Stanford Center on Adolescence

In 1987, Heath and Milbrey McLaughlin began examining learning environments in the out-of-school hours where young people sustained their membership and gained knowledge and skills. Research sites included community organizations centered in the arts, athletics and academics, and community service located in urban and rural areas and in mid-sized towns (25,000 - 100,000). By 1993, Heath turned close attention to linguistic and cognitive development of young artists, both in US sites and in other post-industrial societies where many community youth had opted out of higher education in favor of remaining in their communities for social and economic development of local resources. This work on learning within contexts supporting production of the arts has been widely reported in journals on human development, youth studies, and the anthropology of everyday life. A prize-winning documentary ARTSHOW and accompanying resource guide are available through Partners for Livable Communities (www.livable.com) and document the business laboratory and learning environments of several youth-based community-arts groups in the United States.

The focus of Heath's research is now on linguistic and cognitive learning that takes place through means such as apprenticeship, mentoring, organizational management, and financial planning that depend on observing, listening, and modeling and go beyond direct verbal instruction. Currently, research is underway on highly innovative means of enabling young artists who want to be community organizational leaders to have opportunities to advance their own work as artists while also studying nonprofit management and finance. This work is international and includes young people as members of the research team.

Posting of findings and individual projects will begin appearing in September 2001 on the website shirleybriceheath.com with links to several youth-based organizations in the US and the UK who are part of the on-going research and policy work.

Publications

• Heath, S.B.; Soep, E. & Roach, A. (1998). "Living the Arts through Language and Learning: A Report on Community-Based Youth Organizations." In Americans for the Arts Monographs. Washington, DC: Americans For The Arts 2.7:1-20 (November).

• Wolf, J.L.; Heath, S.B. (1999) "When Resolution Comes in Stages: How Drama Makes Good Use of Conflict." B.J. Wagner, ed. Building Moral Communities through Educational Drama. Stamford, CT: Ablex. Pp. 91-112.

• Heath, S.B. (1998). "Working through Language". In Kids Talk: Strategic language use in later childhood. S. Hoyle and C.T. Adger, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 217-240.