Transforming formal learning through educational permeability to student knowledge

This dissertation addresses theory and research on education and development to demonstrate the benefits of youth participation in learning. I ask whether and how urban high-school students might participate as curriculum developers, a particularly under-explored mode of active student learning and related research. I propose and examine the concept of educational permeability to student knowledge, through which a priori youth knowledge becomes integrated in formal learning. Based in theory arguing against unidirectional learning and knowledge reproduction, I apply the concept of permeability in a violence prevention context to alter youth deficit models dominating the field.; Racially/ethnically diverse adolescents from an after-school program modified an adult-authored violence prevention curriculum. The methodology grounded in socio-cultural theory and practice included collaborative group activities within zones of proximal development by use of scaffolding.; The resulting Youth Curriculum was more complex than the Adult Curriculum due to its wider range of violence types and prevention strategies, an expanded session on emotions and a new session on controversial issues of violence. Sixty three percent of the two curricula's concepts represented a priori student knowledge, which indicates youth competence in contributing to content. The Youth Curriculum's view of violence as relational and systemic implies a broader scope that supersedes individual pathology, and supports theories of prevention that frame violence as a social phenomenon.; Besides substantive content changes, the learning process departed radically from traditional knowledge assimilation. To achieve permeability, I adjusted our project's phases to accommodate student patterns of participatory learning. The group displayed several types of peer collaboration and scaffolding. Students developed concepts by clarifying ideas, contributing to each others' points, or engaging in cognitive conflict. Student resistance to the Adult Curriculum facilitated permeability to youth perspectives and learning processes.; To create a pedagogy of permeability, I positioned the students and they positioned themselves as competent knowledge contributors. Permeability is a complex succession of events (Sequence of Permeability), whose application necessitates specific conditions. Ranging on a continuum of low-moderate-high degrees, permeability allows student ideas to enter formal educational spaces to complement curricula. Unconventional pedagogy and learning processes are needed to transform knowledge from a student perspective.