Abstract
This paper focuses the development of a participatory social educational planning approach related to social inclusion of highly marginalized young people into education, the labour market, and social arenas. Social inclusion of young people at risk represents a vital area of interest for political systems, the civic society and for the educators and professionals and it can be determined as a wicked problem which we show in the article (Harju et al 2024, Pitti et al 2023, Percy-Smith, B., & Nigel, T. 2009, Tofteng & Bladt 2020, Tisdall 2017, Sinclair 2004, Habegger & Mancila 2019).
Based on experiences from an action research project aimed at enhancing a participatory way of working with involving and reaching out to highly marginalized youth, the aim of the paper is to reflect and discuss on risks and potentials that arise when we want to learn from the margins by working with participatory planning in a social and educational way.
The project, “Learning from the Margins” (LEMA, Lema.nu, Harju et al 2024), was an Erasmus funded collaboration between partners in Sweden, Demark and Spain aiming at developing new ways to work with marginalization and youth within a professional and system context by learning from the margins. The methodological approach was therefore to, through action research based participatory strategies (Reason & Bradbury 2001, Carr & Kemmis 1986, Kemmis McTaggert 2015), create spaces for involving young people. The participatory method and strategy were crucial in the sense that context-specific solutions were taken into consideration. Young people were considered the real experts and learning from their marginalized positions essential to the innovative perspectives of the project. For this reason, the project involved marginalized young people as key partners in the development of new perspectives and solutions.
The results show on various risks and potentials which are presented in two themes. The first one is connected to the experiences and life circumstances of the young people. Whereas the project enhanced social collective processes trying to find answers to general social and structural problems together with the youth, the motivation for the young people was also to get help creating individual life strategies. This theme brings focus on how action research processes in some field (if not always) must navigate on a fine line when involving marginalized groups by its dual function as both creating research knowledge and supporting participants living their lives.
The second theme emerged at the end of the project, the young people wanted the knowledge we had gained from the project to be shared with stakeholders and actors in the field – politicians in particular. They wanted to disseminate our thematic findings but also the experiences with the participatory method. This brought us to a discussion on what kind of knowledge these types of
2
projects produce and how it should be used – in a space between information and action. How can knowledge become actionable?
Based on experiences from an action research project aimed at enhancing a participatory way of working with involving and reaching out to highly marginalized youth, the aim of the paper is to reflect and discuss on risks and potentials that arise when we want to learn from the margins by working with participatory planning in a social and educational way.
The project, “Learning from the Margins” (LEMA, Lema.nu, Harju et al 2024), was an Erasmus funded collaboration between partners in Sweden, Demark and Spain aiming at developing new ways to work with marginalization and youth within a professional and system context by learning from the margins. The methodological approach was therefore to, through action research based participatory strategies (Reason & Bradbury 2001, Carr & Kemmis 1986, Kemmis McTaggert 2015), create spaces for involving young people. The participatory method and strategy were crucial in the sense that context-specific solutions were taken into consideration. Young people were considered the real experts and learning from their marginalized positions essential to the innovative perspectives of the project. For this reason, the project involved marginalized young people as key partners in the development of new perspectives and solutions.
The results show on various risks and potentials which are presented in two themes. The first one is connected to the experiences and life circumstances of the young people. Whereas the project enhanced social collective processes trying to find answers to general social and structural problems together with the youth, the motivation for the young people was also to get help creating individual life strategies. This theme brings focus on how action research processes in some field (if not always) must navigate on a fine line when involving marginalized groups by its dual function as both creating research knowledge and supporting participants living their lives.
The second theme emerged at the end of the project, the young people wanted the knowledge we had gained from the project to be shared with stakeholders and actors in the field – politicians in particular. They wanted to disseminate our thematic findings but also the experiences with the participatory method. This brought us to a discussion on what kind of knowledge these types of
2
projects produce and how it should be used – in a space between information and action. How can knowledge become actionable?
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Publikationsdato | 7 nov. 2024 |
Status | Udgivet - 7 nov. 2024 |
Begivenhed | DAN konferencen 2024: Reaching out - participatory and engaged research for change: Dansk aktionsforskningsnetværk (DAN) - AAU, Ålborg, Danmark Varighed: 7 nov. 2024 → 8 nov. 2024 https://www.kultur.aau.dk/reaching-out-participatory-and-engaged-research-for-change-e84659 |
Konference
Konference | DAN konferencen 2024: Reaching out - participatory and engaged research for change |
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Lokation | AAU |
Land/Område | Danmark |
By | Ålborg |
Periode | 07/11/24 → 08/11/24 |
Internetadresse |
Emneord
- Børn og unge