. The next stage was to be a set of structured interviews with the adults who had helped to create the in¬ formal organization upon which the project was based. This approach was abandoned when it became apparent that it was the nature of the youths' involvement which was at the center of this writer's intellec¬ tual curiosity. It was at this juncture that I returned to an earlier area of study in which I had spent three years researching. That study dealt with the individuals who had helped create the Progressive Education Movement. It was from this body of literature that I concluded that the intellectual impetus for youth participation projects could be 1 2 found. I reasoned that what I had helped create in the youth partici¬ pation project under study was similar, in theory, to the experimental learning movement's activities of the 20*s and 30's, the major differ¬ ence being sophisticated video equipment in one and kite building and other activities in the earlier days. Although more than fifty years separated the technology, the educational underpinnings seemed to be significantly similar. The one element common to both periods was the capitalization of the interest of the participants. An early work by John Dewey seemed to hold some of the answers. Written in 1895 in the Herbart Yearbook, Dewey's essay "Interest in Relation to Training of the Will" discusses the topic of interest. Some eighteen years later, Dewey would redraft the article into the book Interest and Effort in Education. In the original work, Dewey was concerned primarily with moral training and used education in a lawsuit to illustrate this point. The case was interest versus effort. The verdict was clear. For Dewey and the many who followed in his foot¬ steps, the issue of interest, and its place in the learning experience, was settled. The task before the court was to create the right condi¬ tions upon which to build. Dewey himself handed down the decision: The genuine principle of interest is the principle of the recognized identity of the fact or proposed line of action with the self; that it lies in the direction of the agent's own growth, and is, therefore, imperiously demanded, if the agent is to be himself. (And then Dewey offers a course of action.) Let this condition of identification once be secured, and we neither have to appeal to sheer strength of will, nor do we have to occupy ourselves with making things interesting to the child. (Dewey, 1975, p. 9) 3 In the end, it was not a case of interest versus effort, but rather that of releasing and channeling the effort and interest the child in¬ herently possessed. The implication for schools could have been pro¬ found. The public schools are faced with the difficult task of determin¬ ing the degree to which a student's interest is to be incorporated into the formal learning experience. Generally, interest is secured in schools by seeking ways to make the subject matter more interesting for the student. One example was the case of the New Social Studies of the late 60's and early 70's. As Howard Mehlinger points out, "The teaching approaches embodied in the new materials simply make social studies far more exciting that what it was before" (Mehlinger, 1976, p. 5). The goal was to make the subject matter interesting without determining what was of interest to the student. The question of interest, as it relates to the public school, is that it has little bearing on the student's own interest and is more an attempt to get some hold upon the student's attention.