W
hen a parent spends a whole childhood telling their kids they need to be one way, and the kids grow up in a community that only acts one way, and schools don’t prepare anyone for anything other than that one way, when they go onto become that one way, that cannot be called a choice and the practice cannot be called decision-making.
That young person has never known autonomy in any significant way.
Autonomy for Authenticity
Autonomy is the right to make your own decisions and freedom from external control.
A growing number of people are concerned about authentic youth voice and authentic youth engagement.
Youth voice, which is any expression of any young person about anything they choose, is different from youth engagement, which is the sustained connection a young person feels within or outside of themselves.
Authentic youth voice when youth express themselves in ways and with views that are true to themselves. When youth voice is authentic, youth can experience engagement on the basis of what they value.
Authentic youth voice requires youth autonomy. Youth autonomy happens when young people create their own rules and has authority over themselves as well as the power to do something with that authority. In authentic youth voice, young people understand the power they have, what authority they’ve been given, and the interpersonal connections they have to the people around them, whether in their families, communities, schools or the whole world.
5 Areas to Expand
In order to build programs where young people experience authentic youth voice, programs should seek to expand the following capacities in young people:
- Thinking: Analytical and knowledge-building skills; evaluative and critical thinking skills; and creative thinking skills;
- Communicating: Effective oral and written communication skills; critical and reflective reading skills; an informed openness to new information technologies;
- Strategizing: Problem solving and pattern intelligence skills, numerical skills; synthesis skills; and the ability to express the results of analysis and evaluation;
- Learning: The ability to pose meaningful questions that advance understanding and knowledge; the ability to conduct research and organize material effectively; information literacy and other skills associated with learning how to learn;
- Action: The exercise of independent judgment and ethical decision-making; the ability to meet goals, manage time, and complete a project successfully; self-confidence and self-understanding; the ability to cooperate with others and work in teams; a sensitivity to individuals and tolerance of cultural differences.
Barriers to Authenticity
There are real barriers to authenticity in youth voice and youth engagement.
Adultism, ephebiphobia, and systems of paternalism are all deeply entrenched in the adultcentric cultures and structures throughout our society. Adultism encourages disingenuous youth voice. Ephebiphobia prevents youth engagement. Systems of paternalism suffocate authenticity among youth. Adultcentrism is the hammer that makes sure youth voice and youth engagement don’t matter.
Vast segments of our society actively do not want youth to have a voice.
Many adults actively ensure youth voice is subjugated, nullified and stifled whenever possible. When youth voice does become apparent, they either vilify it or infantalize it.
What do you think about authentic youth voice? Authentic youth engagement? How do they happen? What do they look like?
Adam F.C. Fletcher 