“True youth engagement requires a fundamental shift. Young people must have an authentic voice in the design, development and day-to-day functions of activities. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this shift from adult-directed to youth-owned.” “Engaging youth in community decision-making” Center for the Study of Social Policy, Washington DC, 2007 Young Europeans Countering increasing disinterest among the young generations in politics, democracy and European values through the creation of innovative ways of fostering early politics interest and engagement in school - based on an open schooling approach MISSION Young Europeans will, through innovative work methods, address the urgent challenge of young Europeans’ increasing disengagement in politics. The project asks: how can open schooling in secondary schools contribute to engaging young people in politics, democracy and European values? Co-driven by young students themselves, the project will create innovative open schooling guidelines to secondary schools on how to organise engagement in political initiatives. A SCHOOL PROJECT Despite a longstanding commitment to citizenship education in secondary schools, this has not resulted in the widespread political engagement of young people. It is understandable that those working in the formal education sector will have some reticence about using the term ‘political’ so we must be clear that this is not an issue of party politics but it is in line with European Commission calls for systematic initiatives to re-engage young people in politics based on their own understanding and their own voices. The only context in which young people can be systematically re-engaged in politics is in school. Few young people are engaged in non-formal youth activities that address various forms of politics. Engagement in politics and global challenges should take place as early as possible, and certainly in secondary school, as these are the years in which young people form their identity – and can also develop a resistance to traditional politics. Young Europeans is consequently not a non-formal Youth project but a school project, engaging young students systematically in politics. CHALLENGE To tackle this challenge, the traditional understanding of politics, democracy and European values must be fundamentally questioned and deconstructed (as strongly recommended by state of the art critical research). The young students themselves must be allowed to take the scene and co-create what politics, democracy and European values mean in their world and how schools can provide the necessary space for such youth-driven innovation. RATIONALE Young Europeans will invite secondary students to co-create attractive and practically useful guidance to secondary schools on how to prevent disinterest, and foster engagement in politics, democracy and EU values. The guidance will be developed through real-life and real-time open schooling and will therefore be based on practical experience, not on theoretical assumptions. METHODOLOGICAL There are 3 fundamental conditions for preventing disinterest and fostering engagement in politics in education in general: 1. DIDACTIC METHODOLOGY Traditional didactics in secondary school must be supplemented with innovative open schooling approaches to generate interest and engagement. 2. CO-CREATION METHODOLOGY The potential issues or areas of interest that can foster a motivation for learning and political engagement, must be identified by the young students themselves and the means by which political engagement is developed will also be co-created by them. 3. SUBJECTIVE ENGAGEMENT METHODOLOGY 21st century youth is characterised by a number of subjective engagement conditions and criteria (e.g. immediacy, online presence, emotional engagement), often different from earlier generations; if those engagement criteria are not met, they will not engage. WORK PROGRAMME OVERVIEW Phase 1: CAPACITY - 3 months Phase 2: DECONSTRUCTION - 3 months Phase 3: A: OPEN SCHOOLING / COMMUNITY - 4 months+ B: OPEN SCHOOLING / VIRTUAL - 4 months+ Phase 4: CONSTRUCTION - 4 months Phase 5: CONSTRUCTION+ - 2 months Phase 6: PRODUCING & SHARING - 4 months OUTCOMES IO1 The Ngager! (working title) The radical school guide to engagement of young students in politics and democracy, including virtual scenarios IO2 Why they (should) disengage? Study of the reasons for the lack of interest in politics and democracy among young people IO3 The Ngager! The video Student teams explain their engagement in the politics detectives missions and how they, during the project, developed an alternative understanding of and language for politics, democracy and EU values. IO4 Stiffened and cracked Europe (working title) – policy paper A reflection, based on project activities, on why Europe and the European Project are losing young people’s interest.
Our aim was to create innovative approaches within secondary schools to prevent disinterest and foster authentic and sustainable engagement in political processes. To do this we set out to challenge the traditional understanding of politics as something confined to the adult world – or worse still, confined to politicians – by deconstructing political engagement to discover what politics, democracy and democratic (European) values means in the young people’s world.
The project recognises that despite a longstanding commitment to citizenship education in secondary schools, this has not resulted in the widespread political engagement of young people. Indeed, the EU Commission itself feels that the increasing disinterest in politics among young Europeans is a significant challenge and a threat to a sustainable, democratic EU. Political activity with a capital ‘P’, i.e. in the party-political sense, is rightly avoided in schools; however, active citizenship requires an understanding and engagement in political processes that affect us all, especially in the communities where young people lead their lives. We are concerned that young people have not been engaged, whether through a sense of helplessness or a lack of understanding of how significant they can actually be. This led us, together with our partners, to tackle this issue using an open schooling approach.