“Because We Care”: Youth Worker Identity and Persistence in Precarious Work The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Vasudevan, Deepa Sriya. 2019. “Because We Care”: Youth Worker Identity and Persistence in Precarious Work. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42081490 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA “Because We Care”: Youth Worker Identity and Persistence in Precarious Work Deepa Sriya Vasudevan Dr. Roberto G. Gonzales Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Dr. Sarah Dryden-Peterson Dr. Gretchen Brion-Meisels A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education 2019 © 2019 Deepa Sriya Vasudevan All Rights Reserved i Acknowledgements I am so grateful to mentors, colleagues, family, and friends, who have contributed to my journey as a doctoral student and my development of this research. My committee members –– Roberto G. Gonzales, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, and Gretchen Brion Meisels –– have all contributed my growth as a scholar and educator. Roberto, since our first conversations about our shared background in youth work, you have continuously encouraged me to explore my questions about community-based organizations and practitioners. Thank you for bringing newfound curiosity and questions that have helped shaped my research. Throughout this process, you have offered clear advice in moments of uncertainty while also holding an unwavering belief in my abilities to navigate this research. Thank you for believing in me and building my confidence as a researcher along the way. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, thank you for encouraging my research interests and holding me to high standards. It was in your course that I began my exploration into youth worker identity, and I began to see myself as a qualitative scholar. I am truly grateful for our meetings over the years in which you listened with warmth and enthusiasm about my ideas, while also challenging me to stay curious, critical, and disciplined in my understanding of youth workers. I have become a better writer and scholar because of your mentorship and guidance. Sarah Dryden-Peterson, I am so appreciative for the times when you would reach in to check in on me, especially when I was unsure about how to reach out for help. Your attentiveness to the details of my interview processes helped me find creative ways to engage with my research participants. You shared research tools and suggestions that ii allowed me to feel authentic and humanizing in both interviewing and writing. Thank you for guiding me toward the big picture when I felt unsure about how the different pieces of my findings fit together. Your feedback has been a guiding light, from my qualifying paper to the dissertation. Gretchen Brion-Meisels, you have been the active voice for what my research means for youth workers today, so many of whom are in our lives –– our students, friends, and family members. Thank you for inviting me into your classrooms as a teaching fellow and into your research projects as a thought partner. It is our ongoing writing and collaboration that motivates me to see where my research can go next. On top of this academic inspiration, you have been emotionally supportive, creating so many experiences filled with laughter and joy. Thank you for seeing me wholly, within and beyond academia. Time and again, I am reminded that persistence in any endeavor is not an isolated act. Rather, it is a collective one. I am grateful to the many scholar-sisters who have supported me in completing the dissertation. Jessica Fei, Abena Mackall, and Stephany Cuevas: thank you for sharing your kindness and brilliance with me. Your fierce love and timely advice have been essential. Kim Stevens, you have been my dissertation-writing comrade over the past two years. Thank you for sharing rides to the library, tea-fueled writing sessions, and long walks to decompress. To Eve Ewing, Amy Cheung, Martha Franco, Shauna Leung, and Celia Gomez–– I cherish all of you for your support and friendship over the years. Thank you to the many dear friends who checked on me to offer encouragement: Cathy, Ali, Jenny, Danielle, Dave, Julia, Geo, Rachel, and Cindy, I appreciate all of you. iii Many thanks to the Mowana Writing Lab –– including but not limited to Lizzie, Vidur, Tim, Nell, Zuhra, Celia, and Pierre –– for reading early drafts and excerpts. My research and writing about youth work has been inspired by conversations with John Diamond, Janine de Novais, Shireen Al-Adeimi, Michèle Lamont, Meira Levinson, Rick Weissbourd, Ken Anthony, Heather Weiss, Ellen Gannett, staff at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, and countless students. Thank you to my early mentors, Ezekiel Dixon-Román and Nancy Peter, for their guidance at the University of Pennsylvania. To my doting parents, Geetha and Vasu, your care and blessings have been constant sources of strength for me. Thank you for growing and learning with me in this process as well. My dear sisters, Divya and Nithya, and their partners, Brian and Jon, have been my champions. Divya, you have been a wellspring of emotional support. Thank you for cheering me on when I have often had doubts. Your convictions as a labor attorney focused on workers’ rights have shaped my research and thinking. Nithya, I’m not quite sure if anyone understands me quite like you. Thanks for always being there to listen and process. I’m amazed by your teaching journey, and I have gained so much perspective on what persistence looks like in education based on your experiences. Brian, you are my older brother and academic mentor, and your coaching has gotten me from application submissions all the way to dissertation deadlines. Thank you, Jon, for your sincere curiosity about my research while also bringing joy and fun through travels in China and Ecuador. Thank you, Rosario and John and my sisters-in-law, who have also shared so much encouragement and kindness. Thank you to the little ones who have brought immense joy during some of the drearier days of dissertation writing. Miryam, my darling niece, being close to you this iv past year has been such an incredible gift. I love watching you grow, and life is so full with you in it. And Junot, my dear puppy and first pet, you have brought so much happiness and much needed writing breaks. Thank you for keeping me grounded in your routines and playfulness. This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my sweet husband, Juan Gabriel Sánchez, aka Dr. Sánchez, aka J. There is so much of the dissertation research process that can feel lonely, and this would dissipate in your loving company. It was not just because you were often physically by my side, typing away on your laptop on your own dissertation, but you also engaged with my ideas and read various drafts of my work. When I felt confused or frustrated, you talked me through my concerns and doubts. And, when we needed an escape, you helped me remember the small wonders of our everyday life together. My love, thank you for being my partner through the tears and cheers of doctoral life. I am grateful for the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Dean’s Dissertation Completion Stipend, which helped me with research related expenses. Finally, thank you to the twenty youth workers who participated in these interviews. I am deeply indebted to you for opening your program doors and for inviting me into your lives in various ways. I admire you and feel grateful to have learned from you. Thank you for imagining spaces of critical hope and possibility for young people and for sharing your journeys with me. v TABLE OF CONTENTS !"#$%&'()*(+($,-. /! !0-,1!",. 2///! /$,1%)3",/%$. 4! )(5/$/$*.6%3,7.&%1#. 8! !.01/(5.7/-,%16.%5.6%3,7.&%1#./$.,7(.3$/,().-,!,(-. 9! )/--(1,!,/%$."7!:,(1.%2(12/(&. ;! 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