From "Punks" at School to "Superstars" at Work: Social Capital and Educators' Asset-Based Perspectives of Students in High School Internships Provisionally Accepted
Anindya Kundu
Scott McLeod- 1Florida International University, United States
- 2University of Colorado Denver, United States
High school internships provide students with valuable work-based learning experiences, career-oriented networking, and in-demand professional skills. In this study of high school principals, internship coordinators (“institutional agents”), and student interns, we highlight data from interviews and focus groups that substantiate the idea that internships can showcase students’ more diverse and latent aptitudes but are more effective when building upon students’ existing interests and abilities. Given the opportunity-focused goals of these programs, we recommend that school-based professionals adopt the language of social capital (or similar frameworks) to develop shared understandings between stakeholders and also critique existing conceptualizations to approach the work from asset-based and equity lenses.
Keywords: internships, social capital, Institutional agents, Workforce, educational leadership and Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Italic
Received: 20 Feb 2024;
Accepted: 20 May 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Kundu, McLeod and Piedrahita-Guzmán. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Dr. Anindya Kundu, Florida International University, Miami, 33199, Florida, United States
Dr. Scott McLeod, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, United States