Safe spaces for youth "At Risk": transformative learning through food system awareness

The paper will discuss how farm based empowerment programs directed at youth "at risk" through the construction of "safe spaces" around farming, cooking and different workshops, and with a critical approach to the food system can provide a framework for transformative learning. Data in the research project is produced through long term anthropological fieldwork with participant observations and ethnographic interviews with a cohort of high school youth participating in a specific Californian program. Narratives from the youth illustrate a variety within the program discourse of empowerment as different motivations, strategies and outcomes from participation in the program activities that can be identified in two main trajectories: network building and job training and emerging activist identities engaging youth in food justice issues and movement building in local communities. The research shows how a specific pedagogy as it is practiced and contextualized within a critical approach to the food system can engage and motivate high school youth to transform social relations, identities and learning. On a general level the research contributes to current discussions on the potentials for learning, democratic participation and citizenship education through farming and gardening.

Keywords: Food Systems, Transformative Learning, Youth Empowerment
Stream: Food Policies, Politics and Cultures
Presentation Type: Paper Presentation in a Themed Session in English
Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted