The kids are (not) alright: Teachers’ perspectives on the discourse of youth in social-emotional crisis

In this qualitative study stemming from a discourse community with six elementary teachers in the United States, discourse analysis was used to explore how these teachers discuss the international notion that youth are in a social and emotional crisis. The teachers resisted a deficit narrative that youth are to blame for this crisis and require fixing. Resistance was evident in teachers' discursive strategies such as illuminating students’ strengths, recognizing how “crisis” can emerge from systems operating as intended, and pointing out the contradictory metaphors of movement (stuck in the past, obsessed with progress) that can prevent global transformation in education.