Project details
This course develops the knowledge, skills, beliefs and awareness needed to be an effective youth mentor and advocate of disadvantaged youth, with the aim of addressing social and educational inequality. The course will enhance your understandings of the social, economic, cultural and political forces influencing the educational experiences of youth. It will also develop your self-efficacy as an agent of social change through an exploration of critical, inclusive pedagogies. The course integrates regular university-based interactive seminars with an experiential learning component in which each participant mentors a secondary learner, supporting and advocating for the learner academically and socially on a regular basis across two semesters. The course readings include literary, popular and academic texts to enable youth mentors’ reflection upon their mentoring relationships and processes, their own social and ideological positions, and their developing identities as community youth mentors. Participants will receive continuous support and guidance from the course tutor and from peers. Resources will be provided for mentoring meetings and other excursions.