Working Adolescents: Rethinking Education for and on the Job

This book offers a new approach to workforce education for youth. It provides meaningful and essential insight into educational systems and practices through cases of vocational and technical education in the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Italy, and the United States of America. The cases describe the history of the multi-faceted vocational systems and provide, in doing so, a springboard for this new work. A conceptual framework comprised of the cognitive, psychological, and social building blocks of individual development explains the multifaceted dimensions of youth that contribute to the policies and practices of traditional adolescent educational models. The framework extends that base by drawing on a multidisciplinary collection of research from both sociology and business to create a new transdisciplinary model for educational practice. It highlights the important but often under-studied relationship between educational institutions and workplaces. The book culminates in an original model, Community Works, which advances both formal and non-formal educational programming and curricula. The model details a practical program for youth, including roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders, and a curricular map, information on lesson planning, varieties of instructional strategies, and tools for assessment and evaluation for professionals.

Dr. Maslak holds the title of Professor in The School of Education at St. John's University. Before joining St. John's, she worked as a classroom teacher at the Taipei American School (Taiwan), and public and private schools (K-12) in Pennsylvania and Florida. At St. John's University, Dr. Maslak regularly teaches both undergraduate and graduate-level courses in The School of Education. She is also professor-in-charge of the School's Semester Study Abroad Program in Rome (Italy). Dr. Maslak has developed a research agenda that focuses on girls' and women's education, with a particular interest in using both mixed research methodologies and interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks in her work. In the last five years, she has studied the complexities of business learning for both adolescents and adult women. Her books and articles have been published by academic presses and peer-reviewed journals in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.A. Fulbright awarded her the Senior Research Award for her early work on Muslim girls' education in China and a Fulbright Hays fellowship for her work on women, business, and education. Dr. Maslak holds a dual Ph.D. in Comparative & International Education and Curriculum and Instruction and an MEd in Educational Administration from Pennsylvania State University, and baccalaureate degrees in music education and music therapy from Shenandoah University.