A grounded theory on the Lasallian concept of youth at risk

• Main Author: Moran, Hans Steven
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2006
• Subjects: Helping behavior; Youth; Educational Leadership; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/9169
• Institution: De La Salle University

A classical grounded theory research, the study covered a theoretical sample of 80 participants consisting of La Salle Brothers, administrators, faculty and staff members, students, parents and alumni selected from six La Salle Schools throughout the Philippines. Interviews with the participants yielded over 1300 individual incidents that were compared and contrasted to form codes, conceptual categories, and subcategories. A theory on ones decision making process in helping (service) others that incorporates ones desire (conviction) to help and ones rational-pragmatic deliberations, and a subsequent conceptual description of at risk groups emerged. The desire to help is based on ones rational-emotive beliefs (philosophical ideals and values that nurture helping and the knowledge of the nature of risk/problem) and relational-emotive ties (with the one who needs help and with a social group that nurtures helping). The desire to help undergoes a process of rational-pragmatic deliberations on the appropriateness of the recipient to be helped, the cost of helping, ones capability of helping, and the logistics of helping before the actual helping (service) behavior can occur. The theory has implications for a multiple pronged plan of action, on current theories of helping, and in the use of classical grounded theory research. 13 Children are the hope for the future. It is in the caring and the development of the youth in society that people base the future of the global community. However, amidst the present economic trials, the influence of mass media and the changing family values, more and more groups of youths seem to be at risk or exposed to numerous hazards and dangers. It is for the youths who are at risk that the entire global family of the congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (otherwise known as the La Salle Brothers) continues to respond. In a pastoral letter from the Superior General (2003), Brother Alvaro reminds the entire Lasallian family that God has anointed the entire Christian family to free young victims from so much oppression, and from so many situations in which they are at risk, by helping them find the light which gives meaning to their lives. Youth-At-Risk was introduced to the La Salle Schools and the stakeholders of these schools in the letter entitled And a Child Will Lead Them. In this letter, the District Council echoed the following words of Bro. Armin Luistro, FSC, the Provincial of the District stating, (Philippine District Council Letter, 1997, p. 4): If one were seriously seeking Gods Will, one cannot be insensitive to His cries heard through the moans of his little ones. To close ones [sic] ears to the cries of the poor is to play deaf to Gods own voice. The cry to stand by me is heard in every young person, but its urgency is most felt in the Philippines among those who are materially poor. Their name is legion since there are 10 million of them in especially difficult circumstances. They can remain nameless and faceless since most of them dare not dream of entering our campuses Since then, there have been efforts aimed at interpreting youth at risk in the different La Salle schools and in the different communities they serve in the Philippines with the end view of developing a vision and direction for the La Salle Philippine District. However, interpretations differ because the term youth at risk has not been 14 operationalized by the District Council. This was purposefully done so that creative responses to the various interpretations of youth at risk may evolve (Luistro, 2003) and to give the different La Salle schools and Lasallian sectors the leeway to interpret the term according to their own concepts of youth at risk. In spite of variations in interpretation, there have been efforts to respond to the needs of youth at risk through varied activities and programs. In some cases, these have even changed policies and ethical considerations for many Lasallian schools and associations. Different projects and programs based on various interpretations of youth at risk have resulted from varied responses to this wide category of youth. In the First Lasallian Family Synod in the Philippines in 1999, La Salle Brothers and lay partners, after consultation with the entire Lasallian Family in the Philippines, deliberated seriously on the Districts vision phrase to risk our lives for the youth at risk and in developing an action plan. This was a direction setting vision for the Lasallian Family. One of the problems addressed was the youth at risk and the provisions of greater access to these youths. This resulted in one of the twelve Lasallian Ministry Action Plans that is aimed at making our Lasallian institutions accessible to all, especially the poor, the youth at risk, the differently-abled, and indigenous peoples. This statement keeps the concept of youth at risk as ambiguous as ever, because many referred to this group as the poor youth, the indigenous, the differently-abled, and so forth. However, in the synod statement, it seems that the Lasallian Family is making a distinction among these different youth populations. In the 2003 Philippine Lasallian Family Convocation, the delegates formed a resolution towards the intensification of scholarship programs as one response to the 15 challenge of the Lasallian Ministry Action Plan. The resolution states, let it be resolved that each institution, according to its capacity and culture, exert all possible means to expand its scholarship programs and set the recommended target goal of an equivalent 20% of the schools population on full scholarship grants by the year 2011, and that the majority of grantees shall be from the economically disadvantaged sectors (2003 Philippine Lasallian Family Convocation, 2003, p 32). However, the resolution leaves individual institutions to decide on the selection of these youths from the economically disadvantaged sectors and on the operational definition of these scholars. This resolution started to shed light on the youth at risk as those who are economically disadvantaged because the resolution is under the youth at risk section. However, this contradicts the Lasallian Synod statement that defines the term beyond the concept of economic disadvantaged youths. Another resolution in the 2003 Philippine Lasallian Family Convocation is directly aimed at addressing youth at risk. The resolution is to conduct research on the needs of youth that have not been covered by existing researches, and to identify the most prevalent needs of youth in each locality where there is a Lasallian Institution. Entitled Youth At Risk, the resolution tasks the Federation of Lasallian Institutions to engage the assistance of the College of Education of De La Salle University Manila to research the needs of youth at risk. It is the hope that the study called for by the Lasallian Convocation will enable the Lasallian Institutions to make clear decisions in responding to the most prevalent needs of youth at risk in their area. However, without a common understanding or concept of youth at risk, the study may be without direction.