Open youth work European research network

Transcription

1 Open youth work European research network The ideal open youth work is characterized by arenas that are open to all youth, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation or socio economic status. Arenas for open youth work are often formed by the needs of the youth, both the physical design of the youth center, and in how the youth workers perform their profession. The youth workers are there to guide, to support, to facilitate and to develop connections to relevant stakeholders. The youth workers shall interpret the needs of youth, and encourage active participation, and make sure that the arenas doesn t exclude anyone, that bullying, violence, racism or sexism, cannot flourish. Unfortunately, the area of youth work has been weakened in the Nordic and many of the European countries, due to the financial situation throughout Europe. The situation for young people in Europe can be characterized by more complex societies, by tougher access to the labor market and by increasing socioeconomic differences between groups of youth. There is an increasing demand for more knowledge about how the local decision makers can adapt their policies to these challenges in society, but we also need to get more knowledge about the young people in Europe, which problems they face, and how we can adapt our services to create stabile societies in the future. The partners in this project represent knowledge about parts of these issues, and will benefit greatly from meeting and exchanging knowledge, and start new research cooperation based on what is not covered by the network already. The different approaches to youth work and research in this partnership, and will be explored through the project period. The partners behind the project have for many years been seeking knowledge about how organizations, youth services and research work together and develop services for youth. Some of the partner countries have broad experience in bottom-up processes where youth play an important role in decision making within youth clubs. Others are more guided by science. Regardless of the basis, the partners have different points of view and will gain from learning from each other. The European research Network s mission is to enhance and promote the inter-disciplinary study of open youth work in order to further awareness and understanding of issues that affect youth work.

2 The partners behinds this cooperation are : - Newman University College from UK - Politikos tyrimų ir analizės institutas/ Institute of policy and research analysis, from Lithuania - Stockholms Universitet/University of Stockholm, Sweden - Haskoli Islands/University of Iceland, Iceland - POYWE (NGO) European umbrella organization, located in Austria - Ungdom og Fritid/ The Norwegian National youth club organization (NGO), Norway Aims The Network aims: To bring together organizations which produce research on youth work as well as organizations which utilize (or would like to utilize) research findings in order to benefit and improve outcomes for youth and youth workers To foster collaboration between stakeholders in order to produce better ways to address issues affecting the services and life in general for young people To encourage the production and dissemination of research and the creation of research environments that allow the voices of young people to be clearly heard and understood To promote greater collaboration between practitioners, researchers, policy-makers and funders, and to improve linkages between practice, research and policy To create a network to disseminate, develop and publish research The project The aim of the project is to create more knowledge about open youth work, about youth, to disseminate this knowledge and to provide new knowledge for decision makers. The project includes actors from all levels within youth work, and the project will seek to share methods and best practice between youth workers, and encourage development of new research based youth work methods. Though this project, the partnership seeks to establish sustainable arenas, for interaction between youth services, researchers, educational institutions and local decision makers. The objectives of this project are: - To create an arena for peer reviewing and development of research - To offer a channel for implementation of methods and models for youth work - To give voice to youth workers in political issues - To enhance systems for the education policy best practice triangle

3 Activities - During the two year project, we will implement three study trips for researchers, youth workers and decision makers. The participants will document best practice and evaluate methods, and start new research collaboration during the project. The product carried out of by the network during these study trips, will be documented through articles in the academic journal. - A European researcher s conference - An academic journal of open youth work, which will be a tool to publish research and also the results from the activities in the project Topics for the world cafe - What do we need to know about youth work today? - Why do we need to know anything about youth work? - Policy- decision makers: how & why should the society provide for open youth work? - Design of the youth services: -how should the youth service be developed, in order to be attractive for youth? How can you measure quality in youth service? - what works (e.g. evaluations of impact) and those investigating how it works - Thoughts about research methods and design Main results from the two Nordic researcher s conferences Youth Work in the Nordic countries is based on practice, there is little research-based work. Very few managers and employees in youth work in Sweden have higher education, as is the case in Norway. There is a great need for research and education in the field. 70% of youngsters use youth clubs in Reykjavik. Iceland 2012: Experiencing a conflict between the traditional and more academic fields at the university, leisure science is closely related to the professional field, but have a good cooperation with sociological institute. It is a pressure to be a part of the academic community and prioritize scientific articles rather than to approach the practice field. The existing research by the sociological institute, does not go in depth, but provides statistics about the frequency of e.g. drug use. The Faroe Isles: Firouz Gaini is interested in teen's own views and interpretations of the culture they are a part of. He has studied the relationship between generations (primarily on the Faroe Islands) as a reflection of a gap in society - between tradition and (late) modernity. He has studied the dynamics of local and global cultural identities in the life of modern youth. He has also been involved in writing about the relationship between school, leisure and family (home) today. In his research the main question has often been: What are the young people's preferences and priorities? What are they missing in their lives? What do they want to change in society? In other words, he studies the youth cultures as a part of society in transition from an anthropological perspective.

4 Finland: Heta Mularis ongoing doctoral work explores representations of girlhood in Swedish youth films in She is interested in how these films have been circulated and referred to in media debates about New feminism, education and youth activism. The main objective of the research is to explore three interwoven cinematic images of Swedish girlhood: a girl feminist, a girl consumer and a girl who needs education. Her research areas include youth and girlhood studies, history feminism, media education and cultural film and media. Sweden: Vanja Lozic is a lecturer in educational sciences at the University of Kristianstad. He has studied how young people raised in the so-called multicultural city Malmo interpret their ethnic identity and how this affects their view of relevant knowledge in the school of public and historical theme in particular. The analysis of identity has been linked to youth at the high school level, their leisure activities, relationships with the local environment, travel, future plans and parental country of birth. Now working to complete a research project application whose purpose is to "examine how structural and institutional changes affecting social exclusion / inclusion of migrant youth in marginalized neighborhoods through case studies in two Swedish urban settings -. Stockholm and Malmo". Norway: Willy Aagre is professor of education with a PhD in a culture analytically oriented study on the construction of meaning and cultural everyday practices among Nordic youngsters. The thesis was the end result of a Nordic interdisciplinary research, Nordic youth rooms. Aagre has also been involved in another Nordic research project on young people, gender and pornography, with the aim to identify and analyze pornography role and position within different youth cultures in the Nordic countries. Aagre has also participated in studies on children in kindergarten and language, and now works in a network which will investigate improvisation as educational concept in education, leisure and creative endeavors. How can the ability to professionally competent improvisation developed and b li an integral part of the educational tool? This work may have transfer value for youth work field and how this must act to changes in society. Sweden/Denmark: Peter Håkanssons research focuses on youth unemployment and its relationship to social capital. He has in his research studied various "transitional regimes" (ie the transition from school to working life) and how the formation of social capital takes place in them. In an upcoming project, he will study the transition regime in Sweden and Denmark, and how social capital is formed in them. Peter Håkansson has a historical perspective, but also a perspective based on the concept of social capital. Finland: The starting point for the study of Juha youth work and its informal educational methods. In her study she has clarified how the adolescent identity development are safeguarded according to Eriksson's theory of psychological development, according to neo- Eriksonians, from a feminist point of view, and how it is described in postmodern times. The approach is theoretical, and research method is content analysis. The empirical material consists of 24 articles published in the journal, An International Journal of Theory and Research The aim is to study the opportunities for youth work in strengthening adolescent identity development through informal methods of training. Hallmarks of informal education is presence, reflection, dialogue and trust. Group activities and strengthening of both social skills and ability to care are important characteristics. The third theme was the moral and

5 social issues addressed in youth groups. All these methods of informal education is a natural part of youth work. Sweden: Lars Lagergren started working in 2006 at leisure studies. He realized after six months that the leisure studies in practice means youth studies. Youth work is characterized in that it lacked organization and management, it ended up that young workers had a typical underdog mentality. The only time they got a positive response, was meeting with youth. The story of "poor me, but I am also a hero" is a recurring. The situation for youth worker is therefore that "no one hears you, nobody tells you what to do, and nobody cares." So it basically is he interested in the question "by what right one can interfere in the lives of adolescents?" What kind of education one has to do this job, and what you must be able to perform this work? Often it is enough to care about the young. Why do they come to your young teen. A professionally run service must be able to answer why young arrive at the youth club. Denmark: Jens Christian Nielsen is professor and research director of the Center for Youth Research (CEFU) at the Department of Training and Education (DPU), Aarhus University (Campus Copenhagen). Over the past 15 years, Jens Christian worked with research on adolescents, youth and life as a young. Youth Research is the core of his work. Much of the research he has done has also been centered on issues that have direct or indirect relevance to leisure research. Conclusions The Nordic UN Conference on Open Youth Work discussed the open youth work, both in relation to the ambition of trying to create a definition of the specific field but also of the surrounding fields. To the open youth work field includes many different professions and theoretical bases described as both a weakness and a strength; the thematic fragmentation leads to difficulties in coordinating activities while also providing a useful diversity. As a background for the discussion of dissatisfaction about how young people as a group lost significance in the social debate that increasingly involves the individual's self-fulfillment. Youth Time should be accorded its own value, not only as a transition towards adulthood or to create future workers. The open juvenile nature of the work shall be voluntary and based on young people's premises. From a societal perspective, the activities aim to strengthen democratic values, but also provide opportunities to create change. From the individual's perspective, it is about liberation, about creating knowledge processes but also about creating an arena that is characterized by trust, respect and opportunities for support. A lack of useful theories areas were made visible during the two-day conference. Efforts to create conditions for the design of new theoretical and methodological bases are both scientists as those involved in the operation's responsibility to bring about. The need to professionalize youth was also discussed, and about how a profession's emergence is about how power structures are created and maintained, the identification patterns and cultural identities emerge and how it is foreign and outside defined. The perception of the need to make professional and topic-specific definitions varied among the conference participants. The Conference expressed a great lack of Nordic study materials for existing programs related to youth. The discussions made visible not only the need for theories and teaching materials for the Nordic context, but also drew attention to the areas that would need to be researched in the field. For example, considered the methods used in youth work could be

6 described, mapped and compared between the different Nordic countries. Fritidsgårdars function and significance as well as places young people create for their own business were also considered to be the subjects of research, both in themselves as to the conditions for informal learning. Moreover requested research on the effects and outcomes of youth activities, and what the consequences are for those who choose not to participate. The Nordic research network concluded that we need more research on these topics: Facts about and the impact and effect (impact) of youth work Expectations for the youth club, including parents and politicians, and young people themselves Collaboration within the leisure field