Download or read book Crossing Borders and Forging Bonds written by Cherese D. Childers-McKee and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The majority of U.S. Black and Latino/a students attend schools that have 75 percent or higher minority enrollment (NCES, 2007). Despite frequent contact among students of color, there is limited research about youth of color interaction in educational spaces (Quijada, 2009; Quillian & Campbell, 2003). In this ethnographic dissertation, I engaged a group of youth of color (Black and Latino/a) in yearlong participatory action research (PAR) group called the Youth Coalition for Change (YCfC). As students participated in critical, social justice-oriented activities in the YCfC, I explored how collaboration and critical dialogue influenced and shaped youths' relationships, as they navigated racial/cultural/class/gender/academic track differences. Data consisted of individual interviews with youth, school-wide observations, observations of the YCfC, artifacts, and a final focus group. Individual interviews with teachers and administrators at the school were critically important in describing the influences of school social structures on youth interaction. Data suggested that the YCfC provided youth a space to perform their fluid identities while raising their consciousness to issues facing their communities. The results of this dissertation inform research on the development of personal and collective agency; provide data about the role of emancipatory experiences in fostering better interracial/intercultural relations among youth; and provide fertile ground for theorizing about the fluidity of youth of color identities and the role of interracial/intercultural coalitions in addressing systemic oppression."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.