Cultivating Solidarity and Reframing Responsibility in Career Development Education

This article presents findings from a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project conducted within a career development education internship program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Led by Black youth members of the Youth Leadership Council (YLC), the project demonstrates how a pedagogy of solidarity can fundamentally reframe career development education toward equity and institutional accountability. Drawing on focus groups with current and former interns, the YLC produced three thematic findings organized around the dimensions of solidarity. Youth members redefined success on their own terms, named what genuinely supportive workplaces look and feel like, and designed and delivered employer trainings that centered youth knowledge and needs. Together these findings challenge the dominant career development education paradigm that places the burden of adaptation on individual youth, and make the case that responsibility belongs with the institutions and supervisors who shape the conditions in which young people work.