| Sweat Equity Enterprises (SEE) is a nonprofit learning organization that provides underserved urban youth with training in design, technology and entrepreneurship during non-school hours. What makes it unique is the high degree of involvement from a variety of professional volunteers, and the real-world professional-quality work that the young people produce. This qualitative research study explores how SEE youth adults learn from each other. Because there is no other learning program like SEE, and because of the limited available literature and research on non-school professional design learning programs that connect underserved youth and professionals, this study draws from the fields of design education, situated or apprenticeship learning, youth development, resiliency, and those who explore how underserved minority youth have historically had limited access to quality art and design education.;The study concludes with the exploration of two main themes, how youth and adults make sense of (1) the fact that SEE is a very different experience than they have known before, and (2) instead of discussing their design work, they suprisingly point to numerous social aspects of their SEE experience in order to explain what was most meaningful. Finally, the study offers a variety of provocative implications for educators and researchers in the future by suggesting the tremendous potential of youth-adult learning partnerships that fall within Vygotsky's theories of mutual intersubjectivity. We live in an era where youth-driven trends and media are far more powerful than traditional advertising, and urban youth often forcast the next mainstream trends. Why is it that young people possess one of the most valuable commodities for business, and yet they remain at the bottom of our economy and dropping out of our educational system? Most importantly, how can educators capitalize on these trends to provide underserved youth with high-quality non-exploitive learning experiences that provide them with the personal, cognitive and professional skills that will lead to a successful future?... |
