Narratives Of At-Risk-Youth: Mirroring Experiences And Challenges Submitted to NW: ‘05. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education

This paper explores the narratives of at-risk youth with the aim of uncovering understandings of in- and exclusion of school.

The paper seeks to answer the following research question: "How can an exploration of alternative contexts enlighten the professional work with at-risk-youth in a school setting?

The study that the paper draws on is a research study concerning the role of professional practice in working with expanding the participatory possibilities in school among at-risk youth and hence creates more equality of opportunity. In relation to that, the study asks how increased awareness of and knowledge about the social and academic life of at-risk youth can contribute to successful, professional work with social and academic inclusion of at-risk youth. The study applies three perspectives: the professional perspective, the institutional perspective and the youth perspective - the aim of this paper is to present the youth perspective.

The point of departure of this paper is hence the narratives of at-risk youth, and how these narratives, that center around different experiences of both in- and exclusion, as well as on different social and physical settings and their abilitiy to create in- and exclusion.