| Through case study methodology, this dissertation explores how community educators in seven adult-youth coalitions conceptualize and enact youth assets. I argue that conflation of the various notions of assets in the applied social science fields reflects a contested term that is under theorized. I examine these discussions in the existing scholarly literature and identify two significant gaps. Currently, there is an absence of studies and theoretical works that capture what the term assets means in practice. In addition, conversations on assets overemphasize characteristics of learners and ignore organizational factors that influence how assets are operationalized in social context.;Framing this study are three concepts rooted in theories of sociocultural learning: schema theory, mental models, and organizational learning. Applied to a rich data set (semi-structured interviews, field observations, and key documents) of a regional youth and community development initiative, these framing ideas provide the basis for building participant-level cases and the means for looking across these cases.;Analysis of these cases revealed that participants were constantly in the process of understanding what youth were capable of and motivated and allowed to do. Patterns surfaced that indicate that these understandings were shaped by past personal experiences with youth as well as an array of organizational factors. Findings suggest that in practice, assets are not simply characteristics belonging to individuals or found in the immediate social environment. Rather, assets are signifiers of shared cognition among learner, educator, and organization. The findings imply that the notion of "assets versus deficits" in the existing literature is a false binary based on a linear view of learning that overemphasizes individual sense-making. In addition, the findings suggest a need to shift the focus of scholarship on youth assets to the conditions necessary for their enactment to improve learning opportunities for vulnerable and diverse youth populations. |
