DEVELOPING AN EASY-TO-USE MODEL FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS TO HELP ENGAGE YOUNG STUDENTS IN POLITICS BASED ON THEIR OWN INTERESTS AND THEIR 21ST CENTURY CULTURE Some years ago it would have been less understandable and perhaps even irrelevant for secondary schools to take initiatives to what we can call “politics engagement of youth”. “Politics” in this project does not indicate any form of specific political preferences, but simply means “taking active part in local and global challenges as citizens”. It therefore links strongly to the EU Commission’s long-standing call for active citizenship – and this needs to start in secondary school. The Commission calls for systematic initiatives to re-engage youth in politics – based on their own understanding and voices. M I S S I O N The project will through innovative methods address the urgent challenge of young students increasing disengagement in politics. Asking: how can open schooling in secondary schools contribute to engaging youth in politics, democracy and EU values? Co-driven by young students, it will create innovative open schooling guidelines to schools on how to organise engagement in politics initiatives. C H A L L E N G E TO TACKLE THIS CHALLENGE, THE TRADITIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICS, DEMOCRACY AND EU VALUES MUST BE FUNDAMENTALLY QUESTIONED AND DECONSTRUCTED AND THE STUDENTS THEMSELVES MUST BE ALLOWED TO TAKE THE SCENE AND CO-CREATE WHAT POLITICS, DEMOCRACY AND EU VALUES MEAN IN THEIR WORLD AND HOW SCHOOLS CAN PROVIDE THE NECESSARY SPACE FOR SUCH YOUTH-DRIVEN INNOVATION. R A T I O N A L E The project will invite students to co-create attractive and practically useful guidance to secondary schools on how to prevent disinterest and foster engagement in politics, democracy and values. The guidance will be developed through real-life/time open schooling and will be based on practical experience, not on theoretical assumptions. M E T H O D O L O G I C A L Based on intensive studies of recent critical youth participation research and based on the Commission’s innovation in education agenda it can be concluded that 3 work methods need to work together to bring about the expected innovation and results: preventing disinterest and fostering engagement in politics in early schooling. Why these 3 methodologies and why must they work together? There are 3 fundamental conditions for preventing disinterest and fostering engagement in politics in early schooling and in education in general: 1. Didactic methodology Traditional didactics in secondary school must be changed into innovative open schooling didactics to bring about interest and engagement 2. Co-creation methodology The principles and work forms of interest and engagement fostering politics and learning must be developed and co-created by the young students themselves, not deducted from whatever educational theory 3. Subjective engagement methodology 21st century youth is characterised by a number of subjective engagement conditions and criteria very different from earlier generations; if those engagement criteria are not met, they will not engage W O R K P R O G R A M M E It is a framework that might be adjusted by the student teams. It responds to: what activities will lead to the creation of the open schooling guidance and to the outcomes in general? It is defined by: Phase 1: CAPACITY - building consensus and implementation capacity among partners and student teams 3 months Phase 2: DECONSTRUCTION - wild youth-led dialogues: questioning and deconstructing key elements in traditional political discourse 3 months Phase 3 A: OPEN SCHOOLING / COMMUNITY - young students as politics detectives: What does politics mean locally? What needs to be changed locally? Learning on demand… 4 months+ Phase 3 B: OPEN SCHOOLING / VIRTUAL - young students as politics detectives: What does politics mean globally, on the internet and in the social networks? Why are youth engaging and in what? Learning on demand… 4 months+ Phase 4: CONSTRUCTION - youth-led construction of an alternative political discourse, based on the practical community and virtual detecting; 4 months Phase 5: CONSTRUCTION+ - consultancy: feedback from teachers, schools, researchers and policy-makers to the youth-led construction 2 months Phase 6: PRODUCING & SHARING - production of final outcomes - sharing in the 3 networks 4 months O U T C O M E S The Game Changer - The school guide to engagement of young students in politics and democracy, including virtual scenarios How we can change the political game - Study of the reasons for the lack of interest in politics and democracy among the young generations The video - Student teams explain their engagement in the politics detectives missions and how they along the project developed an alternative understanding of and language for politics, democracy and EU values EU, where are you going? – policy paper - A reflexion based on why EU is losing its young generation
This Game Changer project objective was to create attractive and practically useful guidance to secondary schools on how to prevent disinterest and foster engagement in politics, democracy and EU values through secondary school students-teachers-other professionals teams’ cooperation. The guidance was developed through real-life/time open schooling and based on practical experience. The authentic and uncompromised direct involvement of the student teams was highlighted. The innovative methodologies addressed the urgent challenge of young students’ disengagement in politics. The project focused on the question of how can open schooling in secondary schools contribute to engaging young people in politics, democracy, and EU values. Co-driven by young students themselves, the project created innovative open schooling guidelines for secondary schools on how to organize engagement in political initiatives. The overall mission was to create innovative didactics in early schooling that prevent such disinterest and foster authentic and sustainable engagement.
The aim of the Game Changer project was to engage young people in politics by using relevant methodologies, exploring gamification and political activities simulation. This goal responds to the current problem that young people are often not interested in politics. The EU Commission and state of the art research jointly agree that the increasing disinterest in politics among young students is a giant challenge and a threat to a sustainable, democratic EU. Addressing these specific civic education needs, this Game Changer project brought together international team of practitioners and teachers in the field of civic education. The aim was to develop a unique method to engage young people in politics by practical partners (schools) and experts (knowledge and QA partners). This Game Changer project was based on shared partners values to develop civic education and create innovative schools’ empowerment methods for active citizenship and engagement in politics. It was based on the European Union strategic documents (Recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning (2006/962 / EC, EU Action Plan On Human Rights And Democracy 2020-2024 and others).