This anthology shares educational practices to engage young people in critical digital media consumption and production. Comprehensive frameworks and teaching guidance enable educators to empower students to use digital technologies to respond to the social, political, economic, and other critical issues in their real-life and online communities.…

Due to lack of time in physical education class as well as the decreased amount of physical education class students have a week, students are not receiving adequate amounts of daily physical activity. This article describes a solution to this problem, by describing an after-school weightlifting program where students can learn how to do…

Often, parents seek out afterschool programs for supervision, educational, and enrichment opportunities. The staff employed with these programs are often undereducated and not well trained to assist students with homework or understand the students' emotional and social guidance needs. The literature review regarding afterschool program training…

Background: In this paper, we extend findings from previous iterations of a design-based project called ThinkerSpaces design studios that promotes human-centred design among children. ThinkerSpaces design studios is a play-based afterschool club that follows principles of embedded design by prioritising learner agency, exploration and ongoing…

Background: This practice paper exemplifies a systematic approach used to learn about existing mental well-being programs for youth 11-14 years to inform curriculum development for after-school settings. Methods: We reviewed 3389 mental well-being programs from publicly accessed databases and conducted a content analysis using inductive and…

Out-of-school time (OST) science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs have gained recognition for their potential to enhance youth engagement, motivation, and skills by addressing young people's needs for autonomy, competence, and connection (Faust & Kuperminc, 2020; Hoffman et al., 2021; Mulvey et al., 2023; Yu et al., 2022; Yu…

Numerous STEM agencies and advocacy groups posit that Outside of (regular) School Time (OST) STEM opportunities spur middle school students' learning, especially in fostering students' interests in and motivations for STEM. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sources of students' interest in and motivation for STEM while participating…

This book illuminates the lived experience of a group of primary school children engaged in virtual world play during a year-long after-school club. Shaped by post-structuralist theory and New Literacy Studies, it outlines a playful, participatory and emergent methodological approach, referred to as 'rhizomic ethnography'. This 'hybrid' text uses…

The phenomena of connection, competence, and self-efficacy have not been explored in the context of an after-school girls club. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of nine girls engaged in a quilting project in an after-school program for expressions of connection, competence, and self-efficacy using a feminist quilting…

Background: Social-emotional learning (SEL) and physical activity (PA) are beneficial for adolescent development. This review aims to describe educational programs that promote SEL and PA simultaneously among adolescents. Methods: A search was conducted using electronic databases in 2023 (eg, PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, ERIC) eliciting 5226…

A literacy ecosystem can be described as the overlapping, multilayered sectors that support literacy development in a specific region that individual teachers or parents might not achieve alone. Informal learning organizations (ILOs) such as public libraries, literacy nonprofit organizations, afterschool programs, and educational media…

Providing early literacy training for children is a vital part of establishing the foundation for the learning they will do for the rest of their lives, so it is important that we do the right work from the start. Unfortunately, too many children are still reading below grade level by third grade, and instead of reading to learn new materials,…

Creating Compassion is an empathy-focused creative arts curriculum designed to provide short-term, low-cost, high-quality social-emotional learning (SEL) to communities and settings with limited resources. The present study sought to determine whether Creating Compassion was effective for increasing displays of prosocial behaviors and broad SEL…

Young people need digital competency and confidence to effectively harness computing power to solve problems and design solutions; a core component is improving young people's computational thinking. Unfortunately, access to computer science education is lacking for all youth, and in particular for youth who live in lower-income households, who…

Afterschool programs inspire kids to learn, help them build foundational skills like the ability to communicate effectively and think critically, and give parents peace of mind knowing that their child is in a safe space with caring adults. For more than 25 years, 21st Century Community Learning Centers have helped young people academically and…