Routledge Empowering Children: A Multicultural Humanistic Approach

This unique text bridges multiculturalism and humanistic psychology, demonstrating how these areas can be effectively integrated to provide a foundation for engaging youth in the global community. Adapting the tenets of humanistic psychology for a modern, multicultural audience, Empowering Children: A Multicultural Humanistic Approach uses an after-school program called Kidz n’ Coaches to exemplify the ways in which community out-reach and humanistic psychology can be used together to meet the needs of diverse populations. Chapters also discuss issues of border cultures, with a focus on communities along the Mexican-American border, and offer practical tools for those looking to found their own community out-reach programs. Through a detailed case study and phenomenological study results, this book offers an immersive framework for multicultural humanistic psychology that will be of value to researchers and professionals alike. Review "Empowering Children is a unique and trailblazing contribution to the fields of humanistic child and multicultural psychology. Drawing on his mentor Jim Smrtic's groundbreaking after-school program, Kidz n' Coaches, Christopher Kazanjian draws from a rich array of humanistic philosophers and psychologists to illuminate an approach to child-care that should in my view help set the standard for the optimal development of our youth. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is concerned with how we treat each other and the basis on which such engagements impact well-being." ― Kirk Schneider, PhD, author of The Spirituality of Awe  and The Polarized Mind ; senior editor of The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology ; president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute "In Empowering Children, Christopher Kazanjian invites us to think about what it really means to support children as they grow and learn and move into the world. Through elegantly written and engaging prose, Kazanjian uses the story of Jim Smrtic to illustrate how a community-engaged after-school program can support strong development in children, especially if it is based on a multicultural humanistic psychology committed to culturally relevant self-actualization." ― Wayne Au, PhD, professor, School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington Bothell; editor of Rethinking Schools "In this moving text, Christopher Kazanjian draws upon the narrative style and life’s work of his mentor, Jim Smrtic, in developing the Kidz n’ Coaches after-school program as a means to create a multicultural humanistic psychology. His work demonstrates the power of a multicultural perspective in his concrete interactions with children. Drawing on the tradition of empirical-phenomenology, Dr. Kazanjian has created a data-driven work that establishes the legitimacy of existential-humanistic principles in the area of child development. His utilization of the notions of culturally relative self-actualization and the emerging child come at a pivotal time in American history." ― Eugene Mario DeRobertis, PhD, professor of psychology, Brookdale College; author of The Phenomenology of Learning and Becoming: Enthusiasm, Creativity, and Self-Development "We need to unravel the interconnected web of challenges that hegemonic totalities impose upon our realities; these include white privilege, cultural blindness, socio-economic factors, deficit models, and the impact on social and emotional intelligences. Empowering Children makes a brilliant assessment of these elements within our global experience felt in our borderland community by using a phenomenological research study of growth-promoting relationships for youth in the after-school program Kidz n’ Coaches. Dr. Kazanjian explores a multicultural humanistic psychological paradigm and praxis, emphasizing on empowerment through culturally relative self-actualization prospects where youth develop critical consciousness to become democratic agents of social change." ― Cesar A. R