Civic Engagement in the Wake of Katrina by Amy Koritz & George J. Sanchez

Author:Amy Koritz & George J. Sanchez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2018-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Impact of the Curriculum on Youth: Promoting Healthy Dialogue

Focus group conversations conducted by an independent evaluation team revealed that youth thought the service projects helped them to learn some important things about community service. They reported that they learned about the value of service to others. They most frequently described community service as “helping to clean up the community” or “helping to fix things.” One respondent talked about a change in attitude, saying, “At first I didn't know and didn't care, but later [I] realized it [is a way] to make New Orleans better and a way to help around the community.” Developing this ethic of service and change in attitude was one of the ultimate intentions of the service learning program.

Based on Operation REACH's history of youth leadership development, the staff determined that it made the most sense to adapt the teaching methodology from critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy naturally lends itself to creating evocative democratic learning environments. Hence, the Gulfsouth Summer Youth Action Course was designed to be heavily dialogic for the youth, allowing them to have their turn to voice their thoughts, opinions, and experiences “at the mic.” In focus group de-briefings, a team of independent program evaluators asked youth about this instructional innovation and whether the dialogic process helped them deal with issues related to the hurricanes. The results were as follows.

Page 123 → About a third of the participants thought they had talked about it the right amount and seemed to have found it therapeutic.

They thought it was good to talk about the problems they encountered and that it helped get “stuff off your mind.”

Almost half complained that there was too much talk about Katrina and it was an uncomfortable subject for them. Some said it upset them. One young man said it was “too sad to talk about it” because his grandmother and cousin had died. He added, “I don't want to talk about it. I want to move on.”

Another girl had a terrible experience at the [Ernest N. Morial] Convention Center, and she didn't know how to approach dealing with the aftermath.

Youth did talk about what made life stressful and uncomfortable. Several mentioned stressful situations such as being separated from their parents (e.g., living in Texas without their parents) and missing friends.

Seeing the city in ruins and disrepair caused feelings of frustration, especially because of the slow response.

They mentioned uncomfortable environments in other places such as dealing with unfriendly people or violent classmates in Texas.

They struggled with reconciling the death of friends, not knowing how to address these hurtful situations.

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