30 Oct MYP Handbook is available
CIIE / UPorto is one of the partners of the BePart project which aims to develop, implement and evaluate an innovative and participatory approach for young people in mainstream schools, promoting inclusive education and, simultaneously, promoting citizenship and empowerment skills, especially among young people, between 13 and 15 years old, from disadvantaged contexts. The CIIE / UPorto team was responsible for the elaboration of a Handbook, the first output of the project, available in 5 languages (EN, PT, ES, LV, GR), for download, through its website (http://bepart-project.eu/resources/ ). This Handbook allows the identification and analysis of a set of 28 Youth Participation Models, as well as guidance for the work to be done in schools.
The Handbook is structured in 5 chapters. After an introduction, the central concept of the project – “youth-led participation” is explored and its importance framed in the principles of development, led by young people, particularly in participatory management in schools. A third chapter focuses on one of the fundamental contents for the development of the project. It characterizes participatory models that foster the inclusion of young people and highlights central issues in support of the choice of models to be implemented. For this reason, this chapter is important for the stages of Be-PART where situations of youth participation are experienced, as well as for the construction of communities that follow principles of collaborative work. The presentation of a decision tree can support teachers and young people in the selection of models to implement in schools, considering their interests in participation.
The diversity of the models in the Handbook reflects a multiplicity of theoretical and practical frameworks. To facilitate their analysis, all of them were organized in time separators, according to the date of publication/dissemination and, in each separator, they were ordered alphabetically, considering the denomination of the models. The theoretical presentation of each model is complemented with questions or suggestions for activities that aim to contribute to the understanding and operationalization of the model in the school context. This information is enriched with the presentation of links, for each model, which allow those who wish to deepen their knowledge. The fourth chapter of the Handbook focuses on the participation and empowerment scenarios led by young people in schools. Based on interviews with school principals from all four BePart partner countries (Portugal, Greece, Spain and Latvia), information on this participation in school management and decision-making activities was organized, taking into account the young people’s choices in the participation process, as well as the role they play in decision-making processes and in the practices implemented to maximize democracy. Once again, the use of separators offers those who read the Handbook the possibility of situating practices and tasks developed in schools, illustrated with testimonials from principals, on ways for students to participate in decision-making processes. In the last chapter, the main conclusions of the work carried out for the construction of the Handbook are presented, as well as a series of practical recommendations to increase the development led by school students, in the participative management of the institution. The recommendations produced are intended to reinforce their role in the planning, implementation and evaluation of participation models that promote education for citizenship in the multiple contexts of life. It is intended, at this point, to make contributions to the development, in young people, of civic competencies and empowerment, in the sense of social inclusion.
In conclusion, to the extent that young people are seen as agents of change and innovation in the school management process, CIIE/UPorto, as a partner in this consortium, has been contributing to the implementation of initiatives based on participation models featured in this Handbook. Constituting youth participation as an excellent setting to investigate, innovate and inspire change in education, BePart is building a path of knowledge sharing with and for educational communities, with a particular focus on issues of equity and situations of inequality socially vulnerable groups that can contribute to moving towards change and social justice.
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