Youth Empowerment through Productive Dialogue An Opportunity for Education Reform

Abstract

Language and knowledge is directly linked to power through capital. Whoever determines what can be talked about also determines what can be known. Education, as a mandate for all children and youth in the United States to pursue is the platform in which we are taught to know what we should talk about and what we should know. This process of discourse being structured by schools gives the institution of education the power to dictate how we think, what we do, and who we are. This paper discusses the importance of working past the constrained and distorted learning and thinking in schools that are driven by statewide tests and encourage authentic dialogue as a means to empower youth and therefore reform education.