their hopes, fears and reality: working with young people and children for the future (proofs)

Their hopes, fears and reality

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PETER LANGBern · Berlin · Bruxelles · Frankfurt am Main · New York · Oxford · Wien

Melinda Dooly (ed.)

Their hopes, fears and realityWORKING WITH CHILDREN AND YOUTH FOR THE FUTURE

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To Mark, for making me aware of what is important in life.

Table of Contents

Their Hopes, Fears and Reality: Introduction Melinda Dooly ................................................................................................ 9 Third World Solidarity and ‘My World’ Insolidarity: Working with the Wide Spectrum of Students’ Attitudes towards Others Claudia Vallejo & Montserrat Oller ............................................................ 37 Developing Art Projects as a Medium for Exploring Children and Youth’s Hopes and Fears Esther Collados ............................................................................................. 75 Their Hopes and Fears: A Catalyst for Project-Based Language Learning Melinda Dooly .............................................................................................. 99 Citizenship, Cooperation and Social Action Alistair Ross............................................................................................... 133 Between Classroom and Social Reality – Developing Active Citizenship in School Beata Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz & Anna Zalewska ........................................ 163 Bridging the Gap: Primary and Secondary Students’ Engagement with Global and Environmental Issues Cathie Holden ............................................................................................. 189 Dealing with Citizens of the Future’s Needs through the Promotion of Self-Efficacy in Teaching Elena Briones & Carmen Tabernero .......................................................... 209

Table of Contents 8

Fostering Cooperation to Manage Situations of Interdependence Successfully Carmen Tabernero & Elena Briones .......................................................... 231 Contributors ............................................................................................ 253

Their Hopes, Fears and Reality: Introduction

MELINDA DOOLY

This book is based on the results of a research project supported by the European Research Foundation and conducted in four different European countries: Poland1, UK2, Turkey3 and Spain4. The research forms part of The European Collaborative Research Projects (ECRPs) in the Social Sciences and is entitled “Citizens of the future: the concerns and actions of young people around current European and global issues”5. The main thrust of the study was to explore

1 Research members in Poland are Dr. Beata Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz (principal

researcher and project leader), Wojciech Siegie� at University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn; Anna Zalewska (principal researcher) and Agnieszka Boja-nowska at Warsaw School of Social Psychology. Funded by the Polish Minis-try of Science and Higher Education (Grant ESF/84/2006).

2 Research members in the UK are Dr. Alistair Ross (principal researcher), Dr Kim Allen, Sarah Minty, Sumi Hollingworth at London Metropolitan Univer-sity, Institute for Policy Studies in Education; Dr. Cathie Holden (principal re-searcher) and Harriet Jones. Funded by the British Academy Small Grants Award (SG 49353).

3 Members of the Turkish research team are Dr. Nilüfer Pembecioglu Öcel (prin-cipal researcher) and Nadi Güler �lkay Kan�k, Burcu Akkay, Ece Kayrak, Cemal Uzuno�lu and Gökçen Ard�ç at Istanbul University; Dr. Erol Nezih Orhon at Eski�ehir Anadolu University. Funded by TÜBITAK (Grant 107KT66).

4 The Spanish research team members are Dr. Melinda Dooly (principal re-searcher), Dr. Montserrat Oller, Claudia Vallejo, Dr. Esther Collados, Maria Villanueva at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Dr. Antoni Luna at the Pompeu Fabra University; Dr. Carmen Tabernero (principal researcher) and Dr. Elena Briones at the Universidad de Córdoba. Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, Research and Development Projects (Grant SEJ2007-29191-E).

5 This book is a product of the ECRP research of our four teams; however the analysis and opinions of each chapter reflect the views of the authors only.

M. Dooly 10

primary and secondary education pupils’ perspectives about the fu-ture, at personal, local and global levels.

The study was carried out because of a growing recognition of the need to comprehend students’ hopes and fears and general per-spectives about current and future events, all within the context in which they are developing. Our students of today (who are the future leaders and active citizens of tomorrow) are growing up in a quite different educational environment from that of their parents and teachers. Globalisation has had an impact on many aspects of every-day life. Students coming of age in today’s world have access to diverse and numerous sources of information and their geopolitical references are constantly changing and expanding.

[…] globalization is part of an ever more interdependent world where political, economic, social and cultural relationships are not restricted to territorial boundaries […] and no state or entity is unaffected by activities outside its direct control. Developments in technology and communications, the creation of intricate international organizations and transnational corporations […] have profoundly affected the context within which each person and community lives, as well as the role of the state. (McCorquodale and Fairbrother 1999: 736)

Parallel to immense global changes and economic interdependency, massive expansion and rapidly paced innovation in telecommuni-cations have resulted in fundamental changes in both knowledge pro-duction and knowledge transmission. These new sources of informa-tion and communication allow students to interact on a daily basis with a great variety of people or find out about events that are hap-pening on the other side of the world. At the same time, and almost ironically, in many cases these students hardly know what is happen-ing in their own neighborhood.

Data from a variety of sources indicates that many people in Europe feel uncertainty and impotence – even pessimism – about the future (see Debomy 2001). These feelings are especially marked in three areas: � The rate of change in society creates a sense of instability and un-

certainty. This is coupled with the instant access to information

Their Hopes, Fears and Reality: Introduction 11

about events across the globe and suggests fewer stable points of references for overall understanding of different events.

� A general sense of loss of (traditional) values and lack of social cohesion – often perceived in relation to augment of crime, de-linquency, immigration; parallel with diminution of solidarity and insecurity.

� Widely documented economic upheavals, which is generally seen as being caused by uncontrolled capitalism, coupled with weak-ened social infrastructures.

Bauman (1992) has argued that people in the ‘postmodern’ world feel that they have very little self-determination of their own future and that this can lead to political inactivity and general apathy. In his book on European education and its implications on the youth of today, Ross also mentions changes experienced in the postmodern world:

We are living in a society that can be for various reasons described as post-modern, with new kinds of possibilities, fears, hopes and contiguities. In this increasingly globalised world, we are becoming acclimatized to very different kinds of connectivity, information, knowledge, and contact than have been possible in the past. (Ross 2008: 5)

The impact that these circumstances have on children and youth may be significant in their participation as citizens of the future. There have been numerous studies on adult perspectives concerning the fu-ture, especially concerning the financial future in the wake of the crisis of 2008–2009. However, there are fewer studies into the per-spectives of children and youth concerning the future. (For some significant studies in this area see Repáraz and Naval 2005; Holden 2006; Oller Freixa and Pagés Blanch 2007). There is a need to delve into the issues which children and youth perceive as important in order to better understand their concerns, hopes and expectations of the future so that we (educators, parents, policy-makers, concerned citizens) can help prepare tomorrow’s stakeholders in society.

The importance of providing future citizens with the ability and skills necessary for facing the challenges of the future is patent. Argu-ably educators are in an optimal position to help in the development of

M. Dooly 12

this process, but in order to do so; teachers need to be aware of their students’ perspectives about issues which are of concern to them.

As well as allowing students to speak freely about their hopes and fears for the future we also need to know what they feel about key issues which affect all communities. Hicks (2007) maintains that ‘long standing global issues – those to do with poverty, environment, conflict and social justice – constantly take on new forms, whether in relation to the complexities of globalisation, the “war against terrorism” or global climate change’ (2007: 1). One of the focuses of the current study is to ascertain the extent to which students’ feel optimistic or pessimistic about solutions to such current local and global issues, where they get their information from about these issues and the part school plays in facilitating their understanding. (Holden 2008:78)

Arguably, the era of a globalised, hybrid post-modern world is a vi-brant, but uncertain time for both teachers and students. “Changes can produce a sense of challenge and opportunity for exploration while provoking ambiguous feelings towards those same changes” (Dooly 2008: 2). Knowing how students deal with these changes now (and in the future) is essential for designing effective pedagogical, cross-disciplinary approaches that help students move beyond their situations in school to understand the role they can take in a broader transformation in/of society.

What was the study about?

During 2007–2009, field work was carried out in Spain, Turkey6, Poland and the UK, through varied research activities (both quantita-tive and qualitative). The study was designed to get a sense of the representations, ideas and opinions held by children and youth con-cerning current and future events on local, national and the global levels. Deriving from their own experiences, the study was designed 6 Due to force majeure, specific examples from Turkey cannot be included in this

chapter, only overall statistical data.


to illustrate the students’ hopes and fears related to their understand-ing of democratic processes, poverty, unemployment, human rights, environmental issues, and conflict on personal, local, regional, state, national and world levels.

The study also explored the students’ current engagement in so-cial projects (voluntary work, NGOs, etc.) as well as their predictions of whether they would be involved in these type of activities and/or political activities when they are adults. The research was interested in their outlook (optimistic, pessimistic) about the possibility of change and whether this was related in any way to their commitment to work towards change or other pro-social behaviour. Additionally, the research participants were asked about their principal sources of information for these issues in order to better understand the dif-ferent ways the students come to know (or actively seek information) about these topics.

Briefly, the study endeavoured to come to a better understanding of how children and youth approach, comprehend and learn about key social issues such as violence, conflict, peace, work and unemploy-ment, respect for others, intolerance, and environmental and health is-sues. Corollary to this was the attempt to pinpoint the focal points and sources of knowledge about these topics in order to determine in what ways their immediate environment and social relationships (school, care-takers, extracurricular activities, mass media, etc.) influence the construction of knowledge and perspectives about such issues.

Data was collected from two to four urban and rural areas in all four countries and comprised three different age groups: 10–11 year olds; 13–14 year olds; 17–18 year olds. 2800 samples were collected from diverse educational centres (primary and secondary) in the four countries. In Spain, the primary and secondary education centres were public and principally drew students from working class to middle class families. In at least two of the schools (primary and secondary) the student profile was made up of 25 percent immigrant or newly arrived students and all of the schools were quite active in projects at local (experimental schools; schools affiliated with teach-

M. Dooly 14

ing faculties) and national and/or international projects (new techno-logies, student exchange programmes, Comenius projects, etc.).

In the UK, data was collected from state schools in the South West of England which were predominantly rural and mono-cultural, and state schools in London where the students were from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The schools in the South West catered for families from a range of socio economic backgrounds, ranging from poor rural families to middle class professionals.

In Poland, the study covered children and youth from two differ-ent environmental niches – a little more than half of the participants were from a major city and slightly under half were from two small towns of approximately fifteen thousand inhabitants each in the north of the country. The data came from both public and private schools.

The data compilation consisted of questionnaires (open and closed type questions), a role-play activity in pairs and focus group interviews of selected students. In the open-ended questions, stu-dents were asked to indicate specific hopes and fears about their own (personal) future, the future of their neighbourhood (local area) and finally about the future of the world (global hopes and fears). In other words, the open-ended questions aimed to help determine the respondents’ perspectives and opinions at ‘micro’ levels (about one’s self or immediate, emotionally close relations such as family); ‘meso’ level (geographically close); and ‘macro’ (society and World). (See Boehnke et al. 1998; Schwartz et al. 2000 for more information about these levels as a means of analysis).

The closed questions dealt with issues such as environmental concerns, health issues, social issues (poverty, unemployment) and interpersonal relationships (violence, conflict, respect, etc.). When answering these questions, the respondents had to indicate if they felt that these issues would be more or less important in the future or if they thought the importance of the issue would stay the same as now. The participants were also asked to rate the frequency that they consulted different information resources and to predict their amount of participation with political parties and/or political activ-ities. To finish the questionnaire, the students were asked whether


they were involved in any type of organization that was working for change (voluntary groups) and whether they thought they would re-main/get involved in this type of organisation or work in the future. They were also questioned about their views of current leaders and the role of politicians in helping to bring about social change. The students had to indicate in the questionnaires if (and where) they had they had learnt about such issues. The subsequent data from the field work was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Another important element to the study involved the students’ perceptions of themselves and others as ‘agents of change’. Whereas most research into children and youth’s views about social issues and political awareness have tended to cast them more as bystanders or targets of action by others, rather than as potential agents of social change (Yates and Youniss 1998; Ginwright and James 2002); this study was interested in seeing how the children and youth positioned themselves in relation to their ability to influence their immediate en-vironment, to bring about positive changes and whether they saw themselves as ‘empowered’ to do so (Shor 1992; Heidron and Rabine 1998; Fetterman 2003). The open-ended questions were analysed through an approach based on grounded theory (Glassner and Strauss 1967), thus the categories were not established prior to ana-lysis (profiling) since using grounded theory implies an inductive ap-proach that allows the analysis to ‘emerge’ from the data, according to the students’ answers. This provided a means of analysing the data of the project within a “socially-constructed” paradigm of meaning as opposed to a strictly empirical, numerical analysis.

This should not be taken to mean that the qualitative data ana-lysis is totally relative, it implies that the data is contextually bound (contexts which have been duly noted and described in each inter-vention). The qualitative paradigm allows for a privileging of insider perspectives on exactly how the concept of certain knowledge is so-cially constructed, thus helping avoid the ‘filtering’ of research data through a mesh of preconceived notions of the researcher. Taking Holden’s (2006) admonition to heart that children are capable of “re-flect[ing] on issues affecting their lives” (Rudduck and Flutter, 2000:

M. Dooly 16

86) and in so doing [we must take] seriously what children have to say about their hopes and fears for the future” (p. 232), then it was imperative to combine qualitative data, such as focus groups, with the questionnaires, so that the participants themselves could ‘con-struct their meaning’.

A complementary part of the study consisted of a role-play de-signed to delve into the development of pro-social behaviour of the young people involved in our study. The game consisted of offering a sum of money (the amount differed according to age levels but was enough to make it motivating for the students to play) which was to be divided between the pairs. This role-play was based on an experi-mental economic game, first developed in 1982 (Güth, Schmittberger and Schwarze 1982). It is commonly known as ‘The Ultimatum Game’ and has been widely used (principally with adults) to explore concepts of negotiation and reciprocity. Two individuals are brought together for a one-off encounter. They are told that one of them will be asked to divide a single sum of money – ideally enough to interest the participants – into two amounts, in any proportion that they chose. One person is assigned the role of dividing up the money and the second person decides whether to accept or reject the offer.

Before beginning the game, the pair is advised that the final decision of the second person would decide whether the money was given to the players (as divided) or returned ‘to the bank’ (in the case that the person receiving the money refused the offer). Because the game is over as soon as a decision is taken there is no possible calculated trade-off as to what might happen in a second ‘round’ of the game.

After the game had been played out, the students were asked about the reasons for the decisions and how they felt about the re-sults. The theoretical premise of the game is that each individual will try to maximize their own interest or benefits, whether they are the one who is offering the money or receiving the money.

Traditional economic realism would suggest that the participant making the division should split the sum in such a way that they maximise their income, and minimise the fraction offered. Homo economicus would behave, if they were the first player, by keeping the great majority of the sum, say 90%, for


themselves, and only offering 10% to the other player. The second homo eco-nomicus would rationally, in their own self-interest, accept what was on offer, as being better than nothing. Unfortunately for this economic theory, in prac-tice the great majority of people do not behave in this way. Most offers made are of between 40 and 50%, while offers that are made of 20% or less are usu-ally rejected (Henrich et al, 2004; Oosterbeek et al, 2004). Most people make more generous offers than would be predicted, and most people would rather have nothing than accept what is perceived as an unfair distribution. (Ross and Dooly tbp 2010)

It should be borne in mind that the research took place in eight dif-ferent locations in four different countries, over a two year span, and thus, was inevitably quite complex. During the course of the study, the students were asked to play in pairs in the same school and to play (‘virtually’) with a partner in another city in the same country as well as partners in another country.

In particular, we offer a rather different analysis than that proffered for most iterations of the ultimatum game. Our analysis covers both statistical findings (largely descriptive), as well as provid-ing a qualitative analysis of how these young people explained their actions and behaviour that offers a particularly original contribution to previous literature dealing with this topic. In order to do so, focus groups made of three or four students were recorded as they dis-cussed their answers to the questionnaires and issues which emerged from their experience with the Ultimatum Game. The discussion groups usually lasted between 30 to 45 minutes and were recorded (with previous permission from parents, teachers and students) and then transcribed.

Points of interest for educators: Issues that emerged

As it has been previously stated, the study provides insight into the subjects’ perceptions concerning desires, fears and expectations of the future at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels of their lives. This

M. Dooly 18

knowledge is significant for researchers, educators, policy-makers, politicians, parents and any other stake-holder in education con-cerned about the well-being of tomorrow’s citizens.

People’s hopes and fears for the future influence what they are prepared to do in the present and what they are prepared to work towards. Hicks (2002) and others have suggested that images of the future are a critical measure of a society’s inner well-being, acting as a mirror of our times. Ascertaining the views of children towards the future thus serves as an indicator of their current concerns, beliefs and actions, as well as indicating the role they see for themselves as future citizens. (Holden 2006: 232)

The reader should bear in mind that our study was limited to two cities (or towns) within each country and thus results cannot be extrapolated to such a point as to generalise about children and youths’ concerns and perspectives everywhere. Nonetheless, it does appear that there are enough similarities between the responses of the nearly 3000 subjects for us to be able to create teaching pro-posals, based on issues observed, that can rightfully be understood as widely applicable.

At the same time, the study also allowed us to consider young people’s perceptions in their particular social context – so that we can catch a glimpse of how children and youth participate in con-structing what they conceive of and accept as social reality; and thus better understand their own sense of agency. In the early 1980s, Lyo-tard criticised the idea of trying to provide a totalizing, comprehen-sive account to explain social and cultural phenomena and historical events; calling for an attitude of “incredulity towards metanarratives” (1984: 24). Lyotard argued for a recognition of the plurality of small narratives, or what one might refer to as ‘micro-narratives’, in op-position to the meta-narrative. We present here a series of ‘micro-narratives’ that together constitute a shared – albeit unevenly shared – conception of the social world these children and youth inhabit.

These micro-narratives are clearly tied in with the immediate en-vironment of the participants of this study. As Brodschöll (2005) ex-plains, discourses contain “particular historical narratives of the development and trajectory of the social phenomena in question”


(pp. 5–6). For instance, in Spain the research data had already been collected before the ‘Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) crisis’ became widely publicised and before the global economy was hit by the ‘subprime mortgage crisis’ at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009. Nonetheless, the topic of unemployment was already salient for several of the groups – especially those coming from working class families. This topic was more notable in the second round of data-collection, which was shortly before the much publicised stock market drop at the end of 2008 but during the time that the first rumours of a crash (and rising unemployment) were resonating.

Results from the UK also indicated that students were very much aware of the economic crisis of 2009 with constant references to the ‘credit crunch’ and concerns about lack of employment and af-fordable housing. Similarly, the students from Poland indicated that some of their fears revolved around being poor, homeless and with-out a job, although their principal worries appeared to be centred on personal relationships (being friendless or never marrying).

Arguably, these disparate foci of hopes and fears are, in part, due to the distinctive contexts in which the youth live. Financial reports about 2007’s financial perturbations (mainly of the subprime crisis preliminary to the global bank crisis) were well known at the beginn-ing of 2008 in Spain and the UK since these two countries were hard hit almost immediately by the real estate crunch (real estate and construction are especially key industries in Spain and house owner-ship is very high in the UK). At the same time, it has been argued that specialists paid little attention to capital markets global crisis and the subsequent impact of the crisis upon smaller countries; public attention to crisis impact depended on the country’s industrial struc-ture (Albulescu 2008). Moreover, the effects of this crisis on the real economy were less obvious at the beginning of 2008 in emerging markets (like Poland), although the economic growth forecasts turned pessimistic in 2009 (too late for these events to have much of an impact on Polish youths’ responses). This difference in responses strengthens the argument that children and youth are very much aware of current events going on around them.

M. Dooly 20

In the first round of data compilation, the students were hopeful that there would be more material goods available for them in the future – that they will be able to afford considerable luxuries such as a big house, to travel around the world, to have a car. At the same time, many of their worries centred on illness and death in their families. At the ‘macro’ level, the respondents demonstrated more altruistic concerns. At this level, their hopes and fears appeared to be centred on desires for resolution of current environmental problems, current global crisis related to wars and terrorism and socio-eco-nomic inequality between countries. Similarly, children and youth in Poland indicated that they were worried about global environment, terrorism and war. Interestingly, a few Polish respondents stated that they were worried about a return to communism.

The different age groups all appear to be aware and concerned about environmental issues and most of them indicated having been involved (or willing to become involved) in some sort of activity to help with environmental problems. In Spain, the respondents stated that this issue is a prevalent topic in most of the schools and the more publicised environmental problems (e.g. the 2007–2008 droughts in Barcelona) were also prevalent in the students’ answers. This was more noticeable in the lower ages than in the older students, although this can probably be attributed to many different factors (more project-based work in primary education, higher teacher influence in the students’ answers at primary level, ‘group’ answers of the younger students, etc.). The survey participants in Poland also mentioned en-vironmental problems as a main fear about the future, specifying worries such as global warming, the cutting down of too many trees, and pollution as well as man-made disasters such as flooding.

There were also indicators that the children and youth were more altruistic in the ‘meso’ and ‘macro’ levels. Their answers showed that they hoped for resolutions for world conflicts, better distribution of wealth and eradication of world poverty. Nonetheless, these ‘desires’ contrast with rather negative perspectives concerning the eventual evolution of the world in the future, in fact all the age groups de-monstrated a more bleak outlook in terms of the world as a whole.


Their responses indicated that they expected violence and unemploy-ment to increase and that environmental problems and world poverty will become worse. The one area where most of the respondents were optimistic was with health issues; generally, the respondents felt that health problems will lessen as new cures are found.

Another point of interest for teachers which emerged from the data was the level of awareness and knowledge of the students about social and political issues and their sense of ‘agency for change’ in today’s society. The study showed that students were generally aware of different opportunities for making a change in the world. The younger students’ answers focused principally on charity (donating food; clothes; money) and improving the environment (recycling; not littering; saving water; stopping uncontrolled construction and ur-banisation). Environmental issues were also relevant for the middle group, with an emphasis on areas that they could participate in (recycling; not littering; saving water; using electric cars; studying to resolve the problem of global warming).

Indicative of their state of transition into the adult world, the older group commented on their roles as grown-ups in the imme-diate future, mentioning possible professional venues such as study-ing to find ways to contribute to a better world in the future; becom-ing leaders and acting as social models of dialogue and respect and becoming members of neighbourhood associations. The students showed an understanding of collaborative social work in conjunction with individual actions. “Whatever improvement there has been, it is not due to one person’s efforts – it is through collaboration” (Span-ish male student, age 18).

As has already been mentioned, the respondents’ showed con-siderable awareness of current political events, especially in the area of environmental issues (Al Gore was mentioned frequently by re-spondents as exemplification of environmental awareness) and dif-ferent events aimed for World Peace. The students were noticeably well-informed about different political issues, particularly about events that in some way or other, affected them or their families. In the Spanish survey for instance, when asked what leaders have done

M. Dooly 22

recently to improve the situation of the world the younger students had some difficulties in answering, however the other two groups mentioned both historical events (women’s right to vote; Spanish democracy) as well as recent measures, such as financial aide to dif-ferent disadvantaged groups, legislation centred on the question of immigration (such as financial aide to immigrants; control and regulation of immigration; obliging immigrants to respect the host country). Polish children and youth mentioned leaders that they ad-mired (Wa��sa, Owsiak and Tusk) as well as indicating that they ap-preciated the work of organizations such as WOP, Solidarno� and the political party PO.

At the same time, while demonstrating considerable knowledge of social and political issues, as well as a certain level of critical think-ing, the older students held quite negative perceptions of political leaders in general. “I don’t like politics or politicians – they are going to cause us a lot of problems in the future” (female student, age 14). Some of the younger students reflected a more general belief in the current political system; they felt they might influence political lead-ers (write them letters, talk to them, join public demonstrations, etc.), although many of the younger students indicated that they were not interested in voting (perhaps because it is not a part of their lives as of yet). In the Polish study the majority of the girls aged 14 indicated that there was nothing they could do to influence politicians.

Not only did many of students (especially the older ones) in-dicate negative perceptions about the possibility of influencing politi-cal leaders or being able to make a difference in the future, they were also somewhat sceptical and disheartened about the political system in general. The fact that the children and youth showed awareness of political and social issues, but little faith in politicians and current political systems suggests a mismatch between mainstream politics and politicians and today’s youth. It also forces interrogation of the widely held belief that young people of today are not interested or aware of current social and political issues.

Apart from the questionnaire responses and focus group inter-views, data stemming from the ‘Ultimatum Game’ also revealed


points of interest for educators. According to the majority of de-cisions of how to divide the money in the ‘Ultimatum Game’, stu-dents overall – of all the age groups – proved to act in a ‘prosocial’7 way, especially in actions of sharing. There were even instances where the students were willing to give away all the money because the other partner ‘might need it more’, thus demonstrating consider-able empathy for the ‘other’. At the same time, the responses to the questionnaires indicated a certain ambiguity towards the ‘other’ when dealing with situations ‘closer to home’, e.g. immigration in the school or neighbourhood. Inevitably, learning to deal with this type of ambiguity and confusion about their own place in society and their feelings about how society is made up are key factors in growing up.

The results of the ‘Ultimatum Game’ also revealed a marked emphasis by the students on the concepts of ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’ (see Dooly and Vallejo 2009). Along these lines, Fehr and Schmidt (1999) propose that sensibility to fairness is an important factor in ‘Ultimatum Game’ type situations. Similarly, in research that involved children’s distribution of money (contextualised within a situation of distributing rewards for artwork) McGillicuddy-de Lisi, Watkins, and Vinchur (1994) found that younger children were more likely to allo-cate the money based on principles of equality, equity, and bene-volence than on economic reasons. These results imply that students, especially young students, are at an ideal period during their school years to be taught social justice, modelled through pedagogical reasoning tasks. It has been argued that fairness rules can play an in-creasingly dominant role in intergroup allocation decisions – if stu-dents are given sufficient input (Van Avermaet and McClintock 2006). This implies that teacher intervention can play an important role in the development of a fairness paradigm.

7 Pro-social behavior is understood here as “behavior intended to benefit an-

other” (Eisenberg et al. 1999: 1360). This may include actions or behaviours intended to comfort or share and to facilitate cooperative work or play; as well as displaying empathy for others (Simmons and Sands-Dudelczyk 1983). Prosocial behaviour has been defined by Eisenberg et al. (1999) as encompass-ing a sense of altruism.

M. Dooly 24

Still, it must be noted that not all the students behaved in an al-truistic manner during the ‘Ultimatum Game’, nor, as has been stated previously, is it assumed that these cases can be extrapolated in such a way to make generalised statements about children and youth’s be-haviour. Even in our sample, a wide variety of behaviour was observed, for instance, there were several cases where the students decided to keep more money (or all of the money) for themselves, often placing the ‘blame’ on external forces (e.g. the ‘crisis’ or a hav-ing a greater need for money than the other partner). At other times the students indicated that the money was really of no interest for them. This lack of interest in the money cannot be attributed to pro-social behaviour, instead it is due to a more pragmatic attitude: the students clearly stated that they could get money whenever they wanted from their parents or other sources!

What, if any, points might stand out for educators to heed? Within education, there is a growing emphasis on situated, learner-centred social practices as part of the learning process (in a large part due to the influence of thinkers such as Vygotsky 1978; Wertsch 1985; Tharpe and Gallimore 1988, to name a few). There is now a widely accepted paradigm of the teacher as a knowledge facilitator (Doolittle and Hicks 2003; Karpov 2003; Fosnot 2005) whose job is to set up an optimal environment for learners to construct know-ledge through engagement with ‘artefacts’ within their ‘zone of proxi-mal development’ (ZPD)8 (Vygotsky 1978; Reiber and Carton 1987, Chaiklin 2004). Just as the children and youth were the centre of focus for the research described, it must be children and youth who are the centre of teaching practices across all disciplines. The issues that emerged in this research can provide a sound base for teachers to attain specific curricular goals while integrating students’ personal interests and concerns about the world around them. The following 8 ZPD is a concept Vygotsky used to represent the difference between what a

child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve when provided with ‘expert’ assistance. Vygotsky was interested in the child-adult dyad; how-ever, the term is also used to describe other learning situations that include peer assistance or group assistance.


chapters in this book aim to set out examples of ways in which this can be done.

Why this book?

Based on the study, it is evident that there is a gap between students’ perspectives about the future and a clear pedagogical base for helping students confront these issues as critically aware citizens. Arguably teachers are in a principal role for this challenge since they are in contact with children during a major part of their time of formation – in some cases they have more daily contact with children and youth than the parents do. Thus the role of the teacher may be one of the more influential factors in children and youths’ lives.

While many politicians would settle for a passive citizen, who votes, subscribes to the state, and obeys the law, many others – including perhaps most teachers – would hope to empower active citizens, who critically engage with and seek to affect the course of social events. (Ross 2008: 23)

In today’s society, students are growing up in a society that appears to be undergoing transformation at incredibly fast rates. They live in “an increasingly ‘interconnnected world’ [where] people coexist in ever-changing societies, [and] patterns of relations broaden and diversify continuously” (Dooly, Foster and Misiejuk 2006: 1). Con-sequently educators are faced with seemingly daunting challenges.

Educators] must prepare students for careers in “the knowledge society” (Schleicher 2003; Tovar and Castro 2007), prepare them to be responsible participative citizens of democratic societies (Papanastasiou, Koutselini and Papanastasiou 2003) and concomitantly guide them in their development of the necessary prosocial life skills to live in an increasingly complex society. (Dooly and Vallejo 2009: 1)

The ‘knowledge society’ should also be factored into the way in which teachers and researchers understand ‘political engagement’. The way in which students partake in social and civil activities may not cohere

M. Dooly 26

with traditional views of civic participation (and how it is approached in the classroom). Non-traditional areas of youth activity and atti-tudes, in particular online activities and online communities are often overlooked. Young citizens have traditionally been seen as disengaged and apathetic, nonetheless there is evidence to suggest that they may be politically engaged in their own ways and with issues that they consider as relevant to their everyday lives. Our research shows that, across the board, the participants indicated that their information about political issues was more likely to come from papers, Internet and television (in that order) than from school, friends or family (which figured the lowest as a source of information).

While this may not, however, explain a widening scepticism and distrust that is often associated with the process of globalization and increased access to information worldwide, other studies looking at youth political participation indicates that their engagement may take ‘alternative ways’. Teachers need to learn to recognise, acknowledge and explore this alternative ways in different subject areas: civics, foreign languages, art education, general education courses and so on.

The different chapters in this book will examine the role that education can play in the European Union’s target of promoting critical awareness of its future citizens. Teaching and learning, in almost any circumstance, is complex and at times, even controversial, however, a critical pedagogy, aimed at the education of world citizens must necessarily integrate a broader framework that involves interrogation of dominant ‘voices’ at the micro-, meso- and macro-level of student understanding. Both teachers and students must recognise that they are working, on a daily basis, with materials and concepts that are often seen as unproblematic and homogenous. Using the students’ own perspectives as a basis for interrogation, teachers may be able to guide their students (and themselves) towards alternative perspectives.

Unveiling the dominant hegemonies, questioning both the ruling and the subordinate ideologies, making connections between the different narratives at the local, national and global levels, and giving voice to those discourses that have been silenced are important steps that uncover the power relations


which determine the nature of intercultural interactions amongst individuals or amongst groups. (Guilherme 2007: 78)

Advocates of Critical Pedagogy (Shor 1992; McLaren 1995, 1997; May 1999; hooks 1994, 2003; Giroux 2000) propose a teaching approach that strives to ‘push’ students to interrogate and challenge domination at all levels – including dominant beliefs and practices in the class-room. Students are encouraged to think critically about the material and content they are being taught in order to make connections between what is going on inside the classroom, their own individual experiences and the social context they are living in. Most teachers – even if they do not explicitly promote Critical Pedagogy – are aware of the need to ensure dialogic, interactive and interdisciplinary ap-proaches to teaching and learning. In all cases, a main objective of any education project is to provide resources for the students to be able to exist competently and responsibly in society.

Critical pedagogy shares some considerable historical and contextual territory with critical theory. Critical theory concerns itself with issues related to the socialization of people for existence in society, usually a society defined by do-minant discourses, and this is also the starting point for critical pedagogy. […] Critical thinking encourages an analysis of situations and arguments to identify faulty or unreliable assertions or meanings. While it may well encourage discernment in relation to the social and human condition, it does not specifically demand social action. Critical pedagogy, however, is preoccupied with social injustice and examines and promotes practices that have the potential to transform oppressive institutions or social relations, largely through educational practices. (Keesing-Styles 2003: Critical Way para 1–2)

This book is a compilation of the knowledge, insight and experience gained during the aforementioned project. As the results show, students are too often unaware or unconvinced that they “have the potential to transform oppressive institutions or social relations” (ibid.), and this is often due to the very ‘educational practices’ they are subjected to. The chapters in this book stem from the results that emerged from the study and attempt to “make connections between the different narratives” (Guilherme 2007: 78) arising from student voices. By examining the student perspectives, concerns and expectations, diverse theoretical and practical aspects in different

M. Dooly 28

subjects are approached so that these issues are covered from many fields and from various didactical approaches; approaches that exa-mine and promote transformational practices.

The book is divided into nine chapters, including this intro-duction. The first three chapters spell out specific ways in which the issues which emerged from the study can be approached from diverse fields (geography, language learning and arts and crafts). The second chapter, written by Vallejo and Oller, begins by looking at how the perceptions of ‘other’ emerged from the data in this research. These varying perceptions of ‘other’ are examined in relation to the different topics of the research, such as respect, solidarity, altruism or as linked to current issues of relevance to the young people’s lives: immigration, poverty, third world circumstances, unemployment, violence and delinquency, cultures, languages, diversity or multiculturalism. The impact of textbooks and mass media on perceptions of ‘other’ is considered, following this, the role of class and teacher is examined and finally the authors describe a teaching sequence, based on “issues-centred instruction” (Hahn 1996: 25), that places the topic of immi-gration at the centre of the activities.

In chapter three Dooly picks up on explicit concerns expressed by the children and youth in this study related to being prepared for the future – both personally and professionally. Inevitably, this brings to mind the question of the knowledge that will be needed in a globalised economy. As the students themselves pointed out, knowledge of more than one language, as well as intercultural knowledge that accompany communicative exchanges is paramount to future employment. Basing her proposal on Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL), Dooly outlines a teaching approach that aims to make the communicative experience meaningful inside and outside the classroom.

Collados then discusses how teachers can use arts and crafts as a point of convergence for dealing with current issues central to child-ren and youth. It is commonly accepted that art education has a key role in individual development of self-awareness and creativity. In this chapter, it is argued that art education can also play a key role in inculcating not only values, but skills for dealing with conflict,


controversy and adversity. The chapter begins with a brief historical overview of art education – and academic links to other areas such as multiple intelligences – before considering the positioning of the art teacher within the general curriculum, as well as the learner role in art education. Finally, Collados suggests some lines of action, based on local reality of each classroom, that can bring together student con-cerns such as those described in this research project and a learning process that emphasizes creative problem-solving.

The next three chapters discuss some cross-disciplinary educa-tional issues relevant to all teachers – general education and cross-disciplinary – based on issues that emerged from the research. In chapter five, Alistair Ross casts a critical eye on what it means to act in a ‘political’ manner and then brings this interrogation to bear on the results of this research and other relevant literature. The author then outlines how a critical awareness of ‘acting politically’ can be brought into the classroom, exemplified by a proposed model for classroom action.

In the following chapter, Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz and Zalewska discuss the roles and responsibilities of active citizens. After dis-cussing different perspectives that emerge from ‘active citizenship’, the authors consider these perspectives in light of the results of the ESF research, especially in the area of how students seek information about the issues discussed in the study. Other issues discussed in chapter six is the question of optimism and pessimism and how this might affect a child’s belief in their own agency or power to bring about social change. Finally, Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz and Zalewska look at what educational stakeholders can do to foment social agents equipped for the new millennium.

Chapter seven, by Cathie Holden, looks at the difference be-tween what children in primary schools (aged 11) have to say and what teenagers voice (aged 14, 17) about global issues and their role as active citizens. She provides a quick overview of civic engagement and young people, within the context of studies carried out in the UK, before delving further into a key strand from the research – children and young people’s perceptions of themselves as actors for

M. Dooly 30

change. In particular the chapter looks at what children and youth do now and what they feel their country’s leaders have done. Holden considers what teachers can do to maintain the enthusiasm de-monstrated by younger students into adolescence when considering themselves as actors of change. She ends by suggesting several class-room approaches and provides case study examples.

There is a shift of focus in the final two chapters, from proposals for classroom activities to be carried out with students to a consider-ation of how the teacher can count on sufficient psychological support to face the challenges of teaching in an increasingly complex environment, followed by a chapter on research into studies under-lying concepts of cooperative behaviour. In chapter eight, Briones and Tabernero outline the syndrome of teacher burn-out, high-lighting the factors that can contribute to it and describe psycho-logical and social theories that help explain the cause of burn-out. They then describe a programme for training for self-efficacy. In the final chapter, these same authors examine some of the variables that help to construct a context of cooperation between people (although theoretically applicable to students in the classroom).

There are several points of convergence, and perhaps not sur-prisingly, some points of divergence among the chapters. Con-sidering that these chapters derive from data of children and youth of three different age groups in four different countries, all of whom live in their specific socio-historical and cultural contexts, different results and, inevitably, different interpretations of the results must necessarily emerge. Likewise, the authors involved in writing this book have different disciplinary backgrounds. It is this author’s opinion that this contributes to the richness of the perspectives and proposals that lie herein.

Some points arise quite frequently; for instance, the question of political participation is seen as a relevant point for educators. Ross, in chapter two proposes that this concept must be problematised before it can be dealt with inside the classroom. Along those lines, different perspectives on what it means to ‘participate’ are provided by Ross (chapter two) and Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz and Zalewska


(chapter three). These varying definitions are then considered within the framework of each proposal – whether these are project-based, issue-based or as part of a wider understanding of political activism. In a similar vein, Holden (chapter four) calls for a more critical un-derstanding of why students should be engaged in social and political activities in the first place.

There are also differences of opinion about how to define ‘altruistic’ behaviour based on the results of our study, in particular the decisions made by the children and students in the Ultimatum Game. While it may be argued that giving away more than 50% of the money can be considered a generous or altruistic act (Tabernero and Briones), others (Dooly and Ross, 2010) have argued that the students’ interviews often revealed other motivations behind these de-cisions (e.g. “I don’t need the money; I can get money from my father whenever I need it”). While these differences are not engaged directly in this book, it is significant that they emerged in the first place since they can give rise to varying approaches in the classroom, depending on the teacher’s understanding of their students’ behaviour.

The chapters also highlight the different understandings edu-cators (and researchers) can have concerning what are the basic pre-mises of activism, civic or citizenship education, and citizenship itself. The question of youth voting comes up more than once in these chapters, but there is no consensus whether the supposed decline in voting must necessarily be understood as a lack of active participation or not. Some of the authors note that children and youth appear to be looking for ‘alternative’ participation in social and political events (Ross, Dooly) and that this may be a fertile ground for educators to explore. There is also a frequent call for more open-ended, dialogic classrooms (Ross, Holden, Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz and Zalewska, Oller and Vallejo) although the proposals for reaching this aim are different, according to the context of each proposal. Arguably, this is how it should be – each classroom is a world to itself (paraphrasing a common axiom) and the subsequent proposals must reflect this.

The research outlined here aimed to delineate the different ways in which children and youth approach, comprehend and learn about cur-

M. Dooly 32

rent social issues such as violence, conflict, peace, work and unemploy-ment, respect for others, intolerance, and environmental and health issues. By profiling the focal points and sources of knowledge about these topics (micro and meta-narratives; social relationships) educators are better equipped to use this information in the collaborative construction of knowledge and perspectives about such issues.

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Third World Solidarity and ‘My World’ Insolidarity: Working with the Wide Spectrum of Students’ Attitudes towards Others

CLAUDIA VALLEJO & MONTSERRAT OLLER

Student’s attitudes and perceptions about other cultures and what is usually perceived as ‘other’ was one of the main axes of the ESF project1. In fact, respect2 was one of the six concepts that framed the questionnaire (along with violence, poverty, unemployment, environ-ment and health) and the issue was explicitly proposed in questions regarding children’s and youth’s perceptions of whether there would be more or less respect for others in the future in both their neigh-bouring environments (towns and cities) and the world.

However, the children and youth’s representations and concerns as well as their prejudices about ‘others’ emerged in much wider and varied ways throughout the different activities carried out during the two year study, and turned out to be, in the eyes of those involved in the project, one of the most interesting, challenging and urgent sub-jects to deal with. It emerged through the data that, for the students, the ‘other’ was understood as being related to topics such as respect, solidarity, altruism or was seen as linked to diverse questions such as immigration, poverty, third world circumstances, unemployment, violence and delinquency, cultures, languages, diversity or multi-culturalism. In all cases, issues related to their representations and ex-

1 This chapter is mainly based on the data and results that emerged from the

experience carried out in Catalonia within the wider ESF project. 2 Although the original materials used the term “tolerance”, the Spanish team

opted to use “respect” (respeto) in their translation, since we consider that the latter implies a wider level of acceptance and open-ness to others in more ega-litarian and reciprocal terms.

38 C. Vallejo & M. Oller

periences of others and other cultures (and therefore also about ‘one-self’) played an important role in their present and future develop-ment as citizens and social actors.

As future decision-makers and citizens of the world, how youth perceive social and political issues will shape their actions later on. Inevitably this in-cludes living and working in a multilingual, multicultural environment. (Dooly and Vallejo: 2009a)

What emerged was a wide variety of attitudes at different scales, ranging from respect and generosity to intolerance and ‘fear of the other’. Some examples of different questions and answers where these topics emerged are shown below in table 1.

Table 1. Examples of answers in which perceptions of ‘other’ appear

Personal Desires? Adopt a Chinese girl (10 year old)

Know lots of countries and languages (13 year old)

Help other people through humanitarian and investigation projects (16 year old)

Travel around the world (16 year old)

Have friends around the world (10 year old)

Return to my country (13 year old)

Live in another country far from Spain (16 year old)

Desires for neighbourhood? Less immigrants (10 year old)

That immigrants go away (13 year old)

That the people in the neighbourhood open their minds for greater com-prehension between people (16 year old)

Easier integration of immigrants (16 year old)

I hope the immigrants leave our neighbourhood (10 year old)

Less delinquency; foreign people who hit and insult others (13 year old)

More intercultural festivals (13 year old)

Desires for world? Rights for everyone (10 year old)

No more children dying in third world / Africa (10 year old)

Better distribution of wealth between countries (13 year old)

No social or class differences (16 year old)

End of world / third world / Africa’s poverty (10 year old)

More schools in poor countries (13 year old)

That people realize how lucky they are living in 1st world and will help others (16 year old)

Third World Solidarity and ‘My World’ Insolidarity 39

Answers related to perceptions of ‘others’ also appeared in other issues of the questionnaire, especially regarding their fears for the neighbourhood and world, and the actions they have done or would like to do to improve their local and global context.

The ‘Geographical’ Axes of Solidarity

Despite the variety of answers to the questionnaires and diversity of comments gathered through qualitative data during the study, as a general tendency, this heterogeneity seems to converge and head in a particular direction: the children and youth’s level of empathy to-wards other cultures appears to be related to their “closeness” to the other, both geographically and contextually speaking. Attitudes towards ‘others’ seem to improve the further they are from ‘us’ (the students) and ‘our’ context and surroundings. Values such as respect and generosity, as well as pupils’ interest in knowing or helping ‘others’ increase in relation to the distance where that one they perceive as different or in need is located. Thus, students from all the groups and ages are deeply concerned and sensitive about poverty and social justice in the ‘Third world’ (especially children from Africa, in their own words) and have taken part or would like to be involved in altruistic actions to help them, from donating clothes or money to becoming doctors and work in poor countries finding cures for diseases. Hence it can be seen that, while mostly located in the ‘macro’3 level of world/global desires, these concerns for a fairer, more equalitarian world are also related – to a lower extent – to their ‘micro’ level of personal desires and actions (travel and know people from other cultures, adopt children from abroad).

3 The ESF project interrogated students about their wishes, fears and actions at

three levels: personal, their neighbourhood and the world. Corresponding to these, we distinguish three spheres of ‘micro’, ‘meso’ and ‘macro’ experiences.


Meanwhile, their perception of others in the ‘meso’ level of their immediate context (neighbourhood) is far more negative, as is their ge-neral attitude towards immigration, a topic that usually appeared in their comments related to delinquency, local degradation (of their neigh-bourhood or school) and more recently – specially in the data collected in the second year – also to their concern for lack of job opportunities in the context of the current economic crisis. While not hegemonic (respectful and positive expressions towards ‘others’ also appeared), these negative perceptions emerged to different extents in all the centres and ages, although the tendency increases in the older groups.

As the ESF project results show, this scale of perceptions is also apparent in the comments made by children and youth towards mul-ticulturalism, as they seem to be more tolerant and optimistic about multicultural societies on a ‘macro’ level (expressed in their wish to travel, make friends, learn languages, etc.) while on the ‘micro’ and ‘meso’ levels of personal experiences, perceptions become more dualistic. When asked about multiculturalism in their immediate con-text, pupils define it as both positive and negative: it brings new cul-tures and knowledge on a local level, while at the same time it is re-lated to an increase in violence.

Vivimos en una sociedad multicultural, sobre todo en la escuela, y tiene una parte positiva y otra negativa. La positiva es que conocemos a gente de otros lugares, pero la negativa es que traen violencia y no se integran. (Catalan girl, 16 years)

We live in a multicultural society, especially at school, and it has a positive and a negative face. The positive one is that we know people from other places, but the negative is that they bring violence and don’t integrate. (Catalan girl, 16 years)

Finally, outputs regarding positive representations and attitudes to-wards the ‘others’ include a mainly pro-social behaviour when asked to share money with their classmates as well as unknown students from other city or country. For instance, when participating in the ‘Ultimatum Game’ explained in the introductory chapter of this book (Dooly), the study participants had to divide a certain amount of mo-ney as they wished, the vast majority expressed an important con-sideration for ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’ (splitting the money in equal


parts), even when they did not know their partner4. Politeness and empathy also appeared to play an important role in their behaviour towards unknown partners:

I accept her offer to be polite; it would be rude to reject it (13 year old boy from Barcelona accepting 50% from a Polish girl)

I accept the money because I don’t want to make him feel bad (16 year old girl from Barcelona accepting 50% from a Cordoba boy).

Furthermore, their decisions were often conditioned by their per-ceptions of the needs of their partners, wondering for example what the economical situation in their country was:

He may need it more than me (10 year old girl from Barcelona giving 80% to Polish boy after asking if people in Poland were richer or poorer than in Spain).

Pupils’ representations of others: dealing with stereotypes

Along with some very positive attitudes and values (generosity, em-pathy, etc.) that could work as the basis for fighting negative per-ceptions, the overall results allow us to identify a series of prejudices and stereotypical representations of ‘others’ – either living in other countries or as immigrants in ‘our’ context – held by the research participants. These perceptions help explain and support the sig-nificant variations in attitudes as distance increases and could be summarized as follows: � First world – Third world (or North–South) dichotomy, being

the first one equivalent to development and the latter to pre-carious circumstances, and conceptualized as opposed, hege-

4 It must be noted, though, that the participants were sharing money they had

not earned themselves. This point was highlighted by some pupils who men-tioned that their decision could have been different if it was money they had worked for.


monic and absolute realities (as if there were no rich nations, classes or people in the South or poverty in the First world).

� Poverty (or at least the one they care or worry about or which they feel affect them) is far removed from them. Likewise their empathy with other cultures; they are interested in knowing or helping distant cultures.

� The First World has a ‘moral’ obligation to help develop the Third World.

� At the same time, there is no apparent relationship between the Third World representations held by the participants in this study and their representation of the immigration that takes place in their near surroundings.

� At a more personal level, immigration is equal to problem and menace that must be faced.

� For the research participants, the benefits of immigration only appear to be for those who immigrate.

� Integration works as a one-way process – that immigrants fail to do – and so does marginalization.

� Immigrants use ‘our’ resources (workplaces, social services) and don’t contribute with anything.

� Immigration is equal to delinquency; immigrants are illegal. � The children and youth in the study emphasize the differences

between ‘us’ and ‘them’, rather than the similarities and anything that might be common between them.

We must contextualize that these stereotypes and prejudices do not just emerge from children and youth’s attitudes but match the dom-inant ideas and discourses about ‘others’ in their social context; in-cluding textbooks, the mass media, political debate and so on. Re-garding for example the educational discourse, Van Dijk (2005) describes the stereotypical and dualized representation of the ‘Rich’ versus ‘Poor’ world in the textbooks as follows:

The textbooks show the stereotypical polarization between Us and Them, between Us in the North, in Europe or in Spain, on the one hand, and Them in the South or in the Third World, on the other hand. Very little variation or


diversity is observed among Us or Them. For instance, in the South there are no rich people, and in the North there are no poor people. (Van Dijk, 2005: 28)

The general distinction made between “underdeveloped” and “developed” further emphasizes this overgeneralization. Again, as such there is no problem associating for instance poor or agrarian societies with the “Third World” or with Asia, Africa and Latin America, and (post) industrial society with the North. The problem is the unnecessary overgeneralization: Contrary to exist-ing stereotypes, the textbook might have emphasized that also in Europe and the USA there is still agriculture – one of the reasons why poor countries have difficulty exporting to the North – and that the Third World has many modern, big cities and industry. Both in the text and in the pictures, this would have been an opportunity to combat stereotypes the students meet everywhere else in public discourse. (Op. Cit.: 20)

Public discourses about immigration – stemming, for example, from political debates or news articles – appear just as problematic as text-books in their stereotypical and negative representation of ‘others’ (see Lorite 2004; Martín Rojo 1994, 2003; Van Dijk 2003, 2005; Wodak and Van Dijk, 2000; among others).

It should be pointed out that immigration has become a relevant subject in the political, social and educational debate in recent years, especially in Spain. These public discourses usually frame immigration as a problem, and are reproduced and emphasized by mass media, which continually uses metaphors for immigration that describe it as dangerous phenomena that threaten to invade us. At the social level, the result is a growing ‘fear of the other’ that can also be observed in the fears of the students that participated in the ESF project.

Si los inmigrantes son vistos como un problema ante el que hay que pre-venirse, si son representados como invasores que no nos pueden traer más que conflictos y resquebrajamientos, no deberían extrañarnos las dificultades que comporta su integración social. No se puede, por un lado, valorar la contribución de los inmigrantes a la ampliación y enriquecimientos del aprendizaje de todos los alumnos y, al mismo tiempo, problematizar la inmigración y a los inmigrantes (Besalú Costa, 2002: 51)

If immigrants are seen as a problem which we must protect ourselves from, if they are represented as invaders who might bring us conflicts and lack of cohesion, then it should not be a surprise that there are difficulties involved in their social integration. One cannot, on the one


hand, value the contributions made by immigrants towards the expansion and enrichment of students’ knowledge, while at the same time, problematise immigration and immigrants.

From here stems the importance of offering, from schools, alter-native representations of the multicultural reality that they already live in, and a critical approach to the main social discourses that they find elsewhere (for example, in most daily news about immigration, which could be an accessible source for exercising their critical awareness), instead of reinforcing already existing prejudices. This is precisely the aim of the pedagogical proposal that will be developed later on in this chapter.

Multiplicity of discourses

The multiplicity of discourses and voices in the classroom can be seen, to a certain extent, in pupils’ answers to the questionnaire. Consider, for instance, the wish to “Volver a mi pais” (Return to my country) – a personal desire that emerged in the three ages – or the statements “Que no nos discriminen más” (not to be discriminated against any longer) and “Que los Españoles no fueran racistas” (that Spaniards were not racists), both made by 13 year old pupils when asked about their desires for the neighbourhood. These allegations do not just denote clearly the presence of multiple actors and voices within the class, but also the need to avoid generalizations and ‘one discourse’ approaches when dealing with complex subjects such as respect, immigration or multiculturalism.

In this sense, the analysis of hegemonic social discourses regarding immigration – useful to unveil the power relations that generate and legitimize consequent practices, analyze their sources and implications and fight stereotypes and prejudices – does not imply underestimating the presence of the other, even if they are opponent voices.

Our analytical approach stems from the premise that discourse can be understood as a conceptualisation of reality at a particular point in time. Social


actors will centre their reasoning, construct further discourse, and act ac-cording to seemingly logical, socially and culturally formed discursive practices (Bakhtin 1981, Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999, Fairclough 1989, 1992, 2005, Foucault 1972, 1980). Of course, as Risse-Kappen (1994) aptly puts it, ideas do not float freely – they cannot exist without agents – but at the same time, these agents are not simply ‘carriers’ of these ideas, they are social actors en-gaged in a complex interaction between many different – and sometimes con-flictive – discourses and practices. […] As Lareau and Horvat (in Monkman et al. 2005) have pointed out, social reproduction of prevalent ideologies is not a smoothly flowing process; it is a process of constant tension, challenges and negotiation between social actors (Dooly and Vallejo, 2009b: 5–6)

In fact, what appears as confrontational discourses regarding immig-ration – running from generosity to rejection – is not only visible in different voices, but usually also within the answers and comments of the same student in this research, revealing that the complex nature of their attitudes and representations of “others” is also related to the construction of an identity, a process that necessarily implies situating one’s self socially. In the case of multi-cultural societies, this complex process of defining ‘who I am’ also problematizes the question of until what point are children from migrant families considered immigrants (as is manifest when they are called 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants).

The need to create social bonds to a particular group or com-munity can be created, among other ways, by emphasizing one’s re-jection to those considered to be excluded from that community, as is the case of this 13 years old Catalan Moroccan girl, who re-produces the same prejudices against immigrants that may affect her – as she later states –:

Ahora con la crisis no hay trabajo para nadie, y encima vienen de fuera a qui-tar el trabajo a los que están aquí. Debieran echar a todos los sin papeles que nos quitan el trabajo.

[...] Hay mucha más violencia, también racistas, yo he oído comentarios en la escuela a los Marroquíes (al preguntar qué temas de los tratados en el proyecto les preocupan más).

Now with the crisis there’s no work for anybody, and on top of that they come from other places to take the jobs of those that are here. All the undocumented (she uses the expression “without papers”) that take our jobs should be expelled.


[…] There’s much more violence, also racists, I’ve heard comments at school towards the Moroccans (same girl, when asked which subjects of the ones dealt with in the project concern her more).

The apparent contradiction of these statements, made by the same student during a focus group, shows the complexity of the social re-presentations of ‘self’ and ‘others’ as well as the strategies that actors may use to reinforce a sense of belonging to a community, and the dynamic, context-situated character of social identities and of the frontier between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Como miembros de grupos socioculturales, los usuarios de las lenguas forman parte de la compleja red de relaciones de poder y de solidaridad, de domina-ción y de resistencia, que configuran las estructuras sociales, siempre en ten-sión entre la igualdad y la desigualdad, la identidad y la diferencia. Las identi-dades sociales de las personas – complejas, variadas e incluso contradictorias – se construyen, se mantienen y se cambian a través de los usos discursivos. Porque es en ellos donde se activan y se materializan esas caras que se eligen para cada ocasión. (Calsamiglia and Tusón, 2007: 2)

As members of sociocultural groups, language users form part of a complex network of power relationships and solidarity, of domination and resistance, all of which configure the social structures, always in tension between equal and unequal, identity and difference. Social identities of people – complex, varied and even contradictory – construct, maintain and even change through discursive use. This is because it is in discursive use that those ‘faces’ are activated and materialized and chosen for each occasion.

This, against approaches that may conceptualize identity and culture as ‘fixed’ attributes, as something “finished, static and homogeneous […] independent of the subjects as carriers and creators of said cul-ture, and independent as well, of the contexts in which the subjects really live5” (Besalú Costa, 2002: 48; trans. by authors).

Los individuos solo pueden hacer de la diferencia un instrumento positivo si ésta es aceptada y reconocida por los demás. La identidad personal no es una esencia inmutable, sino un proceso abierto, una construcción personal capaz de evolucionar e incorporar nuevos elementos. (Op. Cit.: 72)

5 “acabado, estático y homogéneo […] independiente de los sujetos portadores

y recreadores de dicha cultura, e independiente también de los contextos en que viven realmente dichos sujetos.”


Individuals can only make difference a positive instrument if this difference is accepted and recognised by the rest. Personal identity is not an immutable essence, it is an on-going process, a personal construction capable of evolving and incorporating new elements.

Taking advantage of pupils’ potential and resources

A series of issues emerged from the results of the different stages involved in the ESF project which could be very significant starting points to re-define, from a critical perspective, the students’ approach to immigration, multiculturalism and respect for others. In this sense, rather than looking for the ‘deficiencies’ within the classrooms and the ‘corrections’ outside of them, teachers may consider to stress the importance of acknowledging and exploiting positive aspects that emerges from the group itself, such as:

� Their heightened sense of fairness and justice. � Their notable sensitivity towards world inequalities and poverty. � Their interest in travelling, meeting people, discovering other

cultures and languages. � The multicultural nature and potential of the class, school and

neighbourhood, both in the variety of voices that may appear and the interesting experiences and features that classmates can offer (e.g. languages, new knowledge, etc.).

� The fact that they live multiculturalism as an everyday reality and experience, and not just an external discourse.

� The significant role schools and other direct sources – family, friends – appear to have in their approach to these social subjects.


Role of the school and class

According to the ESF project results, education – in its traditional sense of schools, classes, textbooks, teachers and classmates – appear to play a significant role in pupils’ representations of the world and their surroundings, certainly including their concerns for im-migration. First of all, from their responses there appears a clear and direct connection between: a) Their main hopes and fears for the fu-ture; b) Actions they had done and would like to do in the future to improve their local context or the world, and c) The issues they had studied or discussed at school.

These coincidences were recurrent in all in the three age groups and referred mainly to prosocial attitudes and charitable actions to-wards poor people in the ‘Third world’ (hoping for a fairer world, collecting money, food and clothes for children in poor countries). This emphasizes the power of the educational context in orienting their concerns and projects as future citizens. The influence of formal education is evident in the case of the Spanish students that took part in the ESF project: schools appeared among their main sources of in-formation in these social issues along with family and friends (to a lesser extent). In fact, direct sources from their surroundings appear to be much more influential in these students’ information on topics such as respect, poverty, violence or unemployment than indirect sources such as the mass media (although TV and cinema appear as more sig-nificant sources of information than the newspapers and the Internet)6.

The fact that education appears to have such a significant role in their acquisition and development of social representations is strengthened by the special circumstances of educational contents: unlike most other social discourses, classes and textbooks are – or at least are supposed to be – compulsory for their target audience; everyone from six to sixteen must go to school. 6 This was not the same for students from the other countries in the study, for

whom indirect sources (e.g. mass media) appeared as a more important source of information.


Not all discourse types are equally relevant though in these processes of social reproduction. […] Among the few discourse types that are ‘obligatory’ for some of the participants, namely the students, forms of educational discourse such as lessons and textbooks play a prominent role in the reproduction of society. Besides their overt contents aiming at the acquisition of standard knowledge in society and culture, textbooks and their hidden curricula also play an important role in the reproduction of dominant ideologies, such as those of race, gender and class. (Van Dijk 2005: 1–2).

According to Van Dijk, research on the representations of minorities in textbooks in the last decades has found the following typical characteristics:

� Exclusion: immigrants and minorities do not or barely appear as groups represented in textbooks. Even when significant groups of immigrants are present, many textbooks still represent society as homogeneous and monocultural. Diversity is not celebrated as a positive value.

� Difference: when represented, immigrants and minorities tend to be described as essentially different from us; differences are em-phasized and similarities are de-emphasized.

� Exoticism: The ‘positive’ side of the emphasis on difference is the enhancement of the exotic, strange or otherwise distant nature of the others.

� Stereotyping: Representations of others tend to be stereotypical, schematic and fixed. Textbooks often repeat each other in the reproduction of such stereotypes about poverty, lacking mo-dernity, etc.

� Positive self-presentation of ‘Us’: Europeans, nationals, etc. are attributed many positive characteristics: Technologically ad-vanced, democratic, knowledgeable, etc. and are represented as actively helping or assisting (passive) ‘Them’.

� Negative representation of Them: Besides the usual stereotypes, others may also be attributed many negative characteristics, such as being violent, criminal, illegal, undemocratic, lazy or lacking intelligence.


� The denial of racism: The positive representation of ‘Us’ also im-plies the absence, denial or mitigation of our history of colonia-lism and aggressions. Racism is typically represented as some-thing from the past or taking place elsewhere, and seldom as being here, now, among us, and in our institutions.

� Lacking voice: Others are not only represented stereotypically but also passively and as lacking voice. We talk and write about ‘Them’, but they are seldom represented as speaking and giving their own opinion.

� Text and Images: Many of the characteristics mentioned above not only are exhibited in text, but also in images, which typically demonstrate the exotic, negative or problematic dimensions of people from other countries. Thus, we will typically see a picture of ‘huts’ in Africa, rather than of a traffic jam among skyscrapers of many cities in Africa, Asia or Latin America.

� Assignments: The didactic dimensions of textbooks often pre-suppose the exclusive presence of ‘white’ students in class, ad-dressing them specifically and inviting them to reflect about others as if these were not also present in class. (Van Dijk 2005: 5–7)

Many of the characteristics in textbooks are not explicitly racist, but contribute to an overall stereotypical image of a homogeneous monocultural society. For instance, problems of multicultural so-cieties tend to be emphasized, whereas the many positive aspects of diversity are ignored or played down. Immigrants tend to be por-trayed as creating problems rather focusing on the ways in which im-migration contributes to economic prosperity or cultural diversity of the host societies.

The consequence for the learning process of adolescents is serious: They are not prepared for active and adequate participation in an increasingly multi-cultural society. They lack knowledge and insight into one of the most important social issues of our time, immigration and racism, and have not been prepared for daily interaction with fellow citizens from other countries and cultures. Ignorant about what racism means they will not be able to recognize it when they see it, nor be able to take into account the serious difficulties immigrants may experience who are victims of everyday racism. (Van Dijk 2005: 28)


The potential of the multicultural class in producing new representations

Traces of this construction of ‘others’ in educational discourses can be found in the representations, hopes and concerns manifested by the pupils in the ESF project. In this sense, teachers should encourage pupils to approach the materials and contents they work with from a critical, analytical position, assuming that what is taught in books, just as any other social discourse, is a situated and partial construction of reality – rather than ‘the way things are’ – and there are always other voices and versions that can contribute to the construction of an inclusive ‘we’ instead of a dichotomised ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Teachers can take advantage of students’ resources and the po-tential offered by multicultural classes to “identify and deactivate the prejudices and mechanisms and discourses that legitimize exclusion7” (Carbonell 2000: 112), building alternative discourses or emphasizing those aspects of immigration that are less known, denied or forgotten, and that luckily can be found within the very realm of the multi-cultural class and the experiences and concerns of their members.

Perhaps the key to filling the gap between pupils’ concerns for social justice in the ‘Third world’ and their fears of other cultures back home can be found amongst themselves in the classroom.

Immigration: A subject to examine in the classroom

One of the main challenges facing the educational system today is teaching students how to think. This entails making a break with aca-demic-style teaching that has few links to social reality and instead

7 […] identificar y desactivar los prejuicios y los mecanismos y discursos legiti-

madores de la exclusión. (original quote)


taking a step towards a kind of education that is capable of examin-ing real phenomena and issues in society. Thus students learn to develop responses and get involved in personal and collective actions by using ethical approaches.

[...] issues-centered instruction as a teaching approach that uses social issues to emphasize reflective and often controversial questions in contemporary and historic context as the heart of social studies. (Hahn 1996: 25)

Immigration is an extremely timely topic today, and one about which students should reflect and form their own opinions by assessing dif-ferent points of view that deal with the topic. Thus, they will be ready to act creatively and better understand and react to the far-reaching social repercussions of immigration. Thinking about immigration en-ables students to develop what are called higher-order skills. Given that immigration is a social reality that students already have in-formation and opinions about, it is relevant to them. There are man-ifold ways to deal with this phenomenon which enable them to be critical about the causes, seek imaginative solutions to finding al-ternatives to the problems it generates, take decisions and act co-herently with the decisions taken. In short, students can be given the chance to interpret information, analyse it, realise that there are dif-ferent points of view, construct their own ideas about the subject of immigration and to then apply it to what is happening around them.

Examining the issue of immigration does not mean dealing with a subject that is conceptually different to the ones traditionally ex-amined at school or contained in the curricula, rather it means also bearing in mind that facts are not neutral, that is, that they fall within a given value system, a given way of interpreting the world, and that this vision of reality can differ and can change. For example, the complexity of the phenomenon of migration may give rise to ar-guments in the classroom that include the causes and consequences of migration and that help the students to reflect and assess diverse points of view and opinions. In this way they expand their worldview and construct a value system through which they can observe, in-terpret and act on reality.


How should the subject of immigration be dealt with in the classroom?

Right now immigration is a relevant subject for students’ comprehen-sive education that almost inevitably brings up some controversy. While students are school aged, information should be provided on this social phenomenon in order for them to re-elaborate their own thinking and generate questions that enable them to better interpret and grasp this situation.

In order to achieve these purposes, the teacher should employ classroom strategies that teach students to think and communicate their own ideas and thoughts. All of this requires a classroom climate that spurs debate on the different points of view. Work in co-operative groups can help facilitate this. It is essential to reformulate what is taught, how it is taught and why it is taught, by revising:

� The content to be taught so that immigration is a relevant sub-ject in students’ education

� The classroom management so that different points of view on immigration can emerge and the diversity of opinions can be managed

� The purpose of examining the subject of immigration in order to reach an individual and collective attitude, based on participation and coherence in the exercise of a democratic citizenship.


Fig. 1 Diagram of immigration as an issue-based approach

Which contents to teach? Migrations: A social phenomenon and educational content

Examining immigration in the classroom means setting out to work on what are called controversial social issues (Soley 1996) or con-troversial subjects (Stenhouse 1987). These are the issues that pre-pare students for effective citizenship since they learn a conceptual framework and thinking skills and develop capacities for taking fu-ture decisions (for more on dealing with controversial topics in the classroom, see Ross this volume). This happens by interacting with other people who might have different opinions and with whom they have to reach a consensus by negotiating and dealing with the dif-ferences between them:

W hich contents to teach?Co ntroversia l so cia l issues

IM M IG R AT I ON

H ow to teach?Social clas sroom m anage m ent

W hy teach?D eve lop ing a ttit udes and val ues


I believe that the ‘raison d’etre’ of the social studies is to teach students the kind of substantive knowledge that will promote a deeper understanding of their social world. This means instilling the capacities to make thoughtful de-cisions and judgments, encouraging students to sustain democratic principles and participate in democratic processes, and creating habits that will fortify continued learning. The best way to promote these goals is to provide con-sistent opportunities for students to tackle controversial issues. (Soley 1996: 9)

Controversial social issues allow students to activate their own ideas. This means that they develop analytical capacities that enable them to relate the facts with the causes behind them, yielding a personal in-terpretation of them. Yet it also makes it possible for them to ex-ercise their capacity to comprehend other points of view and inter-pretative arguments that other people express about the same phenomenon. This leads them to realise that there are aspects of the reality that are controversial, and that in order to develop opinions or choose arguments they have to think about them first.

Suggesting controversial topics means examining situations that prompt questions for which there are no single, quick, direct answers with predetermined solutions, nor is there a process that can be applied automatically. Instead, these topics always require that all possibilities, risks and proper actions be considered. There is not a wrong answer or a single way of reaching a solution, rather solutions can be reached via a variety of different pathways that require complex cognitive aptitudes.

A number of authors have advocated and continue to advocate the inclusion of controversial issues in classrooms. Evans, Newmann and Warren (1996) indicate that examining controversial social phenomena has three basic purposes: first, it teaches students to defend their think-ing, as long as it is well-founded, in order to respond to the issues at stake; secondly, controversial social phenomena spark students’ interest because they are examining subjects that are familiar to them; and finally, these issues generate critical awareness by developing the skills to recognise, examine, assess and appreciate multiple perspectives, mak-ing the learning meaningful and posing situations that educate students to live in a world and a society in constant transformation.

This position of examining controversial social phenomena is fa-voured by Elliott (1989) and Soley (1996) mentions several conclu-


sions contributed by research studies on dealing with controversial topics conducted in the English-speaking world. These studies de-monstrate that by working with controversial topics, students:

� learn to think more in-depth and to identify and analyse their own and others’ values.

� internalise a higher sense of duty and citizen responsibility, which is associated with the opportunities they have been given to examine controversial social issues in an open atmosphere.

� achieve a higher level of comprehension when explaining facts and debating them. The rise in the level of debate shows a posi-tive correlation with overall attitudes of effectiveness, confidence and interest in politics.

The illustration below outlines the considerations we have discussed so far about examining controversial social issues as an educational content:

Fig. 2. Conglomerate of features when dealing with controversial topics in the classroom

SOCIALPHENOMENA

EDUCATIONALCONTENTS

SOCIETY

VALUESISSUES

SOCIALISSUES

CAPACITY TEACH./APR.PROCESS

VALUESEDUCATION

INDIVIDUAL ANDCOLLECTIVE

PERFORMANCE

can be

coming from

that issuehas

related to

develop require guarantee

consumerism

health

inequality

immigration

mobility

coexistence

gender

democratic

civic

ethical

to argue

to assess

planning

motivation

strategies

Related tothe experiencesthey deal with

to analyse

Related toeveryday life


Introducing social problems into the curriculum means setting aside a uni-disciplinary vision of each field and organising the work around subjects of interest that encompass a variety of disciplines. This, in turn, means bearing in mind first and foremost that when dealing with social problems it is more important to fully understand the facts that are set forth rather than a superficial explanation of these facts. The students should be encouraged to examine factors with a certain degree of complexity.

This does not mean that the disciplines should be abandoned; rather they should be used by developing mental structures that or-ganise and select the information needed and that require reasoning to find the best solutions to the problem at hand. However, it is clear that social issues that spark students’ interest must be sought: “[...] the study of issues must be substantively grounded in challenging content” (Evans, Newmann and Warren 1996: 3).

That means that both teachers and students must have the ability to reason, inquire into the facts and present evidence. They also have to have a mastery of the theories and concepts that will lead them to grasp the social problems being examined. However, in addition to understanding, conceptual change should be fostered by considering other alternatives – such as the experiences of other classmates – that might represent a critical approach to their reality.

One might think that examining social problems has ideological implications. This is not the goal. Instead, all that is necessary is for students and teachers to accept and respect democratic principles and the cornerstones of peaceful coexistence among citizens.

For curricular implementation, working on controversial social issues means that the issues being examined must pose a real pro-blem in which both students and the teacher have to get involved in order to develop a line of reasoning in response to the problem. Therefore, students must be taught resources and given tools, small-group debate must be fostered and the evidence they find should constantly be shared in an effort to build well-grounded reasoning.

In order to examine controversial subjects, teachers need to find the way to help students accept ambiguity and cognitive doubt and to


help them to understand that society’s responses to certain problems are not always the most reasonable ones. Students must also come to understand that in no situation can one be totally sure of the de-cisions taken.

Respecting others’ ideas and having an open mind are facilitated by examining controversial social problems; they are also the corner-stones of solid learning.

[...] students who have the opportunity to investigate controversial issues in social studies as compared to students without such opportunities seem likely to learn as much traditional content, develop an interest in the issues studied and in other societal problems, become supportive of civil liberties, acquire the ability to analyze arguments, improve in self-esteem, and become less dogmatic. (Hahn 1991: 475)

How to teach? Social classroom management: Cooperative strategies for examining immigration

To examine controversial, relevant social subjects such as immigration, it is crucial to promote strategies that facilitate communication and so-cial interaction in the classroom where they are being taught, and for social knowledge to be learned. Cooperative group work is one stra-tegy for the social management of the classroom that facilitates the role of the teacher, the students and the knowledge in the social scien-ces being taught and learnt (see also Dooly, this volume).

In order for students to learn, they need to cooperate in this effort and take an active approach to the new knowledge offered. A variety of different models and educational practices have stressed the importance of group activities as facilitators of learning. Coopera-tive classroom management is grounded on sharing joint learning with the other group members through shared efforts to accom-plished predetermined goals. This requires that the learning activities be performed jointly in order to optimise the potentialities of each


group member, all of whom are put at the service of a shared task, which is what gives the joint learning its meaning. Thus, the goal is to reach optimal results for both each individual and the other group members (Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, 1999).

In cooperative group work as a strategy for teaching the social sciences, teacher participation is the engine that drives the dynamics of each group. The teacher must always be aware of what is hap-pening and of each student’s reaction; they must teach the students to participate and shoulder their own responsibilities in order to en-sure that the end product is optimal. To accomplish this, the teachers must organise their classes so that between 60 and 80% of the time is spent on cooperative work; they must organise their classes co-operatively, adapting them to the students. Finally, they must diag-nose any problems that arise in the work groups early on, intervening when necessary to bolster the group’s efficacy.

The competencies acquired through cooperative work have to do with solidarity, personal commitment and respect, all of which are developed in the learning process. Students are also trained to be able to participate in democratic processes exercising an active citizenship, stemming from the experience they acquire by taking part in social phenomena, participating intelligently and shouldering their responsi-bilities while taking collective decisions.

The role of values in controversial social topics

Examining immigration in the classroom is extremely important for shaping values and attitudes, as the class revolves around using con-flict and controversy by presenting different points of view on the facts and ways of interpreting them. For this reason, the teacher must use what is called the pedagogy of conflict (Hahn 1996) in order to encourage students to compare their ideas, for instance on the phenomenon of migration. At certain points this might lead to con-


fusion and/or frustration, as one’s own ideas may be rejected, criti-cised, etc. Therefore, the teacher must constantly stimulate the stu-dents, giving them chances to learn how to live in a democracy that values debates on controversial issues in a pluralistic society and that respects many different points of view.

There always remains the doubt as to whether suggesting a subject like immigration for students will help them to acquire new values. According to Bickmore (1993), the conflict of ideas and values as a school content is necessary but not sufficient to shape de-mocratic citizens; it must be carefully orchestrated as a learning event. Teachers should consider that developing cognitive thinking skills based on social situations that the students experience every day helps to implement certain values that should be augmented and de-bated in an open climate of respect that enables each individual to express him– or herself freely and accept different points of view. This can further be associated with responsible attitudes associated with participative citizenship.

The true learning of values that students can experience by work-ing on an issue like immigration in the classroom is guided by three questions. First, answers to social problems can only be found through the use of diverse information that offers different points of view; resources that generate students’ capacity to think. The second issue, also related to learning values by working on controversial so-cial issues, is that there are no right solutions to these problems (Soley 1996). However, this does not mean that all the options should be considered valid. Closely related to the previous idea is the third issue, which refers to the fact that the response to phenomena like immigration necessarily entails considering points of view dif-ferent to one’s own.


Proposals for examining the issue of immigration in the classroom

The classrooms of schools in most parts of the world include children from a wide variety of backgrounds, implying that most children have some indirect, and in many cases, direct experience with immigration. All too often, local students associate poverty, illegal status, arriving on makeshift rafts and crime with the idea of immigrants. In short, they associate immigrants with ‘human tragedy’. They get this vision, which is quite widespread, from their most immediate environment (family, friends, etc.), as well as by the images conveyed by the media.

In order to break down these prejudices, we must propose ex-ploring lesser-known profiles such as those that arrive by airplane or are highly educated. There are immigrants from all social strata work-ing in all sorts of professions (journalists, scientists, doctors, athletes, artists, singers, etc.), contributing to the richness of the country (tourism, wealthy immigrants, active population working in the ser-vices industry, etc.), paying money into social security. Moreover, as a primarily youthful group, they tend not to use the social services as much as the locals do, and they play an important role in the eco-nomies of their home countries as they send money to sustain their families (remittances).

Contrary to popular belief, the poorest and neediest residents of their respective countries do not immigrate – they cannot even countenance the possibility – rather the strongest do, the most daring, the ones who have the means to try it. Furthermore, many professionals and many prosperous people emigrate. And generally speaking, migrations have a vast, positive effect on both those who emigrate and the recipients of emigration; on both the home and host countries. (Besalú Costa 2002: 18)


It is clear that we must demonstrate the partiality of seeing and view-ing immigration solely from one standpoint and which only corresponds to a part of the population that moves here. Such a per-spective does not reflect the diversity and complexity of existing sit-uations of immigration. At the schools, our point of departure should be a new vision in which jobs are located in many places and have become globalised. Bearing in mind these parameters, we have to re-think what we want to teach students and develop educational prop-ositions that include and expand the meaning of migrations.

There are a number of questions that can be examined in the classroom to encourage students to reflect, analyse and question some of the opinions or comments that they might hear or ex-perience at times. Some of the questions posed might include: Will immigration be an unstoppable avalanche in certain zones or cities in the world? If many immigrants arrive, does it mean that the local population will be left jobless? Does immigration threaten the identity of the local population? Do immigrants benefit more from social aids than the local population?

The figures below are a contribution to a new vision that should take root among teachers when dealing with immigration in the class-room. This proposal is defined by three major blocks: knowledge of migrants’ home countries, the characteristics of these migrants and the characteristics of the society hosting them. In each of these sub-jects, there are three levels of complexity. The first level refers to a descriptive vision of the issues, the second seeks to find explanations, while the third level deals with justifying and argumentative visions.


What is the home society like?Level Teaching Activity DescriptionsLevel 1 Find information about location

and geographical description of some of the immigrants’ home countries

Students are encouraged to find out about the remarkable diversity of nationalities in their locality. For in-stance, Catalonia, there are nearly 200 different nationalities. The Moroccan community is the largest in number, though in recent years it has lost ground to communities from East Europe (Romania) and Latin America (Ecuador & Colom-bia). Official statistics are usually available through government or-ganisations.

Explore descriptions of some life-styles, customs, traditions, etc. from these home countries

Students are encouraged to see similarities as well as differences; avoid “folklorist” descriptions of cultures or countries.

Produce a summary with the char-acteristics of the countries with high migrant rates for economic reasons

Students begin to realise that there are interconnecting global factors that influence decisions to migrate. (See Dooly, this volume).

Level 2 Carry out analysis of some econo-mic indicators on the home coun-tries: HDI, GDP per capita, life expectancy, child mortality, food, number of doctors per thousand residents, education rates, and a comparison of these indicators with students’ own country and other EU countries.

Students learn how to debunk generalisations that describe the “third world” as totally underdeve-loped, agricultural and poor; show large cities, financial centres, etc. Again, students should consult varying official reports.

Level 3 Analyse and assess “remittances” and their meaning for the eco-nomies of the home countries.

This allows students to compre-hend how remittances that immi-grants send home have become an important source of foreign finance and could have a substantial impact on reducing poverty in developing countries. Economics experts argue that promoting formal channels for sending remittances and the pro-


ductive investment of these moneys could become an enormously important factor in economic mobility (Immigration, here and now, Palau Robert 2009).

Fig. 4. New vision of knowledge construction, level 1

Who are the migrants? Level Teaching Activity DescriptionLevel 1 Look at photographs of fa-

mous people (athletes, ac-tors, etc.) and debate whe-ther or not they can be con-sidered migrants.

This activity pushes the students to see multiple profiles of immigrants.

Consider migratory flows worldwide: present and past. Is it wise to talk about ava-lanches of migrants?

By examining statistical figures stu-dents can get a picture of the reality of the phenomenon of migration in the world (historically and now).

Seek information such as the economic level and educa-tional level of the immi-grants.

This challenges common myths of immigrants as non-productive. On the whole, the foreign population’s pro-file is young, mostly at a productive age, highly qualified and men out-number women.

Look into the varying means of transport for travelling to other countries

The majority of immigrants arrive by airplane. This debunks the stereotype of makeshift rafts.

Level 2 Interview immigrants to find out the reasons why they emigrated.

This helps students to personalise their knowledge.

Construct categories of mig-rants for socioeconomic, ad-ministrative, cultural, affec-tive and other reasons.

The reasons for migrating can be very diverse. Even though the unequal dis-tribution of wealth among countries is one of the most prominent reasons for migrating, it would be a mistake to think that poverty and hardship are the only forces behind it. (Immigration Here and Now, Palau Robert 2009).


Level 3 Compile testimonies and ex-periences in migration.

Again, this helps bring a personal face to a phenomena that is usually faceless and depersonalised in wider social discourse.

Examine the different mig-ratory flows throughout his-tory.

This helps students contextualise ‘threats’ of ‘avalanches’, etc. For in-stance, Catalonia is a land shaped by waves of migration: the first in the 1920s, the second in the 1950s and the latest at present.


The host society Level Teaching Actvity DescriptionLevel 1 Study rising demographics.

Evolution in the population, distinguishing between the autochthonous and foreign population.

It is important for students to situate the phenomena within reality of the host country. Consulting up-to-date statistics can help them understand the way in which their society is changing.

Access demographic indica-tors: annual growth rates, foreign population by age, sex, home country, etc.

Same as above.

Level 2 Analysis of the different positions on immigration in the host society: acceptance or rejection of immigration, ‘ghettoization’, job hiring in the home country, etc.

(See examples in this chapter.)

Distribution of the active and working population be-tween the local and immi-grant population.

Some immigrants tend to perform jobs that usually require lower quali-fications despite the fact that they may have a higher level of education. At times, immigrants perform jobs that are not being covered by the local workforce. Discussion of why this happens and how the students feel about this can be carried out.


Level 3 Examine migration policies:

analysis of the laws on im-migration in one’s own country, the EU, and countries that have wel-comed immigrants for many years (UK, Canada, etc.).

(See Dooly, this volume, for an ex-ample of this activity).

Discuss whether the distri-bution of social aid benefit the immigrant population at the expense of the local po-pulation.

Both local and foreign workers who are legally employed pay into the so-cial security system and therefore have the rights derived from it. Students can be encouraged to investigate the status of illegal workers as it differs from legal workers and they almost always live with the risk of being expelled. Their living conditions can be unstable and often do not reach the minimum limits set by the UN’s Declaration on Human Rights.

Analyze comments in the press about the different vi-sions of immigration and one’s personal stance with regard to these opinions.

This promotes a critical awareness of the way in which immigration is re-presented in the mass media.

Consider whether the iden-tity of the local population is threatened.

There are no fixed identities; there are always new additions that change them. Students should come to under-stand the ways in which immigrant populations enter into contact with a culturally structured society and learn its language, adapt to its customs, etc.



An Example

The data from a research centre (Fundació Jaume Bofill, 2006)8 in-dicate that a high percentage of Spaniards have fairly unfavourable attitudes towards immigration and believe that the massive arrival of foreign persons may cause tensions. There is a wide variety of opin-ions and positions on this phenomenon that should be examined and debated among all the children in the classroom, and we can do this through a situation like the following:

There is a group of foreign immigrants who have recently arrived and live in a town located 50 km from Barcelona. They do a variety of jobs in the town itself or in nearby industries. The locals have different opinions about these new arrivals. Assemble into groups of four to five students and analyse some of the most common opinions on these immigrants and then do the activities suggested.

Opinion 1 Out of solidarity, our town must welcome these new immigrants and take measures to improve their situation. The first one should be legalising all of them as soon as possible. The Town Hall should also earmark money to build homes for them so that their families can come, too. Plus, the medical services should be expanded so that they can tend to the immigrants’ needs, and we need more places at the elementary and secondary schools for the new students. We should also make teachers who know their languages available to the immigrants in order to ease their adaptation at school. Write down three advantages and three disadvantages of this opinion. Advantages Disadvantages 1 – 2 – 3 –

1 – 2 – 3 –

8 Fundació Jaume Bofill: L’estat de la immigració a Catalunya. Anuari 2005:

145. [The state of immigration to Catalonia. Annual 2005]


Opinion 2 We need these people who have come to live in this town to work. The Town Hall should build a special neighbourhood just for them which has both homes and a school, a clinic for when they are ill and centres where they can practise their religion. Even though it might cost us money, this would allow them to have a controlled place where they could live without causing problems for those of us who have lived here for a long time. Write down three advantages and three disadvantages of this opinion. Advantages Disadvantages 1 – 2 – 3 –

1 – 2 – 3 –

Opinion 3 We belong to a local group that has thought about this rise in the foreign population in our town a lot. We believe that it is simply impossible to have them among us because they have very different lifestyles and customs than our own, they don’t speak our language and we don’t understand theirs, plus they have beliefs that don’t fit with ours. If they remained among us they would trigger problems, so we believe it’s better for them to go back to their home countries or look for other places that are more similar to their own way of living and acting.Write down three advantages and three disadvantages of this opinion. Advantages Disadvantages 1 – 2 – 3 –

1 – 2 – 3 –

Opinion 4 Our industries need labour to perform certain jobs. Since we can’t find workers here in town we have to go to countries that are not very economically developed and where there are many young people. There we can offer these young people work contracts for as long as we need them. The company that hires them would be in charge of finding them lodging and meeting their needs so that they could live decently as long as they live here, and then provide them with a ticket home when the work is over. Write down three advantages and three disadvantages of this opinion. Advantages Disadvantages 1 – 2 – 3 –

1 – 2 – 3 –


Opinion 5 What is your group’s proposal? Write the proposal of what you would do: Write down three advantages and three disadvantages of this opinion. Advantages Disadvantages 1 – 2 – 3 –

1 – 2 – 3 –

Finally, write an article to be published in the local newspaper. You have to cover the different ways of thinking about immigration found in this town and indicate your thoughts on them. You should also share your proposal and provide sound arguments to convince your readers.

Final words

Children and youth from the XXI century are experiencing multi-culturalism, globalization and immigration not just as theoretical phenomena but as part of their everyday lives. This is a reality that is highly visible in their neighbourhoods and classrooms, and directly concerns their expectations about the future in personal, local and global terms. The results of the ESF project imply that experiencing these transformations first-hand does not automatically derive in de-veloping the prosocial and critical skills that would allow children and youth to fully participate as active citizens in the construction of a globalized and diverse society. In other words, one cannot assume that respect and value for diversity will emerge ‘per se’ as a con-sequence of living in a multicultural environment.

Fortunately, schools seem to have a key position to work in the development of prosocial values and attitudes towards multi-


culturalism in their closer context. As Dooly has put it in the introduction of this book (page 24), the “results [of the ESF project] imply that students, especially young students, are at an ideal period during their schools years and can be taught social justice, modelled through pedagogical reasoning tasks”.

Still, while acknowledging the crucial role of schools may seem fairly straightforward, dealing with these issues is not an easy task for teachers. According to Carbonell, what comes into play is:

[…] aprender a convivir y aprender a ser, los dos pilares quizás con menos tradición escolar, con menos modelos y métodos de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Con mayores dificultades para los profesionales, también, en su transmisión y educación[…].(2000: 109)

[…] learning to get along and learning to ‘be’, which are perhaps the least traditional pillars of scholastic tradition, with less models and methods of teaching-learning. They also are more difficult for professionals, in their transmission and education […].

Effective pedagogical approaches to transform pupils’ represen-tations of their multicultural environments should take into account the advantages of collaborative work, working with controversial is-sues, developing awareness and a critical approach to prominent so-cial discourses, and allowing the emergence of viewpoints that are both different to one’s own and to these major social representations.

Encouraging children to work together in their search for alter-native approaches and experiences about immigration and ‘others’ will help them unveil the uncertainty and ambiguity of prevailing prejudices and stereotypes; they will also be better able to build more realistic representations of multiculturalism. This ‘new knowledge’ is not just related to the acquisition of useful analytical tools, but also to the development of a lifelong critical awareness that may have an impact on the redefinition of their main concerns and commitments for the future.


Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the students and teachers from the following schools for their cooperation with us: L’Escoleta – CEIP Escola Bel-laterra (Bellaterra), CEIP Les Fontetes (Cerdanyola del Vallès), IES Vicenç Plantada (Mollet), IES Arraona (Sabadell) and Sant Esteve (Castellar del Vallès).

Works Cited

Bakhtin, MM. (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Michael Holquist, (Ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press

Besalú Costa, X. (2002) Diversidad cultural y educación. [Cultural diver-sity and education]. Madrid: Síntesis.

Bickmore, K. (1993) Learning Inclusion/Inclusion in Learning: Citizenship Education for a Pluralistic Society. Theory and Research in Social Education, 21 (4): 341–384.

Calsamiglia, H. and Tusón, A. (2007) Las cosas del decir. [Things to say]. Barcelona: Ariel Lingüística.

Carbonell, F. (2000) Desigualdad social, diversidad cultural y educación. [Social inequality, cultural diversity and education]. In Aja, E. et. al. and Colectivo IOÉ La inmigración extranjera en España. Los retos educativos. Colección Estudios Sociales, 1: 99–113. Barcelona: Fundación La Caixa. Available at: <http://www.au-laintercultural.org/IMG/pdf/caixa.pdf>.

Chouliaraki, L. and Fairclough, N. (1999) Discourse in late modernity. Re-thinking critical discourse analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.


Dooly, M. and Vallejo, C. (2009a) Today’s Youth: Tomorrow’s Citi-zens of a Multilingual, Multicultural World. Poster presented in the conference Making Multilingualism Meaningful: linking theory to practice. London Metropolitan University.

Dooly, M. and Vallejo, C. (2009b) Linguistic Minorities Thematic Report. Educational Policies that Address Social Inequality (EACEA Action 6.6.2) London: IPSE. Available at: <http:// www.epasi.eu/ThematicReportLIN.pdf>.

Elliott, J. (1989) Pràctica, recerca i teoria en educació. [Practice, research and theory in education]. Vic: EUMO.

Evans, R.W., Newmann, F.M. and Warren, D. (1996) Defining issues-centered education. In Evans, R.W. and Warren, D. Hand-book on Teaching Social Issues. Washington, D.C.: National Council for the Social Studies.

Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and power. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. (1992) Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press. Fairclough, N. (2005) Critical discourse analysis. Marges linguistiques, 9:

1–18. Foucault, M. (1972) The archaeology of knowledge, translated by A.M.

Sheridan Smith. London: Tavistock Publications. Fundació Palau Robert (exposition) (2009): La immigració, ara i aquí

– Immigration, here and now. Barcelona: Fundació Palau Robert. <http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/PalauRobert>.

Hahn, C.L. (1991) Controversial issues in social studies. In Shaver, J.P. Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning. A project of the National Council for the Social Studies: 470–478. New York: Macmillan.

---. (1996) Research on Issues-Centered Social Studies. In Evans, R.W. and Warren, D. Handbook on Teaching Social Issues: 25–41. Washington, D.C.: National Council for the Social Studies.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T. and Holubec, E.J. (1999) El aprendizaje cooperativo en el aula. Barcelona: Paidos Educador.

Lorite, N (2004) Tratamiento informativo de la inmigración en España. Colección Inmigración y Refugio. Madrid: Ministerio de Tra-bajo y Asuntos Sociales.


Martín Rojo, L., Gómez Esteban, C., Arranz, F., and Gabilondo, A. (1994) Hablar y dejar hablar: Sobre racismo y xenofobia. [Speak and let speak. About racism and zenophobia]. Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Martín Rojo, L. (ed.) (2003) ¿Asimilar o integrar? Dilemas ante el multi-lingüísmo en las aulas. [Asimilate or integrate? Dilemmas concern-ing multilingualism in the classroom]. Madrid: CIDE.

Monkman, K., Ronald, M.. and Théramène (2005) Social and cultural capital in an urban latino school community. Urban Education, 40 (1): 4–33.

Risse-Kappen, T. (1994) Ideas do not float freely: Transnational coalitions, domestic structures and the end of the cold war. Inter-national Organization, 48 (2): 185–214.

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Stenhouse, L. (1987) Investigación y desarrollo del currículum. [Investiga-tion and research development]. Madrid: Morata.

Van Dijk, T (2003) Ideología y discurso. Una introducción multidisciplinaria. [Ideology and discourse. A multidisciplinary introduction]. Bar-celona: Ariel.

Van Dijk, T (2005) Racismo, discurso y libros de texto. La cobertura de la inmigración en los libros españoles. [Racism, discourse and textbooks. Covering immigration in Spanish books]. Cuaderno de Antropología y Semiótica, 2: 15–37.

Wodak, R., and Van Dijk, T. (eds.) (2000) Racism at the top. Parlia-mentary discourses on ethnic issues in six European states. Klagenfurt, Austria: Drava Verlag.

Developing Art Projects as a Medium for Exploring Children and Youth’s Hopes and Fears

ESTHER COLLADOS

No matter what you call it, regardless of the adjective that comp-lements the action, the final objective of education must be the over-all holistic development of individuals. Education must provide all the resources and strategies available so that children and youth understand their surroundings, achieve their full potential as human beings and are integrated in society as individuals able to live in har-mony together. As the research described in the introductory chapter to this book highlights, children of all ages yearn for this harmony – at local, national and world levels. In the data gathered in 2009 in Barcelona, all of the children and youth (ages 10–11, 13–14 and 16–17) mentioned their desire for social justice (end of wars, end of poverty, equality of circumstances for all, etc.) as their top priority. Out of 144 questionnaires from the youngest age group, answers that fall into the category of social justice came to 34.7% of the answers, out of 195 questionnaires from the middle group, social justice came to 32.3% and for the oldest group it reached 30%.

Children and youth of all ages and nationalities – in this parti-cular study, students from four different countries – are not only aware of the conflicts, controversies and challenges of a society in which there are world conflicts, local conflicts, growing alarm at environmental and economic crisis and pandemic viruses, they are acutely aware of their own future role in this globalised society. At the same time, the research indicates that the respondents are unsure of how much agency they might have in the future. The students worry the way the world is going; that in the future they may be forced to only work and not have other ways to feel self-fulfilled. When asked about their fears for the future, one sixteen-year old

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student answered thus: “that we are manipulated and become robots that only work and reproduce”. A ten-year old responded that she was afraid she would have to work eighteen hours a day.

The children and youth are also uncertain about the role of political leaders in the resolution of what are increasingly world-wide problems, rather than isolated local problems. A high percentage of the respondents answered that they felt that politicians had done little or nothing to help improve the world. Similarly, they are uncertain about what they might do in the future to make changes in the world they live in, despite being able to answer with multiple responses when asked what they would like to do for improving the world. It is the challenge of all teachers from all disciplines – be it social studies, science, maths or arts – to look for ways of supplying their students with cognitive and emotional tools to deal with all such cir-cumstances now and in the future.

It has been argued that art education can play a key role in inculcating not only values, but skills for dealing with conflict, con-troversy and adversity. Many arts-based practitioners are now currently involved in local and international conflict-resolution in so-called ‘hotspots’ throughout the world. Of course, arts teachers can-not immerse their students into conflict-torn areas but at the same time, most schools anywhere in the world are, in themselves, small-scale ‘hotspots’ as individuals with different backgrounds, interests and goals are thrown together on a daily basis. Equally, some teachers find themselves in situations where they must teach art to students who have recently immigrated to a new school as a con-sequence of conflict in their home country, or teachers may find themselves inside classrooms where cultural or social conflict has created almost unbearable tension. Providing a safe artistic place for not only creation, but also healing can serve as a valuable cornerstone to quality education.

Arts-based processes can help students explore specific emotions, conflicts, hopes and fears from multiple perspectives and envision alternative possibilities (Epskamp 1999). Arts education may not directly address the source of children and youth’s fears but it

Developing Art Projects for Exploring Hopes and Fears 77

may facilitate increased understanding and promote new ways of vi-sualising problems. Creative use of images can be used to clarify ideas; promotion of collaborative creativity can promote interper-sonal skills and creative production can lead children and youth to understand the role that art can have as an alternative means of communication and mediation.

On more personal levels, the students indicated that they have their own, more individual doubts and worries. Students indicated that they are worried that they may end up ‘alone’, ‘in unhappy relationships’ or may ‘become a bitter person’. They are worried about relationships with the opposite sex, about being unhappy and unfulfilled in life or being disliked by others. They want to find jobs and build relationships that make them satisfied and happy. They want to live in safe, clean and ecological neighbourhoods.

These hopes and fears can be approaches through art education. It has been argued elsewhere that an arts-centred teaching approach can help children and youth learn, not only how to make art, but also how to make wise decisions, how to look beyond the surface and find new ways to interpret life (Avis 1999, Gombrich 2000). Through art, students can be encouraged to explore their own identity and ex-amine the complex intersections and interconnections of socio-his-torical and cultural factors that comprise who they are and better prepare them for the future. Or as Zora Neale Hurston (quoted in Johnson 1986: 161) put it, art can help us see “the boiled down juice of human living.”

Why teach art? An historical overview

Inevitably, all educational actions always involve complexity. This is particularly true in relation to art education, because of its versatile and elusive character, especially due to its close link with the world of art. A reflection of this complexity can be found in the various terms

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used to refer to this discipline, such as Visual Arts, Arts and Design, Arts and Crafts, Artistic Expression, Plastic Arts or Drawing. In this chapter, I have opted for the term Art Education to refer to visual and manual arts, since, although the name may suggest it, it does not include all artistic expression; it is not music, nor dance, nor poetry, nor literature. Rather it refers mainly to the visual arts, and this is also the more common international name for it: “arte-educaçao” in Portuguese and “education artistique” in French (Marín 2005).

The teaching of arts is characterised by diversity and plurality. Its educational practices can take many forms and use various resources, since they reflect the values of the society that creates them. Truly, the educational practices that occur in art education are characterised by their great eclecticism and diversity, and can only be understood by taking into account the conceptions which create them, and which are the drive behind the educational activity.

In his book Art Education and Human Development, Gardner (1994) surmises that one of the reasons for so much diversity in the field of art education is due to the fact that its teaching and learning are so closely linked to the concepts and values related to art and education, as held by each society; and these are often two conflicting and distant worlds. Gardner indicates that one of the criteria which could guide our practice beyond these concepts would be to understand their effects on the cognitive development of the student; something that would bring objective orientation and criteria to art teaching and reduce the impact of individual or collective values on the teaching and learning process.

As it has already been pointed out in the introduction to this book, preparing students to be citizens in a global age requires multi-disciplinary educational efforts that take into account content, the students’ social context and methods while also bringing into play cultural and social values. According to Zimmerman (1990), teaching art in a global education program should place an emphasis on com-monalities shared by all people and at the same time highlight students’ understanding and appreciation of differences within various cultures and subcultures. Art education should focus on


studying culture to cover both international concerns as well as in-terests and concerns related to the students’ own local communities.

This can help answer the quintessential question: Why teach art? What are the reasons for investing resources and efforts in this area? Historically, there have been two important arguments justifying the existence of this subject in the educational curricula. The first ar-gument points out the instrumental consequences at work and uses society’s particular needs as a main basis to justify its objectives. This type of reasoning is called contextualist reasoning. The second type of reasoning emphasises the type of contributions that only art can bring to human comprehension and experience, indicating what is specific and genuine in art.

The first argument has been widely used throughout the history of art education. Using a contextualist frame of reference it can be ar-gued that the purposes and means of an education programme can only be decided if the context in which said programme is going to take place is taken into consideration. Society’s characteristics and needs are considered, taking the individuals as a starting point rather than art, and taking from the art world whatever is required for such a purpose; in short principally focusing on human priorities.

Essentialists adopt another point of view, and respond that art is an irreplaceable part of the human culture and experience, and that the valuable contribution that art can make is directly linked to the particular features of art itself. What art brings to education is pre-cisely what other fields cannot. John Dewey exemplifies this position in his reference to the nature of art.

Art is the living and concrete proof that man is capable of restoring consciously, and thus on the plane of meaning, the union of sense, need, impulse, and action characteristic of the live creature. The intervention of consciousness adds regulation, power of selection, and redisposition. Thus it varies the arts in ways without ends. But its intervention also leads in time to the idea of art as a conscious idea – the greatest intellectual achievement in the history of humanity. (Dewey 1934: 31)

For those who are not familiar with the field of art education, these two important arguments on the role of art education can seem like

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mere academic tangents with few consequences on the world of edu-cation. This could not be further from the truth; each of these points of view has important and significant consequences in our schools and institutes, as well as in teacher training centres. For example, are drawing or engraving considered art or manual work? What role should be played by the development of children’s creative cap-abilities through art? Should it be the first aim of this field? Can children come to better understand the world and their own feelings and reactions about the world around them through art education?

It is clear that these questions are not at all irrelevant. The way in which they are answered will directly affect the planning of the ed-ucational activity in the classroom, the type of teaching a school will undertake, the type of teacher training to be taught and so on. If we consider art education to be a medium for self-expression or liberation from our most private feelings and emotions, maybe the appropriate professional to teach art would be someone qualified partially in art and in therapy or psychology. If we think the main function of art education is that of a mediator in order to understand and appreciate the artistic and cultural heritage that art represents, to appreciate the great historic and contemporary works of art, possibly the most adequate profile would be a specialist in art history or cri-tique. If one thinks that the main aim is to create artists, active artists would probably be the most prepared for this occupation.

However, if we start from the premise that the development of intelligence is the responsibility of the schools and institutes, and if we accept the argument that art is both a cognitive and emotional activity (Langer 1957), then the answer appears to be simply that the person teaching art education should be a teacher capable of broadening students’ knowledge in all the above areas of art, linked to greater understanding of social and cultural values, globally and locally.

Boyer (1987) has argued that teaching art can help students de-velop skills in critical dialoguing and decoding of their own cultural assumptions. Along these lines, Nadaner (1985) has suggested that art teachers can use art criticism, sociology of art and social criticism to encompass social and political issues, thus creating an art class-


room culture in which students are encouraged to include social critiques as part of their art work.

Who teaches what and how?

This situation may culminate in a majority of teachers who have not had in-depth training in this field finding themselves in a dilemma when deciding what to teach in art class and how to plan activities which con-tribute to transmitting the knowledge they want their students to have.

The problem of selecting content is often resolved in different ways. Firstly, teachers look for something that has to be “new”; new materials, new techniques with which to experiment, new projects, in a continuous and constant search for new things which a lot of the time only seem that way. The teacher may seek to help the students find a new way of seeing things around them (see Vallejo and Oller for a suggestion on finding new perspectives on controversial topics, this volume). A second way is by organising the art education cur-riculum around the calendar and the consecutive events that take place in the school and neighbourhood, focusing the themes of future projects on them. Ideally, this would stem from the students themselves and may bring in topics that are of importance to them – such as the topics which emerged from this study. And although the practice of art (production) must be a fundamental part of art ed-ucation, other dimensions such as learning how to see the visual form or understanding the nature of art and its meanings in the con-text of different cultures must not be forgotten. This may be tied in with a cross-disciplinary approach and coordinated between teachers of different subjects.

Another question then arises from this panorama: How should we conceptualise learning situations in art education? It is clear that the answer presents a certain amount of complexity, and I don’t think that it is balanced or strategic to take a radical position in any

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of the two opinions justifying its learning in the compulsory levels of schooling. Arguably, a hybrid model is required; one that can present the different dimensions of this elusive subject that has a certain ten-dency to be epistemologically undefined.

If we accept psychologist Howard Gardner’s (1994) statement that art education is closely linked to values in society, we will easily understand that its practice is more heterogeneous than that of maths or algebra. This author states that knowing more about the cognitive contributions of art education could maybe provide clearer guidelines as to how to develop its practice in our schools and institutes. After all, the scientific study of human experience and behaviour is relatively recent, and the degree to which one can find scientifically indisputable answers to the problems of educating others, is relatively slight. Gardner (1982, 1993, 2000) also introduced a new way of ap-proaching the concept of intelligence through his theory on multiple intelligence, among which most relevant in relation to the field in question, is spatial intelligence and to a lesser extent, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.

Spatial intelligence, identified by this author as the ability to understand and interpret space, is necessary in order for the in-dividual carry out tasks or activities which involve the skill of operating in the interpretation-representation of space. Consequently, architects, designers, engineers and visual artists must have it in order to carry out their respective jobs. Interpersonal intelligence is linked with individuals’ ability to understand the needs of the other and to know how to interact with him/her. Intrapersonal intelligence refers to the ability to know oneself.

It is clear that observing and discussing works of art, as well as the creative process involved in the practice of art, provoke situations which contribute to reflecting on, and as a result, increasing the abili-ties of these types of intelligence. For this reason, the contribution of art education in schools seems obvious. Observing an image and trying to understand what it is communicating to us or what it moves in us, brings us closer to identifying our feelings and contributes, without a doubt, to making us aware of the nature of our emotions.


Gardner states that in order to grow and develop simply existing is not enough. Rather people have to live meaningful experiences.

Individuals don’t develop by simply existing, or growing older, or getting taller; they have to perform certain essential experiences which have a bearing on periodical reorganisations of their knowledge and understanding. (Gardner 1994: 20)

As they go from childhood into adolescence, artistic ability increases as the subjects learn how to face and resolve art problems.

Students learn more effectively when they are involved in rich and meaningful projects; when their artistic learning is linked to artistic production; when there is an easy exchange between the different types of knowledge, including intuitive, craft, symbolic and notational types; and when students enjoy an ample opportunity to reflect on their progress. (Gardner 1994: 87–88)

In what way can we conceptualise learning situations which develop suitable strategies in Art Education? How can we coherently plan our teaching activity in the classroom, especially if, as stated earlier, we also want our students to develop interpersonal and intrapersonal skills? What is the most suitable methodology? Essentially, we could describe the educational activity as performing, on behalf of the in-dividual who will be learning, a series of activities designed for educa-tional purposes. Therefore, planning the tasks to be performed is one of the essential parts of the teaching job.

In general the parts or domains of artistic learning that are usually explicitly or implicitly identified in the curricula of this subject fulfil the following aspects described below.

Perceptive domain: This involves the development of skills that widen the perceptive abilities in order to see, feel and understand the characteristics of the environment, as part of discovery through sight and touch; which are fundamental in the aesthetic experience.

Expressive-productive domain: This involves the development of skills and abilities which contribute to understanding nature, and the pur-pose of art and of the creative process it involves.

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Cultural domain: This develops the understanding of how art has evolved and the different meanings it can take in various historical and cultural contexts. It also contributes to providing the keys to under-standing and appreciating art heritage as part of a culture’s legacy.

These three dimensions are categorised heuristically for the pur-pose of describing them here and therefore are not without a certain arbitrary nature. Still, they are closely inter-related, and are a useful tool for organising and planning our teaching activity.

However, if in all learning processes it is important to give meaning to what we are learning, in the case of arts, this becomes particularly relevant, since, with no organically designed modules, this subject can give rise to countless decontextualised and unconnected activities, which are often justified with such ambiguous words as creativity, spontaneity or expression, and which risks locating art education at the limits of necessity, often transforming it into a ‘dispensable’ ed-ucational instrument or describing it as ‘complementary’ subject. This is one of the fundamental reasons why it is necessary to revitalise the educational practice that takes place in this area, providing and de-signing strategies which increase and improve its education practices and which take on contextualised, meaningful aspects of the for-mation of children and youth. The responses from students (both qualitative and quantitative) in our research might provide a rich mine of information about children and youth’s expectations, worries and desires that can serve as an anchor for meaningful teaching.

As already stated, although there are different ways of understanding and therefore broaching the practice of art with ed-ucational purposes, it is easy to identify some key questions which can help us to plan our teaching intervention. Educational goals are an essential part of all educational planning and should be the real drive behind our actions. One way of quickly identifying them would be by answering the following questions:

– What will I teach? – When will I do it? – How will I develop it?


Other more subtle questions will probably follow these, such as: Why am I doing this? What is my intention with this series of actions? What do I want them to understand? What type of thought or re-lation do I want to stimulate? Thinking about the answers to these questions will guide the design of our educational activities and will reflect the educational value that we give to art education. Moreover, thinking about the answers within the framework of the students’ perspective (e.g. within the framework of their stated perceptions about safety and violence, wealth and poverty, employment and un-employment, health and illnesses and the general environment – all of which are central themes in this research). Some of the most com-mon aims of art education in compulsory levels of schooling could be, in general terms, the following:

– To observe, see, understand and interpret natural and cultural surroundings in a reflective and critical way, showing sensitivity towards reality and its aesthetic and functional qualities, as well as considering other cultural realities as a type of cultural enrichment.

– To appreciate all cultural and aesthetic values identifying, in-terpreting and valuing their contents, understanding them as part of cultural diversity, and contributing to respecting, conserving and improving them.

– To employ various art techniques and resources in order to re-present reality, ideas, emotions, feelings and experiences in a creative way, revealing the appropriate communicative and ex-pressive abilities.

– To understand artistic and visual concepts, as well as the tech-niques and procedures which foster the necessary artistic ability needed to understand and communicate them.

– To express oneself with creativity by means of arts, visual and audiovisual language tools, and be open to using other resources, techniques and mediums from other fields of knowledge.

– To perform group activities and projects which promote the expressive, critical and communicative possibilities of the dif-ferent artistic and visual research procedures and processes which contribute to discussion and collaboration.

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An arts education teaching proposal

My aim is not to set out teaching material that exhaustively defines and develops an example of a sequence of activities based on the results of the research project which gives rise to this book. I will merely suggest some lines of action from which every teacher can de-velop their own educational activity according to their interests and the reality of their classroom. As for methodology, I will merely point out that it must be active and participative and it must try to get the students involved in rich and meaningful projects. In the primary and secondary stages, teaching through projects, or problem-based learn-ing, are good alternatives for involving students and transforming learning into a challenge, explaining it like a game that must be solved in a cooperative manner (see Dooly this volume for more informa-tion about Project-based Learning).

It is at this point that the research project “Citizens of the future: the concerns and actions of young people around current European and global issues” and its results provide us with numerous points of interest to start rich and meaningful art education projects. I begin by looking at the phases for planning and developing the different levels of the art project or module:

– Level 1: Starting point. – Level 2: Development of the project. – Level 3: Reflections on the learning process.

Level 1

In this first phase the type of questions and topics which would be most appropriate for the target class-group might be selected from the ESF research. The questionnaire responses, and the different spheres in which the study is performed, permit different ways of broaching a large number of aspects which can be regrouped and put together in various ways. Considering that the first activities are nor-


mally aimed at arousing the students’ interest while introducing the topic which their next tasks will concern, it is clear that their re-sponses to ESF can provide just such a starting point. For example, we will take the first group of questions which deal with our hopes in each of the three spheres in which the study is organised:

– What are our hopes for the future? – How do you imagine the future of your neighbourhood or com-

munity? – How would you like the world to be in the future?

These questions could be reformulated in a more poetic way and transformed into the focus of an art project.

– What colour are your hopes? – Building the future together. – Dreams and hopes. – How do you imagine your future? – Who am I? Who do I want to be? Who is the other?

These first questions could be answered through a discussion or through an image (drawing, collage, photo-montage). Either could be completed with a verbal explanation or an outline. This can serve as the starting point for the performance of the tasks focusing on the central theme: our hopes or fears in one or several of the spheres in which the study is organised (personal, local or global), in order to approach communication through artistic language.

All of the questions in the study show aspects of unquestionable interest which can be developed to a greater or lesser extent ac-cording to the ages and interests of the students. Thus, the beginning of an Art Education module can take many forms. The centre of interest is the motivating element; it provides the opportunity to explain the teaching situation and introduce the concepts or notions that we want to transmit. It is important to maintain a common thread to link the different educational activities which give meaning to the tasks we will propose in the classroom.

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The introduction of a learning situation in Art Education can begin with actions as diverse as:

– Visiting an art exhibition (particularly one that is somehow re-lated to the topics described by the research).

– Looking for information about an artist’s work (e.g. artists work-ing in conflict resolution).

– Establishing a discussion about a topic which may arouse interest (again, consulting the research can provide rich material).

– Looking at an image and starting a discussion (the students can bring in images that they feel relates to one of the topics of the research which is most relevant to them).

– Drawing a picture (stemming from their hopes and fears). – Discussing a work of art (works of art can be chosen by their

link to pertinent topics, e.g. art work created during the Great Depression in order to compare and contrast with the current economic crisis).

– Taking photographs (students might create a photo collage that illustrates the more pertinent topics that emerged from the re-search).

– Watching a film.

These actions stimulate a process in which the observation and ap-preciation of our visual surroundings must play a fundamental role. Educating our senses is an essential aspect of aesthetic and visual ed-ucation: learning not only to look but to see, distinguishing the visual characteristics of our surroundings: colours, shapes, textures, pro-portions, thereby increasing the perceptive ability. This ability of ob-servation can also foment the ability to perceive underlying aspects of situations that are not usually obvious or to notice aspects about situations that do not normally stand out. In other words, it can help increase critical awareness.


Level 2

In the second phase of the project or module, tasks focusing on art practice will be proposed. With praxis as the focus of our learning, we can bring to fruition those ideas which cannot be expressed in words, through this symbolic language. Art provides us with a me-dium through which we can channel and communicate our worries, fears and hopes. The practice of art is a genuinely human activity that helps us put in order, symbolise and understand our experiences. It is also a great medium for discovering the world of children or young people; what they think, what they hope for, and how they position themselves in the world. Art education offers us the natural space to respond to and think about our desires and hopes, both on our own and in a group.

On the basis of their aim, various typologies of activities appro-priate to those aspects that are to be prioritised, as well as the con-tents to be dealt with can be proposed. It is important to explain the activities by way of solving problems, seeking, unlike other subjects, different answers which involve the students in their learning process. As regards methodology it is advisable to alternate the in-dividual projects with those which are carried out with partners or in small groups. By doing so the classroom activity is more dynamic while cooperative work is also promoted.

The activities which can be performed at this level can vary greatly, but they should be significantly rooted in art praxis. The fundamental task should focus on trying to produce images which can communicate and respond to those aspects explained in the first level, trying to learn how to operate with the type of elements art uses. In this phase of the module activities of a very varied nature can be performed, keeping the problem or question that commenced the module as the link.

– Design a poster about a specific topic. – Design a book cover. – Carry out an advertising campaign. – Carry out a sculpture project.

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– Create a re-creation of a work of art. – Do a group mural. – Prepare an installation project.

The different concepts and notions that will be dealt with in each module will form part of the curriculum decisions that each team of teachers will have to take. It is relatively easy to identify a con-siderable number of macro-concepts to develop in an art education module, such as: composition, colour, proportion, graphic-arts ele-ments, iconicity or volume, for example. Also, these must be de-veloped in a more detailed way through the use of micro-concepts that will help us to understand their complexity, and adapt it to the reality in the classroom.

In this phase it is interesting to focus our attention on dis-covering and experiencing the common strategies in visual creation, trying not to forget their symbolic and metaphoric aspect, as well as the different cultural uses to which they correspond. In this regard, it is advisable to look for artists (as models and advisors) who approach the type of question or problem that we have explained, since this is how we will introduce a cultural root to our classroom activities. A variable of this type of approach could be to observe the variety of forms the same topic can take when dealt with by different artists, formulating our module around concepts such as: solitude, death, hopes or fears. A certain ethnocentrism must be avoided when selecting artists; therefore, it will be interesting that it represents a variety of cultures and genres.

It is important to remember that drawing, photography, painting, sculpture and installations are types of visual creation that make it pos-sible to transform that which we want to communicate through the language of art into something tangible. We can organise the various activities around a certain form of expression or genre, such as:

– Installation – Painting – Drawing – Engraving


– Artist’s book – Photography – Video-art – Posters – Sculpture – Photo-journalism – Comics – Graffiti – Self-portrait

Although the practice of art can take on multiple forms, the different mediums it uses should not be confused with the materials required to do it. For example, drawing is a strategy that can take shape with different materials such as charcoal, pencil or a computer assisted de-sign programme. Each form of expression requires certain technical control or the development of certain skills. This should be taken into account when tackling our planning. For instance, an activity linked to active observation and aimed at increasing both perception and skills needed for spatial representation can be simply taking quick notes from some of the art works chosen for the project (Wilson, Hurwitz and Wilson 2004). Here the teacher will have a good opportunity to introduce graphic resources and different re-presentation strategies that help to improve the communicative abilities of the students through drawing. This tends to be an excel-lent instrument to plan and visualise our ideas and projects.

It is always necessary to set the goal of understanding that art is a type of communication which enables us to reflect on our sur-roundings, and that artists, through their work, provide us with their own particular view of the world, presenting new and stimulating views on it. Contemporary art may prove to be the most suitable re-source to try to deal with this. It can also play a role in dealing with students’ interests such as those revealed by the ESF research. Con-temporary arts’ metaphorical and symbolic aspects enable us to introduce elements that allow us to reflect on the increasing com-plexity surrounding citizens of the 21st century. Broaching contem-porary art is one of the ways of understanding complexity, since

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artists provide us with different views on controversial questions which can probably modify our way of thinking about these issues.

Art education is becoming a tool that allows us to approach other ways of positioning ourselves in the world, and it opens doors which increase our ability to understand the other and also to under-stand ourselves. Contact with works of art questions and modifies our view, and therein lies the great educational value of Art Edu-cation in the 21st century; the valuable tool it offers us to create and understand our experiences and thoughts.

Level 3

Reflection must be promoted in the last phase of the module. This analysis is essential for students to understand what they have been working on and to feel actively involved in the learning process. At this stage elements can be introduced which enable them to reflect on their work, and that of others, as well as to revise concepts they have been introduced to in the previous phases. Reflection can be developed through different elements such as:

– Arguing and justifying our art work in front of the class. – Preparing an exhibition of the work carried out. – Drawing up a power-point display that shows the creative pro-

cess undertaken. – Presenting a portfolio of the art productions. – Visiting an exhibition or museum and performing a reasoned cri-

tique of some of the works.


Student Gallery

The following images reveal work performed by young students in a project in which they had to express in an image the aspects of their life that most worried them at that time.

Fig. 1. The world’s time is running out

Fig. 2. Mixed up

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Fig. 3. Untitled

Fig. 4. The roll of the dice


Fig. 5. Untitled

Final words

Art calls the spirit and not the eyes. “Primitive” societies always considered art from this point of view, and they are correct. Art is a language: an instrument of knowledge and an instrument of communication. (Dubuffet 1975: 87)

In view of the complex circumstances surrounding citizens of the 21st century, far from seeing art education as an unnecessary luxury, im-practical and to some extent useless, it should be considered as an ally, as an added-on value to education, which contributes to success-fully carrying out the challenge of educating people capable of living together in peace through discussions and respect. This claim stems from the firm belief that we should all have the right to receive an excellent art education, and that this should not be merely another obstacle to overcome in schools, but rather, a strategy of knowledge that will help us to move through life, and that will provide us with strategies and knowledge to understand others and understand

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ourselves. It also provides the opportunity to live art as the enriching experience that it indubitably is (Dewey 1934; Agirre 2005).

In the same way in which we started this chapter, we will conclude that the task of art education is not easy, no matter what you call it or how you look at it. It is for this same reason that art should bring all its potential, and contribute to the education and cohesion of communi-ties; and it should play a decisive role in children and youth’s lives.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the students of IES Vicenç Plantada (Mollet) for their wonderful artistic talent.

Works Cited

Agirre, I. (2005) Teorías y prácticas en educación artística: ideas para una revisión pragmatista de la experiencia estética. [Theories and practices in artistic education: Ideas for a pragmatic revision of the aes-thetic experience] Navarra: Universidad Pública de Navarra – Octaedro- EUB.

Avis, P. (1999) God and the creative imagination. New York: Routledge Press.

Boyer, B.A. (1987) Cultural literacy in art: Developing conscious aesthetic choices in art education. In D. Blandy and K.G. Cong-don (eds.) Art in democracy (pp. 91–105). New York: Teachers College Press.

Dubuffet, J.(1974) Escritos sobre arte. [Writings about art] Barcelona: Barral Editores.

Dewey, J. (1934) Art as experience. New York: Capricorn.


Wilson,B., Hurwitz, A. and Wilson, M. (2004) La enseñanza del di-bujo a partir del arte. [Teaching drawing from art] Barcelona: Paidós Ibérica.

Eisner, E. (1995) Educar la visión artística. [Educating the artistic vi-sion] Barcelona: Paidós.

Epskamp, K. (1999) Healing divided societies. In People building peace. 35 inspiring stories from around the world (pp. 286–292). Utrecht, Netherlands: European Platform for Conflict Prevention.

Gardner, H. (1982) Arte, mente y cerebro: una aproximación cognitiva a la creatividad. [Art, mind and brain: A cognitive approach to crea-tivity] Barcelona: Paidós.

---. (1993) Inteligencias múltiples. La teoría en la práctica, [Multiple intel-ligences. From theory to practice] Barcelona: Paidós.

---. (1994) Educación artística y desarrollo humano. [Artistic education and human development] Barcelona: Paidós.

---. (2000) La educación de la mente y el conocimiento de las disciplinas. [The education of the mind and the knowledge of disciplines] Bar-celona: Paidós.

Gombrich, E.H. (2000) Art and illusion. A study in the psychology of pictorial representation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Johnson, B.(1986) Metaphor, metonymy and voice in their eyes were watching God. Zora Neale Hurston (Ed. Harold Bloom). New York: Chelsea House.

Langer, S.K. (1957) Problems of art. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Marín Viadel, R. (ed.) (2003) Didáctica de la Educación Artística para

Primária. [Teaching of art education in primary school] Madrid: Pearson Educación.

Nadaner, D. (1985) The art teacher as cultural mediator. Journal of Multi-Cultural Research in Art Education, 3: 51–55.

Zimmerman, E. (1990) Teaching art from a global perspective. Eric Digest ED329490. Retrieved 28 September 2009 from <http:// www.ericdigests.org/pre-9219/global.htm>.

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Suggested Website Resources

Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art webpage <http://www. macba.cat>.

Basque Museum of Contemporary Art. <http://www.artium.org/>. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation <http://www.gulbenkian.pt/>. Educational resources from the Tate Gallery webpage. <http://

www.tate.org.uk/learnonline/>. InSEA: International Society for Education Through Art

<http://www.insea.org/>; Institut Getty webpage <http:// www. getty.edu/education/>; Laboratori de les Arts de la Fun-dació La Caixa, webpage <http://www.caixaforum.com/>.

Museu Nacional d’art de Catalunya (MNAC) <http://www. mnac.cat>.

NAEA: National Art Education Association of the United States. <http://www.naea-reston.org/>.

NSEAD: The National Society for Education in Art and Design. Network for work associated with art education in the U.K. <http://www.nsead.org>.

Their Hopes and Fears: A Catalyst for Project-Based Language Learning

MELINDA DOOLY

[...] and now that more and more they do languages and ask for languages in work it’s sure you’ll have to know languages (10 years old – Spanish female; focus group interview)

The ESF research which provides the basis for this chapter did not specifically focus on different competences that the students felt they should have in order to be prepared for their future. However, as is evidenced by the quote above, the topic of good communicative skills in different languages emerged either directly or indirectly throughout the two-year study. When asked about their personal as-pirations in an open-ended question, the top category of answers cor-responded to professional aspirations (“get a good job”; get a job I like”; “get a job that makes me feel accomplished”, etc.). The focus group interviews provided further insight into the children and youth’s perspectives concerning their future job aspirations – and a good command of multiple languages emerged, as attested by the quote above as well as other statements by the respondents: “To get a good job, you’ve got to speak English” (Spanish girl, 13 years old). One ten-year old girl even listed “knowing lots of languages” as her top personal aspiration.

In the study, a significant percentage of the children and youth indicated that they were worried about future opportunities, in-cluding studies – especially concerning access to higher education. It should be noted that educational concerns were not as prominent as job aspirations (job aspirations was consistently the top category of personal future desires for all age groups), but it was one of the top themes. For instance, among youth in the Barcelona area, 29% of the sixteen-year olds mentioned getting into higher education as a top

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concern. One young respondent indicated that she would like to “study in a prestigious university abroad” (13-year old Spanish girl) while at the same time, in a focus group of 13-year old boys and girls, the participants discussed the inherent difficulties to getting into uni-versity, at home or abroad. Part of children and youth’s explanation of their worries lay in a lack of dominion of required academic com-petences such as a good command of various languages. The principal language mentioned was English, although French, Italian and Chinese were also brought up by some of the respondents in the study.

The need for knowledge of other languages emerged in relation not only to preferred choices of professions but also in their desire to visit other countries and to ‘get to know other cultures’. The open-ended question about personal desires for the future got answers like: “travel around the world” (16-year old Spanish girl); “live in a city far away from Spain” (16-year old Spanish boy) or “work in another country” (16-year old Spanish boy). Additionally, from an ed-ucational perspective perhaps the more interesting vector to language learning emerged from the different altruistic plans and desires mentioned by the subjects in the study. Many of the students men-tioned that they would like to work for non-governmental organi-sations, become involved in world campaigns to fight poverty, work to end world violence, support environmental conservation groups or be active in other similar causes (Dooly et al. 2008). Students men-tioned travelling around the world and curing lots of people (13-year old Spanish girl) and “helping others through humanitarian and investigative projects” (16-year old Spanish girl); presumably in terms of NGOs working in other countries.

Ideally, teachers can channel these latent interests of ‘worldly’ is-sues into critical thinking while also working with their subject con-tent. As this research has demonstrated, children and youth are aware of important social and political issues at local, regional and inter-national levels. In many instances, the children and youth themselves pointed out the complexity, and the at times controversial, di-mensions of social and political issues that they brought up during the study (for more in-depth analysis of this point, see Vallejo and

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Oller in this volume). For teachers to ignore this is to act ir-responsibly. As Crick (1998) points out:

Controversial issues are important in themselves and to omit informing about and discussing them is to leave a wide and significant gap in the educational experience of young people. (Crick quoted in Claire and Holden 2007: 3)

Pretending that these controversial issues are of no interest to children and youth or that they are not relevant to them is to play ostrich with its head buried in the sand. Not only is it of interest for them and relevant to them, it is a necessity for students to learn how to face and critically engage with social and political issues. Children and youth “are not born knowing how to do this and need to prac-tise skills of listening, stating their case, and being prepared to change their minds or rethink their values if necessary” (Op. Cit.: 7). In fact, some of the children in the study indicated that they would welcome such initiatives. One girl in a focus group of 13-year old boys and girls stated that she would welcome much more discussion on topics of interest to them: immigration, sex, job opportunities, ways to im-prove the neighbourhood and the world and how to develop more egalitarian, less-violent environments in school and out.

Most teachers are well-intentioned and do not shun difficult topics due to a lack of interest. They may, however, avoid controversial topics out of a lack of preparation or for want of confidence in teach-ing this type of topics. Research carried out in Britain indicates that many teachers and teacher trainees feel unprepared and express a lack confidence in how to deal with many issues similar to the ones that came out in the study described herein (Claire and Holden 2007: 8).

With this in mind, this chapter will outline how a language teach-er can bring these very topics that were indicated by the students in our research into their language classroom as a springboard for con-tent and language learning, as well as enhanced critical awareness. The premise is that students’ interests in social issues can be used to promote language learning while exploring a hands-on approach to social action on local, regional and global levels. Considering that social justice on local and world levels was a top aspiration for all age groups (between 25 and 30% of the answers both years across the

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board), it seems patent that such an approach will enhance interest and personal engagement of the students.

The teaching approach recommended here is Project-Based Learning (herein PBL). It should be noted that project-based learning and problem-based learning are often confused, especially since PBL is used as an acronym for both terms. The main difference between the two approaches lies in the way in which students are given greater autonomy in the project-based approach. In problem-based learning, the focus is on problem-solving (also a frequent component of project-based learning but not the basis of the approach) set up by the teacher. In contrast, a student-centred approach is associated with project-based learning.

It can be pointed out that project-based learning is fast becoming a ‘buzz term’ in the realm of education and in language teaching. Although the exact timing and duration of project-based language projects vary, a project is generally considered to be “a long-term (se-veral weeks) activity” (Beckett 2002: 54) which is integrated into the language teaching is such as way to “promote the simultaneous acquisition of language, content, and skills” (Beckett and Slater 2005: 108). The basic concept hinges on the idea that the language learning should be designed in such a way that it engages students and em-powers them with the responsibility of their own learning. Their learning is engendered through an approach that connects the con-tent and target language to their own lives through activities that are intellectually and emotionally challenging, set within the framework of collaborative projects (Dooly and Masats 2008: 28).

The reason for applying project-based learning to this proposal is two-fold. On the one hand, research shows that learners are better able to assimilate and apply knowledge and construct solutions when they are required to actively use previous knowledge to explore, in-terpret, negotiate, assimilate and apply new information (see Vygotsky 1978, Chaiklin 2004, Stoller 2006). Secondly, PBL has been proposed as an ideal approach for language learning because it en-sures the possibility of ‘situated learning’ and the use of language for real communicative purpose.


Practitioners [of PBL in language teaching] have reported improved reading, writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary and grammar abilities, possibly due to the fact that project work facilitates repeated opportunities for interaction (output), modified input, and negotiated meaning. Because projects lend themselves naturally to integrated skills, we find that students are engaged in authentic tasks that require that they read to write, write to speak, listen to write, and so forth, leading to meaningful language use and the important recycling of vocabulary and grammar forms. Equally if not more important is the fact that projects oblige students to read to learn, listen to learn, and speak to learn, preparing them for life-long learning. (Stoller 2006: 26)

The idea behind situated learning is that in order for learners to come to know and understand something, tasks must be embedded in the target context and incite thinking that is similar to what would be done in real life. This is a move away from language instruction based on pre-defined goals (goals that do not take into account either the learners or the situation) and which attempts to reinforce the already chosen language content through decontextualized practice. In de-contextualised language learning, students often end up knowing about the language but not how to use it. In contrast, through situated language learning contexts – as occurs in PBL – teachers can bridge the gap between language learning and the need to create authentic use of the target language, thereby constructing an under-standing of language as it would be used in realistic, outside-the-classroom contexts. Coupling this with the very real issues that came to fore during this research, the language teacher can find a basis for Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL) that integrates curriculum aims, learner aims and social interests, the language classroom, the school and its wider context of neighbourhood.

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How should we focus language teaching for future competences? Local, global or all of the above?

Interviewer, three female students aged 10 Entrevistadora: para el futuro de aquí a 10 o 15 años tendremos una Europa cada vez más unida ¿no? S1: Ya […] Entr: ¿que pensáis que necesitareis saber? S2: ¿El qué? Entr: Qué pensáis que necesitáis saber para ser un ciudadano de la Europa del futuro ¿me entendéis? S2: Que qué (laughter) Entr: En la Europa más unida_qué tendréis que saber _ lenguas? S1: Ay sí lenguas S2: Sí lenguas S3: lenguas S2: Lenguas sobre todo porque si quieres viajar_ S1: Y hablar con la gente S2: Y ahora que cada vez que ya se hace (mejor: se usan) más lenguas piden más lenguas en los trabajos tendrás que saber seguro lenguas Entr: ¿Qué lenguas? S2: El inglés o el chino ¿?: Anda S1: Inglés, francés, italiano y alemán S2: Y chino

Interviewer: In the future, say 10 or 15 years from now we will have a more united Europe, right? S1: Yeah INT: What do you think you will need to know? S2: Huh? INT: What do you think you will need to know to be a future citizen of Europe, do you know what I mean? S2: Uhhh??? (laughter) INT: In a more united Europe what will you need to know_ languages? S1: Oh yeah languages S2: Yes languages S3: languages S2: Languages especially if you want to travel S1: And talk to people


S2: and now that more and more they do languages and ask for languages in work it’s sure you’ll have to know languages INT: what languages? S2: English and Chinese ¿?: Come on S1: English, French, Italian and German S2: and Chinese

It has already been put forth in the introduction of this book that teachers and learners are located in what could be called a “global civil society” (Birch 2009). Languages can be essential resources with-in this global society – providing individuals with vital communi-cative skills for participating in the many different, interconnected global areas. The ESF research that provides the basis for this book clearly indicates that children and youth are aware of the impact of this ‘global civil society’; and its indirect connection to language learning. In the above focus group extract, even though it was the interviewer who brought up the topic of foreign languages, the child-ren’s response indicates that they are very clear and certain about not only the need to know languages – but which languages they should know. And as it has already been pointed out earlier, the respon-dents’ worries about their own future (job opportunities, job skills, unemployment, etc.) was also evident.

It was possible, for instance, to discern an undercurrent of worry among all the age groups and countries stemming from the economic crisis. In the 2009 survey, 21% of the answers in personal fears for the oldest group were associated with their uncertainty about getting a job – due to the current crisis. ‘Globality’ – whether in the current form of world crisis or as other manifestations – was seen as a sig-nificant issue in terms of unemployment, lack of career op-portunities, affordable housing and references to the ‘credit crunch’.

At the same time, many of them appeared to be in contradiction as to whether they could act as social agents or not. Some of them mentioned that they participate in ‘altruistic’ entities that may have a global impact (e.g. volunteering time in NGOs, giving donations to charity, working in some way to save the environment, etc.), none-

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theless they were quite openly pessimistic about being able to bring about long-lasting social or political change on a global level.

This is one area in which language classes can play an important role. Advocates of Critical Pedagogy (CP) have long argued for the necessity of linking foreign and second language learning and CP. According to these experts (see Crawford-Lange 1981, Pennycook 1990a; 1990b; 1994), language teaching aims to fully comprehend, and, in parallel, challenge the historical and sociopolitical context of schooling. Students learn how to give voice to their own opinions and doubts and to interrogate practices that they view as unjust or disempowering. Doing so helps students experience (and not just ‘hear about’) the ways in which democratic processes can be used by individuals to make changes in their immediate environment.

This requires pedagogical practices that aim to go beyond changes in the nature of schooling in order to help bring about changes in the wider society as well. […] Some of the main aims of critical pedagogy are to try to equalise the power relations between students and teachers, to encourage student auto-nomy and ownership of their learning and work, and to prepare pupils to address issues in life outside of the classroom and prepare them to face life after finishing education. (Dooly 2009: 61)

The commonalities between Critical Pedagogy and Project-Based Learning are evident. As it has been pointed out above, both stances aim to encourage students to connect what they are learning in the classroom to their own reality, inside and outside the school and to explore their own agency. Moreover, knowledge of languages has frequently been associated with the construction of intercultural understanding and intercultural awareness and to an increased ‘open-ness’ to others (see, for instance, the Commission of the European Communities’ action plan on language learning and linguistic di-versity; 2003). The teaching of (world) cultures in foreign language teaching has been promoted for some time now, based on the argu-ment that language learning is an ideal platform for helping students gain a more complete picture of the cultures associated with the target language, and more importantly, orienting them towards an understanding of “shared basic aspects of living that each culture ex-


presses in a different way” (Kepler 1996: 3 quoted in Osler and Starkey 2005: 65).

According to the above-mentioned authors, bringing a global per-spective to foreign language teaching not only motivates the learner by providing relevancy, it ensures immediacy through the discussion of global events and their impact on individual lives. The use of the target language for discussion about these events means that the stu-dents are acquiring more than linguistic knowledge, they are learning to discuss and debate issues from different perspectives other than their own – an aspect which is not guaranteed with mere language teaching. “Linguistic proficiency, after all, has no inherent relation with international understanding” (Osler and Starkey 2005: 71).

Of course, the argument that there is a nexus between language learning and intercultural competences is not new to the area of foreign language teaching in Europe (see Noguerol 2000; Guilherme 2007; Sercu 2005; Starkey 2007). However, there are inherent pro-blems if one simply assumes that teaching a foreign language leads to intercultural awareness without interrogating the myriad of factors in-volved in language teaching, not to mention the varying (and often contrasting) theoretical understandings of ‘intercultural’. While it is not within the scope of this chapter to delve further into this, it is re-levant to point out that there are several different pedagogical pro-posals or models for intercultural (or multicultural education) and intercultural awareness, ranging from cognitive models, self-aware-ness models, immersion models to cultural awareness models. To simplify the issue greatly, this chapter holds to the idea that inter-cultural awareness and language teaching should undertake to:

[Unveil] the dominant hegemonies, questioning both the ruling and the subordinate ideologies, making connections between the different narratives at the local, national and global levels, and giving voice to those discourses that have been silenced [...] uncover the power relations which determine the nature of intercultural interactions either amongst individuals or groups. (Guilherme, 2007: 78)

This stance implies that foreign language teachers (especially of major European languages) must be aware of the ‘power’ they hold when

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teaching a language that has global recognition as a lingua franca, as is the case of English or French or German. Many arguments have been put forth which delineate the growth of neo-liberal ideology of the free markets, following World War II, and the impact this has had on languages – in particular the continuously expanding use of English as a lingua franca. This discourse is pervasive; note that, in this study, children as young as the age of ten were aware of the ‘key’ languages they should learn to travel, study and get a job. Addi-tionally, it has often been the more elite and wealthy members of societies across the world who have had more access to acquiring English as a lingua franca. (The effects of this division of ‘social capi-tal’ (Bourdieu 1977) as well as the impact of English as the leading global language on other languages has been thoroughly researched since the late 1990s – see “linguistic human rights”, Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas 1999, Skutnabb-Kangas 1999).

These contradictions imply that foreign language teachers, espe-cially English as foreign language teachers, must learn to balance the global and the local; core and periphery; cultural diffusion and resis-tance; and outsider and insider perspectives (Birch 2009), without falling into relativism or the use of empty truisms. They must also ex-plicitly aim at making their students aware of the benefits of knowing multiple languages – not only knowledge of ‘high-prestige’ languages – and the need to respect linguistic diversity on both individual and collective levels. Respondents to the questionnaires were aware of the role of language teaching and learning in processes of social in-tegration (students as young as ten and thirteen mentioned ‘teaching languages to immigrants to help them integrate into our society’). While this stance arguably reflects a conception of a monolingual model of language learning, as well as the need for promoting social cohesion through the ‘majority language’, teachers could use this emerging awareness to promote the idea of everyone learning each others’ language, rather than only the immigrants integrating into (prestige language) society.

This sets a high goal for foreign language teachers and it im-plicitly requires a conceptual framework and approach that sees


language learning as a process “of multiple, mobile, socially-con-structed communicative competences in both language use and language learning, rather than linear language acquisition, especially in plurilingual contexts” (Dooly 2009: 15). It is postulated here that pro-ject-based language instruction that starts within this conceptual multilingual framework can provide support for taking a more global view of language teaching and at that same time, serve as a spur for cross-curricular teaching aimed at addressing the very real issues posed by the students in the research described in this book.

Teaching approach: Cooperating to learn languages and tackle tough issues

Many authors have argued that there is a close link between co-operative learning and optimal second language acquisition through a communicative approach (principally through comprehensible input and comprehensible output; interaction between content and con-text, and the affective domain of motivation). The application of co-operative learning in school practice has been around for several generations (see Johnson and Johnson 1989, 1995; Johnson, Johnson and Holubec 1993; Kagan 1990) and has gained advocates in foreign language learning as well (Chen 1999, Kessler 1992, McCafferty, Jacobs and Da Silva Iddings 2006). (See Vallejo and Oller, this volume, for a perspective of cooperative learning in social sciences.) There are two major components of communicative language teach-ing – socially oriented lessons and small group interaction – which implicitly correspond to the essence of cooperative learning. And as Goodall (2007) points out, cooperation in the classroom is significant for the students, apart from the language learning taking place. “Co-operation, empathy, self respect and respect for others, and conflict resolution are key themes in any personal and social education for young children” (Goodall 2007: 34).

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Significantly, research highlights the positive influence of co-operative learning on academic achievements, social behaviour, pro-social attitudes and affective development (see Tabernero and Briones for research into this correlation, this volume). And, as the results from the study described in the introductory chapter indicate, while students may begin with pro-social attitudes and behaviours at younger ages, this tends to wane significantly as the students get older (see also Dooly et al. 2008, Holden 2008). Arguably, an explicit approach for helping children and youth to become more cognizant of prosocial behaviour and promote more prosocial tendencies (Zahn-Waxler et al. 1992) in the classroom may help ameliorate this tendency. This job must not be left to the civics teacher only. Teachers of all subjects must make a concerted effort to ensure that their students are fully informed about their own role in the vastly complex issues they will face in the future and how they can hold their own agency in bringing about changes (see also Ross in this volume).

It has been outlined how implementing cooperative learning in the language classroom may provide an essential first step for pro-moting prosocial behaviour in a way that goes beyond content teaching. However, this should not be taken by the language teacher as simply dividing students into groups and giving them a discussion task. As Liang (2002) points out, cooperative learning and group work (e.g. discussion groups, task groups) are not the same. Co-operative learning comprises five key features (1) positive interde-pendence, (2) individual accountability, (3) quality group processing, (4) explicit teaching of small group skills, and (5) teaching of social skill (Liang 2002: 18). Group work, on the other hand, is “simply put[ting] students to sit and work in groups without further assistance or careful structure to make group work become team-work” (Ibid.). The differences between the two classroom con-glomerations are illustrated in figure 1.


Cooperative Learning Group Work 1. Positive interdependence with

structured goals No positive interdependence

2. A clear accountability for indivi-dual’s share of the group’s work (e.g. role assignment and regular rotation of the assigned role)

No accountability for individual’s share of the group’s work

3. Heterogeneous ability grouping Homogeneous ability grouping 4. Sharing of leadership roles No explicit leadership assignment 5. Each learner responsible in some

way for others’ learningEach learner seldom responsible for others’ learning

6. Aiming to maximize each member’s learning

Focusing on accomplishing the assignments

7. Maintaining good working relationship, process-oriented

Frequent neglect of good working relationship, product-oriented

8. Explicit teaching of collaborative skills

Assuming that students already have the required skills

9. Teacher observation of students’ interaction

Little or no teacher observation

10. Structuring of the procedures and time for the processing

Rare structuring of procedures and time for the processing

Fig. 1. Differences between cooperative learning and group work

Of course, this type of teaching practice – the use of effective co-operative learning strategies – may require a paradigmatic shift in the teacher and student roles in the language classroom. Cooperative learning requires active participation rather than passive reception of listening and repeating the target language and focusing on correct grammar use. Sharan (1980) has referred to this as decentralization of authority and classroom focus. However, the teacher is not ‘erased’ from the picture – the teacher is responsible for planning and structuring the strategy in the classroom in order to maximise the learning potential. Inevitably, the teacher must use careful planning and meticulous classroom management skills to integrate social topics into the language learning process in such a way that it is not simply a ‘divide into groups and discuss’ approach.

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It is acknowledged that this approach to teaching is not fool-proof. Lack of time and lack of proper understanding of the under-lying basis of the approach (by both teacher and learners) may lead to ineffectual structuring of the work. This can result in a lack of posi-tive interdependence and individual accountability (one individual does all the work or does not work at all, for instance). Turco and Elliott (1990) have pointed out that many times cooperative learning is focused more on the socialization benefits than on actual learning or achievement needs (for a similar outline of a ‘socialization’ focus, see Ross this volume). For teachers who are pressured to meet curri-culum requirements this may lead them to discard the entire approach. And as Liang (2002) has pointed out, group dynamics and group contingencies, if not handled correctly, can have a negative impact on a teacher’s efforts to implement cooperative learning in a foreign language class. Some teachers may even experience frus-tration and open hostility from their students, especially if the topics being dealt with create tension amongst the students or are con-sidered to be controversial, either by the students, parents or even the teachers themselves. At the same time, this cannot be a reason to back away from such topics.

Issues of social justice (the treatment of suspected terrorists, or of asylum seekers), of environmental change (global warming, conservation, nuclear energy) and of war and peace (Iraq, Palestine, Sri Lanka …) are put before children every day, and can evoke intense interests and passion. These are ‘issues’ because they are controversial, and it is because they are controversial that they are interesting to children, and because they are controversial that it is important that future citizens learn how to understand them and how to take up defendable positions. It could be argued that it is the responsibility of the educational system to ensure that children [and youth] develop strategies to understand, analyse, make decisions and argue beliefs around such issues, in the same way, and for the same reasons, that schools help [students] understand fundamental science and learn to read. (Ross 2007: 122)


Setting up a student-centred project-based learning approach

Foreign language teaching contexts often enjoy a certain amount of flexibility in choice of content of materials and input although teach-ing must inevitably follow the national curriculum and school para-meters. Assuming that the language teacher can choose both the ap-proach and the topics of the course, then the teacher can programme activities which are highly interactive and integrated so that while students are practising and developing language skills in the five macro language learning areas (reading, writing, speaking, listening, interaction), they are also developing intrapersonal skills such as team-work and organization. Moreover, the basis of the approach can be through the exploration (via project-based learning) of the different issues brought up by the students themselves.

Of course the first step must be finding the appropriate topic(s). The teacher must bear in mind what is possible in the classroom (physical space and temporal limitations) as well as consider which parts of the curriculum can be handled in a PBL approach and which areas of language learning must necessarily be covered through direct instruction, textbooks and lectures and so on. Once the topics which can be handled through PBL have been identified, the teacher must then take into consideration the students – what can they do by themselves? What can they do with a bit of help? What might prove to be too difficult and potentially demotivating? Can students be gradually introduced to more autonomous learning during the course? Finally, teachers must cast a self-reflective eye upon them-selves to ascertain which teaching style they ascribe to. In the PBL method, teachers must be willing to concede control of the learning process to the students and to take the role of facilitator of know-ledge construction. This requires good instructional and organisa-tional skills. Perhaps most importantly, teachers must feel comfort-able with an open-ended process in their class which may at times ap-pear to be chaotic and disorderly (but is more often an indication of problem-solving taking place in a working group; see figure 1 above).

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Returning to the question of finding a topic – the students them-selves can prove to be a source of information and ideas. The re-search that provides the basis of this book delved into the hopes and fears of students in four different countries. In many cases, these were quite similar: for instance it was found that children and youth are worried about losing a family member or contracting a prolonged illness. These worries proved to be the most often mentioned issues in both the 2008 and 2009 samples. In 2008, 37% of the ten year old children in the Barcelona area mentioned fear of death or illness (own or a family member) and 19% of the thirteen year old youth mentioned this issue as their first personal fear (for sixteen year olds, the ‘top’ fear shifted to fear of personal failure and poverty).

This concern about illness and death might prove to be a launch pad for studying the way in which society creates discourse around certain illnesses or help students explore health care and social issues associated with it. Other fears mentioned in the study included econ-omic insecurity and problems deriving from the socio-economic do-main (world crisis brought about the collapse of major banks, rising petroleum prices, etc.). Basing these topics at the centre, the teacher can plan a project that revolves around a study of the effect of globalisation on world prices (and how this relates to poverty in some areas around the world) or on a demographic study of the unemployed (thus helping challenge stereotypes of people who are without work).

Other fears described by the students in the study were related to environmental problems (pollution, the hole in the ozone layer, cli-matic change, the greenhouse effect); the division between rich and poor; poverty in third world countries) and world violence (terrorism, wars, criminal violence). All of these could provide a wealth of re-sources for designing a project, keeping in mind that “good projects in classrooms encourage changes in the culture and structure of schools” (Markham, Larmer and Ravitz 2003: 10). It should be high-lighted that the study described in this book indicates that children as young as 10 years of age were able to pinpoint and discuss political and social issues on the local, regional and national level. Thus, while the project design must inevitably be tailored to the age, interest, pre-


vious knowledge and capabilities of the students, it should not be assumed that this can only be carried out with older students.

One might also add that good projects also endeavour to bring about change in the local environment, neighbourhood and, in some degree, the world. Research into eleven-year olds’ reasons for learning about controversial topics (carried out in the UK) indicated that they were aware that there is a need to go beyond mere subject knowledge (being informed). They indicated that they “valued working cooperatively, arguing their case, thinking creatively and understanding the perspectives of others” (Claire and Holden 2007: 13). An important premise of PBL is that the final output must be meaningful and intended for a wider audience (which implicitly re-quires insight of others’ perspectives). Preferably the output aims to make a change in the world (such as a campaign for water con-servation in the neighbourhood). Combined with the premise of communicative language teaching (using the language for a real purpose), the intended output of PBL and the students’ interests in such issues, a language teacher can find potentially rich resources for setting up a student-centred project-based language learning class.

According to Thomas (2000), project-based learning must ensure five main points: it should be central to the teaching (not added to tra-ditionally taught materials); there should be a “driving question” that provides a clear connection between the activities (and sub-activities) of the project and the target knowledge; it should require the trans-formation of previous knowledge and construction of new knowledge by the learner; it should be learner-driven; and it must be authentic.

There are other features that are important for setting up and carrying out Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL). For instance, it may be necessary to work with the learners beforehand to ensure that they have the appropriate skills for interaction and cooperation as well as basic research skills. The students must also have sufficient experience with communicating in the target language – not necessarily with great fluidity – to not be overwhelmed by the idea of using the target language to carry out a project. They should also be made to understand that the target language use will be scaffolded

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and that the focus is on communicating the basic ideas, not creating extremely complex output. Since the idea of ‘project’ is often asso-ciated with cognitively complex outcomes, pupils may assume that they will be expected to use the target language at extremely complex levels and may be reticent to the idea. Teachers and pupils can negotiate the amount of target language that will be used and when; initiating students into PBLL does not necessarily mean that the target language must be used 100% of the time. (For more studies into the use of multiple languages to produce monolingual products, see Nussbaum 2006, Masats, Nussbaum and Unamuno 2007, Borràs et al. 2009.)

Teachers should make sure the project is situated in a real world context so that the learners can see the connection between what they are learning and its application outside the classroom. Similarly, teachers should ensure that the learning objectives are clear and are understood by all the learners. This includes negotiating the learning outcomes and output with the learners. This is obviously related to the need for real-world, tangible output. This does not necessarily have to be limited to one product, instead the class could plan for variety (e.g. video on the school website) that reaches an authentic audience.

Finally, the class must discuss and decide on how the PBLL will be assessed. Formative assessments are usually more suitable to PBLL situations. Typical assessment tools are rubrics, portfolios, learner diaries and peer assessment. Inevitably, the language teacher must have a plan of action on how to recycle already learnt target lan-guage as well as how to present new target language that will be used during the PBLL (scaffolding the language learning process). Perhaps most importantly, the teacher and learner should select a real life problem or question as the base for the PBLL (Sidman-Taveau and Milner-Bolotin 2001, Railsback 2002).

Allowing students to be involved in the selection of the topic is essential. Students might compile a list of issues they would like to work on (a real life problem or question) or the teacher may have a pre-selected list for them to vote on, based on research such as this one that indicates general topics of concern and reflection of the


students from different age groups. A work plan should be discussed and decided upon that includes all of the different areas mentioned above (e.g. output and activity sequences for reaching the output, as-sessment, etc.). At this point, the language teacher will need to analyse the different stages required in order to anticipate different language requirements that may need to be revised or taught. This can be included as part of the collaboration to be carried out by the students themselves (e.g. cue cards for group work management; posters of ‘frequently used language’ during the project, etc.). Lan-guage resources (dictionaries, newspapers, online resources) should be readily available in the classroom as well.

It may be useful to clarify some ideas related to tasks and projects. In the 80s, several theorists looking at task-based language learning began defining tasks as a means of describing a workable communicative approach to language teaching. Prabhu (1987: 24) described task as “an activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allowed teachers to control and regulate that process”. Still working within the language learning context, Crookes (1986: 1) stated that a task is “a piece of work or an activity, usually with a specified objective, undertaken as part of an educational course, or at work”. Long (1985: 89) insisted on the fact that the idea of task, for educational purposes, exists alongside a more mundane concept of task as “the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between. Tasks are the things people will tell you they do if you ask them and they are not applied linguists.” With the advocation of the communicative approach, the idea of ‘task’ as a solid base for language learning became quite current in the field of foreign language teaching and learning; almost to the point of becoming synonymous with ‘communicative purpose’ for language use. “[A] task is an activity which requires learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning to attain an objective” (Bygate, Skehan and Swain, 2001: 11). Unfortunately, however, there is still considerable confusion amongst teachers about what constitutes a task and how this differs from a

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carefully contrived ‘language practice session’ designed to elicit specific target language deemed necessary by the teacher.

According to Masats, Dooly and Nussbaum (2008), there are some key features that distinguish between what is and what is not a task in language learning, as shown in the figure below.

What is a task? What is not a task? A teaching proposal that is relevant to the students.

A teaching proposal that is not relevant to the students (e.g. the proposal fits the teacher’s agenda only).

A teaching proposal that takes place within a context that reproduces a true communicative situation.

A teaching proposal that is isolated, de-contextualised and without any clear con-nection to other learning taking place.

A teaching proposal that stimulates the students to use the target lan-guage that they already know and to explore new uses (extension of knowledge).

An excuse for students to practice specifically elicited language structures, vocabulary, etc. with a focus on correct production/reproduction only.

A teaching proposal that facilitates production of authentic language so that the learner feels that they con-trol the direction of language use.

A means of controlling the output (oral and written) produced by the students.

A teaching proposal that obliges learners to develop linguistic, com-municative and social skills.

A teaching proposal that focuses exclusi-vely on linguistic objectives.

Fig. 2. What is a task in foreign language learning?

Several authors have outlined different typologies of tasks in language learning contexts such as information-sharing; jigsaw tasks; problem-solving; organising and classifying and so on. It is not with-in the scope of this chapter to delve further into exact definitions and lists of typologies of task and task-based learning, however it is im-portant to highlight the premise that a task-based approach:

integrates the task(s) into the overall learning process. This stands in contrast to many supposedly task-based proposals which merely present recom-mendations for materials and application of materials for a miscellany of single tasks – tasks which are often out of touch with the actual learner needs


and end up being little more than ‘mini-tasks’ that replace drills but do not have an overall cohesion to the entire programme. (Dooly 2008: 56)

Still, the teaching proposal outlined here does not deign to be a series of tasks; it is based on a project. What difference is there between task-based learning and project-based learning? Some theorists claim that there is no difference at all, other theorists state that they are two different approaches entirely whereas, some (this author included) feel that there are overlapping areas and that if the teacher sets out to establish a communicative approach in the classroom, then a blend of theories, approaches and tools is inevitable. At this point, it is suf-ficient to define tasks in language learning situations as possible stand-alone activities (or short-term) while projects in language learning tend to be long-term, with at least one final output that requires a sequence of mini-activities (and possibly sub-products) in order to reach the final output. And, as mentioned several times already, the output must be coherent with other learning processes taking place and their context, coherent with the students’ interests and needs and should have a clearly identified audience (besides the teacher).

So what is not project-based language learning? PBLL is not a series of activities added on to traditionally taught language materials as a means of illustration or to induce elicited practice of specific target language. PBLL is not a diversion or series of activities that are removed from the main core of the language teaching process and that have no clear purpose other than language practice. PBLL is not the application of already-learned information or skills; it must chal-lenge the learner to use their knowledge and actively research for new knowledge. It is not a teacher-orchestrated sequence of activities; learners should be given leeway to choose what to work on and how to work; they should be fully aware of their responsibility for the actual learning process. The tasks, topics, context, products and intended audience must be real and there must be an authentic purpose for carrying out the work (not just a display of knowledge).

Stoller posits that “project work results in improved decision-making abilities, analytical and critical thinking skills, and problem solving” (2006: 27). Bunch et al. (2001) claim that it is one of the

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most appropriate ways for teaching content-based second language education. Carnine et al. (1994) feel that project-based learning may provide a viable link between social studies (civics) and student en-gagement in the learning process. Clearly there is a nexus between all these areas of knowledge: critical thinking skills, citizenship education (civics) and language learning. How to implement an efficient project to coordinate these different areas is described next.

An example of PBLL and global citizenship

This is an adaptation of a model originally proposed by Dooly, Fos-ter and Misiejuk (2006) for exploring issues and concepts of global citizenship in Higher Education. However, the main premises can be adjusted to fit different ages, language levels and learning abilities of the students. It is based on Banks and Banks’ four level approach to integrating multiculturalism into the school curriculum (2000) which moves away from ‘tokenism’ (principally a focus on the ‘folkloric’ or stereotypical aspects of the other) towards a more empathetic under-standing of the other. This example is integrated into the theoretical approach of project-based language learning (see Beckett and Cham-ness-Miller 2006).

Intellectually and emotionally challenging topics for project-based language learning can be derived from the students themselves – for instance, their hopes and fears for the future. This particular example described here of how PBLL might be implemented has been chosen because the research described in this book indicated a clear gap between students’ apparent empathy for the other on a ‘macro’ level (e.g. concern for world poverty) and an underlying current of intolerance for the other at the ‘micro’ level (e.g. fear of growth of immigrant populations in the neighbourhood). (For a more detailed study on this subject, see Oller and Vallejo, this volume.)


In the hypothetical project proposal described herein, the teacher feels that the students should have a better comprehension of global events that affect local environments (e.g. rising food prices and eco-nomic crisis provoke fewer job opportunities in some countries). At the same time, the teacher hopes to debunk myths and stereotypes associated with recent immigration to the neighbourhood (e.g. immigrants are the cause of rising unemployment). This might lead to designing a project where students try to better understand the im-migration process and what it means to ‘become a citizen’ (versus being born into ‘full’ citizenship rights). This can begin with a frame-work made up of different levels of learning.

Level 1 – information gathering Level 2 – looking at the perspectives of the ‘other’ Level 3 – understanding the perspective of the ‘other’ Level 4 – acting on this new knowledge and understanding for

social action.

All four levels contain similar objectives aimed at facilitating the con-struction of knowledge and greater critical awareness within each level: knowledge and comprehension; application of knowledge and synthesis of what has been learnt. Focusing on the language learning process (and recalling the outline of cooperative learning in figure one above), the teacher must ensure that the planning of the activity sequences in the project are based on group work that involves trust-building activities, joint planning, and an understanding of team sup-port conduct as well as positive interdependence. This must be coun-terbalanced by individual accountability (Stahl 1994) and plenty of opportunities for teacher and peer-supported communicative events.

The first level or stage consists of compiling of information; ap-plication of knowledge; and synthesis in a rather straightforward manner with little push for critical thinking. So, if students decide to explore policies and practices involved in becoming a citizen from non-national resident status, they are first encouraged to explore and discuss what they already know about the topic and then to use this knowledge to build upon it. Students could try to discover who are the non-

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nationals coming to their country; what are their reasons for coming; what is the process they go through? They can show an understanding of the information they have compiled through presentations of gathered data (posters, picture galleries, ethnographic descriptions of town/city populations, etc.). These types of displays require different target language use (descriptions, statements, question-and-answer format and so forth) and the teacher can decide how to support these communicative events according to the level of the students.

Although at this stage the teacher is principally promoting the display of information gathered, they should begin to push for the students to apply their knowledge through some critical thinking. Students can be encouraged to analyse (e.g. compare and contrast) the information. For instance, they could compare information about the process for non-nationals to become citizens that comes from different places (e.g. two different countries or two different regions in the same country) or derived from different periods (e.g. im-migration process in the early 1800s and immigration process now). “At this level the focus is on demonstrating that ‘information’ can have two sides. This is achieved by compiling data which, when brought into perspective, highlights the different dimensions of the topic” (Dooly, Foster and Misiejuk 2006: 16). Several different language forms are inherent to such analysis (e.g. contrastive forms) as well as pragmatic and syntactic forms.

Moreover, students might be encouraged to discover the dif-ferent ways in which minority groups have contributed to the com-munity in order to contrast stereotypes entrenched in society or to make a step-by-step display of the procedures for non-nationals to reside and/or become citizens in their community in order to have a more balanced picture concerning social and political debates (e.g. government is too lenient or too harsh in their immigration policy). Again, the target language required for carrying out this sequence of activities must be considered in advance and the necessary resources provided to facilitate fluid use of the target language as much as possible. Pre-task activities to help the students prepare for more


fluid written and oral production and reception of the target language should be scheduled into the project if necessary.

At level two, the teacher strives to plan activities that help the students develop a wider vision of their topic. Students continue to compile information but are challenged to discover perspectives that differ from their own and to understand where they are coming from (this does not necessarily imply acceptance of the other perspective). “Students should also begin to reflect on the way in which their actions, feelings and behaviour are, in a large part, shaped by the society they live in” (Dooly, Foster and Misiejuk 2006: 17). Sub-pro-ducts in this stage might include posters or presentations of their society seen from a perspective that contrasts their own (e.g. a col-lage of ‘underground’ cultural artefacts such as posters, ads, film clips, etc., that challenge the majority perspective). Students should try to see iconic cultural concepts and themes (e.g. national holidays, famous people) of their society from different points of view. For in-stance, students might interview someone from a minority group about a cultural icon from the majority group. Does this person feel ‘represented’ by the famous person? Why or why not? (Incidentally, if the interviewee speaks the target language, the preparation, im-plementation and analysis of the interview provides ideal oppor-tunities for the students to use the target language in truly purposeful communicative events.)

Level three moves the students into highly participative modes of learning in which they actively work towards critical awareness of social issues. Students begin to analyse the different ways in which is-sues about citizenship are constructed by the ‘dialogic’ or ‘inter-textual’ nature of society (see Culler 1976, Kristeva 1984, Fiske 1989, Fairclough 1992). This might include learning to do simple textual analysis of media or of administrative policies (past and present) that affect citizenship, etc. The teacher might consider inviting experts from different fields to help the students examine the same texts in different ways. Similarly, students could look at ways in which language is used to manipulate notions of citizenship (e.g. fairy tales for small children that promote national identities, etc.). Cots (2006)

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has argued convincingly of the need to bring critical discourse analysis into foreign language teaching and this scenario affords an opportune means for doing so.

After analysing texts from different perspectives, students are ex-pected to demonstrate an awareness of the ‘background’ of different situations leading up to the elaboration of widely circulated texts. They should be able to show some understanding of different pos-sible ‘narratives’ of the same situation, taking on perspectives that are not necessarily their own. Some possible sample sub-products and activities for this level are:

– Narratives, role-play, drama: Students take on the roles of ‘illegal’ immigrants who are trying to become ‘regularised’. Are they afraid of losing their identity? Do they want to become like ‘everyone else’? How do they feel?

– Editorials, articles: Taking the role of an established member of a minority group in the community, students write a newspaper article responding to mainstream newspaper articles concerning the ‘flood’ of immigrants arriving to the European Union.

– Posters, maps, ads: Students draw a map, poster, or ad and des-cribe how the world might look now if countries had not been colonised several centuries ago by predominantly European countries.

At level four, students are expected to not only demonstrate that they have assimilated new knowledge, they are asked ‘to do something with it’. At this stage, students should feel they have the knowledge and the confidence to organise themselves for social action, based on the information they have compiled thus far. The students are responsible for creating a plan of action that addresses one or more social and/or cultural issue. They seek important social change and are able to critique mainstream perspectives with balanced arguments. In other words, students are required to ‘translate’ information into social action. The action plans are designed, developed, implemented and evaluated by the pupils and the teacher provides them with guidance, suggestions and logistic help. “Students should be encouraged to look


‘outward’ at this stage in order to contextualise their activities” within the real world (Dooly, Foster and Misiejuk 2006: 19). Some possible sample output and activities for this level are:

– Write a letter to the government at different levels (local, national and intranational) outlining ways in which citizenship testing is based on arbitrary and trivial knowledge and suggest alternative criteria. By writing letters to different levels of government, students not only use multiple languages, they see that they can ‘have a voice’ beyond what they may have considered to be within their realm.

– Develop a campaign platform against negative representations of minority groups seeking asylum, etc.

– Organise an art/film seminar and invite established community artists to contribute to the themes of human rights, immigration, globalisation issues, etc.

As has been highlighted above, the PBLL proposed above goes beyond group work on controversial topics or group discussions centred on these topics. The PBLL is designed to expand the stu-dents’ content and critical knowledge to facilitate thinking skills as a life-long goal. Students acquire research skills, learn to develop arguments and strategies for giving opinions, agree and disagree with others, obtain oral and written skills and gain key strategies for citizen participation. Teachers play a part in inspiring their pupils to live creatively and critically in today’s society.

Final Words

Advocates of PBL in foreign or second language learning who take a view of language as a resource within a particular sociocultural con-text (Beckett 2006) posit that language learning is more than the rote learning of language rules and forms. It is the acquisition of linguistic and sociocultural knowledge concerning the language so that the fo-

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cus of study (language) is both the content and vehicle of study (Seedhouse 2004). As Van Lier (2006) points out, it is “a well-established fact that it [PBL] is a sensible and sophisticated way to approach the teaching-learning dialogue” (p. xii) in foreign language learning contexts, although he does warn that it “mostly tends to happen in elite, low-stake courses” rather than in high-stake situations ruled by standardised testing assessment and placement. Perhaps it is the responsibility of the teacher to expand the opportunities of PBLL to mainstream students and engage them in possibilities of learning critical thinking so that their language learn-ing encompasses a wider construction of knowledge about issues that are of importance to them and society in general. Admittedly, this may prove to be an insurmountable task for an individual teacher. One possible venue to explore is whole-school change that works toward getting content and language teachers working together to reach shared curricular objectives.

According to Stoller (2006), Project-Based Language Learning allows students to set and evaluate their own language learning goals, as well as content learning goals and other related skills and learning strategies. This also ensures enhanced motivation and confidence in the language learner.

In project work settings, student accomplishment (in terms of language learning, content learning, skill learning, strategy use, and final outcome) can be confirmed, explicitly and implicitly, by means of formative and summative feed-back provided by peers and the instructor. Ongoing feedback makes it easier for students to reflect on their accomplishments, thereby contributing to potential growth in self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-concept. (Stoller 2006: 30)

The evidence that PBLL is beneficial seems unequivocal. At the same time, one is struck with the apparent need to bestow children and youth with resources and knowledge to face a world that is exciting and frightening; and promising and alarming for them at the same time. Their words in this research give testimony to this. Youth and children encounter significant social events every day of their lives; events that may worry them or confuse them. They must learn to deal with conflicts and controversy; competing ideologies and policies


while drawing on solid, informed critical thinking skills. PBLL can help ensure that the students attain these fundamental skills and strategies. Students will learn to do more than ‘speak’ the foreign language; they will be able to distinguish facts from claims, values and opinions and structure their own arguments; and in multiple languages to boot.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Emilee Moore for her careful reading of the final version of this chapter. Her insightful comments im-proved the quality of the text signficantly. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the pupils and teachers of the following schools: L’Escoleta – CEIP Escola Bellaterra (Bellaterra), CEIP Les Fontetes (Cerdanyola del Vallès), IES Vicenç Plantada (Mollet), IES Arraona (Sabadell) and Sant Esteve (Castellar del Vallès).

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Citizenship, Cooperation and Social Action

ALISTAIR ROSS

What is, or should be, the role of schools in developing young peoples’ social understanding and behaviour? Should teachers and educational authorities encourage learning to cooperate, or learning to be ‘civic’, or to compete? And if so, how? What responsibilities do educators have to move beyond teaching information and skills to teaching social values and attitudes? These are not easy or straight-forward questions, and there have been in the past century some unhappy ventures into these areas, across Europe, the results of which may have been perceived as a warning against teachers be-coming involved in potentially contentious areas. This chapter will draw on some of the findings of the research project to suggest that teachers need to be aware of, and responsive to, the needs young people have for understanding political participation and for finding out how to engage and become involved in community activity and decision-making. Schools, it will be argued, have a responsibility to help pupils understand fairness, cooperation and citizenship. Many young people want to know about social and political issues, and how to engage in them, and schools should have a role in this.

The chapter begins by reviewing information about how young people think that they will act in a ‘political’ manner when they are adult. There was much discussion in the 1960s and 1970s about how countries, and their education systems, should promote a ‘civic culture’ (for example, Almond and Verba 1965). I will suggest that this was primarily concerned with traditional and fairly passive activities, and that current political activism embraces more disparate activities. The evidence from our research suggests that many young people are willing to become political in a wide range of practices. I will then examine what we know about how young people access

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information from different sources about a range of current issues and areas of concern. From these starting points, I will suggest that there is fertile interest in issues amongst pupils, on which it would be possible to build curriculum programmes that will develop young people’s knowledge about these issues, and ability to act on them; through a combination of concept-based learning and issues-based organisation.

I conclude that active civic competence is an attainable educational objective, if there is the combination of teacher under-standing of a conceptual; and theoretical map of the area; an ap-propriate curriculum; and the necessary policy support.

Political and social participation

The perceived decline in political and social participation is an area of substantial interest and comment, both among the political and commentating classes, the media, some of the public, and academic researchers (see, for example, Norris 2002; Lister and Pia 2008). It should also be an area of interest to educationalists, because the fundamentals of how the individual interacts with social organi-sations begin in childhood and adolescence, and thus in the years of schooling. What do we know of young people’s social participation, and how might schooling might contribute to the processes of their social learning and activity?

Formal political participation, it has been argued, is in decline. Fewer people are participating in elections, for example, both in national elections in different European countries (IDEA 2004), and – even more so – in elections for the European Community (López Pintow and Gratschew 2004; EurActive 2009). But it can also be argued that such ‘traditional’ political activity as voting is not the only possible way of participation, and indeed is a way that is rooted in an outdated conception of what constitutes a civic culture, one that

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simply requires most people to have a fairly irregular and passive participation in the political sphere, leaving a small political elite to undertake more regular and effective activity. Almond and Verba (1965) suggested three types of political culture, the parochial culture, the subject culture and the participant culture. In their view, a healthy civic culture combines a balance of all three of these. A parochial cul-ture is one in which citizens are generally only tangentially aware of central government and its activities, able to get on with most of their lives in ignorance of, even unaware of, activity and decisions at state level. The subject culture is when the citizen is aware of central government, and accepts its decisions without dissent. In the part-icipant culture, the citizen can influence government in traditionally democratic ways, through voting and running for office, and being able to express opinions. A civic culture that is a composite of these will be generally passive, with citizens who accept existing political systems and structures. It can be argued that this was consonant with a need for a relative docile citizenry who would generally accept the political structure, making limited choices between fairly ideologically similar programmes, yet at the same time identifying themselves with the political system. This – it might be argued – was a necessary and a sufficient level of political activism in the Cold War.

Norris (2002) argues that such forms of political and social en-gagement are being replaced: using Lasswell’s (1936) definition of politics as ‘who gets what, when and where’, he suggests that:

Political Participation is evolving in terms of the ‘who’ (the agencies and the collective organisations), ‘what’ (the repertoires of actions commonly used for political expression) and ‘where’ (the targets that participants seek to influence). (2002: 4)

Thus, while traditional electoral participation and political party membership may well be declining, it is being replaced by informal political and social participation through demonstrations, political activism around single issues, petitions and boycotts. Lister and Pia (2008) have used data from the World Values Survey (2009) to suggest that in many European countries there has been an increase in the number of people who profess an interest in politics.

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The World Values Survey […] provides evidence that civic participation is increasing, with membership of and participation in civic organisations both seeing significant increases (particularly so for environmental and global justice issues). It seems that the claim that there has not been a general decline in citizen’s political activity has some considerable purchase. (2008: 93)

They do add that these activities remain minority pursuits, and that taking part in elections remains more popular. Nevertheless, voting participation has gradually declined over the past thirty years, and in-formal political activism has risen sharply over the same period: there is a change in pattern. Europe in particular appears to have both some citizens who are becoming progressively disenchanted with politics and participating less, and other citizens who are becoming engaged to a greater degree, and exercising their political partici-pation in ways that are much more active than traditional electoral participation.

Why might this be so? The three major competing theories as to why individuals do or do not participate in the social arena all appear to have limitations.

The socio-economic resources model (Verba and Nie 1972) argues that individuals with better material resources, education and time are more likely to participate, and this is supported by syn-chronic studies in many countries – it is the better educated and better off who vote (and stand for election, and participate in in-formal political activities). But diachronic studies point out that in European societies generally educational levels and levels of material wealth have greatly increased, while voter participation rates have fallen (Pattie, Seyd and Whiteley 2003, 2004).

Rational choice theory suggests that participation occurs when benefits outweigh costs. It has been suggested that the citizen is better off not voting, because the chance that an individual vote will have any impact on the outcome is virtually zero (Downs 1957). The rational decision to make is not to participate in any collective activities, but to free-ride (Olson 1971). Yet this is not the case: many people (still) behave ‘irrationally’ and vote: among political scientists,


this has often been termed the paradox of participation (for example, Green and Shapiro 1994; Mansbridge 1990).

Social Capital theory proposes that if individuals participate in social groups – face-to-face activities such as belonging to associations and groups – then social capital in the form of cooperation, trust and reciprocal behaviours develops (Putnam 1993, 2000). Higher levels of social capital lead to higher levels of participation, which in turn lead to higher levels of social capital. But how (and why) should this be so? One critic argued “Can we imagine rates of voter participation and organised public activity sharply improving if people heed the call to hold more picnics and songfests?” (Skocpol 2003: 57).

Some analysts have identified what are termed ‘new social move-ments’ emerging from the mid 1960s onwards. Habermas (1987) has referred to people resisting the colonisation of their life through action that centres more on asserting autonomy than on influencing or affecting state politics. Movements that focus on environmental issues, feminism and human rights have resisted incorporation into traditional political parties based on social class or trade unionism (Pichardo 1997). These movements have been seen as a consequence of the emergence of post-industrial societies (Inglehart 1990): the class-based parties and politics of the industrial era being superseded by weaker class allegiances, and thus much more dilute and transient loyalties to the traditional parties that protected class interests.

Adult social and political participation has thus changed over re-cent decades, and appears to be continuing to change. This chapter is primarily concerned, however, with school pupils. Although not yet full political actors, they are nevertheless political beings (Glass, Bengtson and Dunham 1986; Powell 2003). Coles (1986) has shown that children learn their politics from parents, school, and peers, in the United States and in countries all over the world: “A nation’s politics becomes a child’s everyday psychology” (1986: 310). He ob-served children struggling with moral and political issues, as did Con-nell (1971), who describes young children of five displaying “intuitive political thinking” (quoted in Coles 1986: 27). There have been a succession of studies from the work of Greenstein (1965) and

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Stevens (1982): Berti (1998) and Prout (2000) have extended our un-derstating of what quite young children can understand of the social world (see also Carter and Teten, 2002). What do young people intend to do in the social and political sphere? Will it be through tra-ditional social and civic forms of participation, or through new social movements focussing on single issue politics? Do young people learn about these issues through the mass media and the internet, or do they learn more from face to face sources? How do parents, school and peers inform and influence their views, and how do these com-pare to the more impersonal media sources, such as television, news-papers and the internet? How do these relate to the changing practices of participation shown by adults?

Young people’s political intentions

In our study, we asked pupils (aged 11, 14 and 17), at the end of a questionnaire that had explored their hopes and fears for their societies and themselves, to indicate what sort of activities they thought they might do when adult:

– Voting in elections – Trying to be elected – Talking about politics with friends – Joining a political party – Joining a campaign or pressure group. To each of these they could say that they were definitely going to do this, possibly going to do so, were unsure, or would not. Three of these activities could be characterised as ‘traditional’ political beha-viour, of which voting and membership of a political party are, among adults, in long term decline. Two activities, talking about politics and campaigning, are characteristic of the new informal political processes.


Table 1. Responses to “When you are an adult, which of the following things do you think you might do?”: percentages of respondents

definite possible unsure no N % definite

and possible

Voting in elections 55.8 26.2 10.2 7.6 2,344 82.0

Talking about politics with friends

16.9 27.5 27.8 27.2 2,320 44.4

Joining a campaign or an NGO

11.5 22.7 34.2 31.2 2,320 34.2

trying to be elected 7.6 9.9 24.1 58.2 2,313 17.5

Joining a political party 6.5 10.0 25.1 57.9 2,302 16.5

Table 1 shows that amongst all pupils, of all ages and in all countries, there was a range of activity: most students were ‘definite’ or ‘possible’ future voters, approaching a half thought that they would talk about politics with friends, about a third thought they might join some form of campaigning organisation, and about a sixth thought that they might stand for election or join a political party.

Only 2.6% of all respondents said that they did not expect to do any of these, so the great majority of these pupils considered that they might participate in at least one way; and only 7.3% responded ‘unsure’ or ‘no’ to all five options. Conversely, only 1.6% said that they expected to participate in all of the five suggested ways.

These overall figures thus suggest that the great majority of these students consider it possible that they will be ‘politically active’ in one or more ways. However, within these overall figures there is a considerable degree of variation as to who intends to participate, and in what way.

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Voting in Elections

The most ‘popular’ intended political action – as is true of adults – was participating in elections. There is a very clear overall difference between Turkey and the UK: Turkish students overall are more likely to project themselves as future voters than any other country, and UK students least likely, both by significant margins (Table 2).

Table 2. Responses to the question “When you’re an adult how likely is it that you will be voting in elections?”

Country

Poland Turkey Spain UK All

Definitely/Possible 86% 85% 84% 73% 82%

Not sure/No 14% 15% 16% 27% 18%

This apparent level of political activity in the UK sample is, however, better understood when looking at the variations in response by age (Table 3). The eleven year old group is noticeably much less likely to vote than those of the same age in the other countries, and at age seventeen the intention to definitely or possibly vote is between 89 and 91% in all four countries. Why are UK eleven year olds so much less likely to think that they will vote than their peers in the other countries? And what happens between the ages of eleven and fourteen that so increases their propensity to vote?

These results showed very little variation by gender, and there were no consistent patterns by country or by age: the older females were very slightly more predisposed to vote than boys (90% to 87%, but this was not true of Spain (89% to 90%). These differences are not statistically significant.


Table 3. Respondents intentions towards voting in elections, by country and age

Country

Age Poland Turkey Spain UK All

10–12 Definitely/possible 82% 79% 84% 57% 76%

Not sure/No 18% 21% 16% 43% 24%


Not sure/No 11% 8% 21% 21% 16%


Not sure/No 11% 9% 10% 11% 11%

Trying to be elected

The second potential activity, generally far less popular, was to stand for election. Again, the proportion of Turkish students who are ei-ther definitely or possibly considering standing is significantly higher than in the other countries.

Table 4. Responses to the question “When you’re an adult how likely is it that you will stand for election?”

Country

Poland Turkey Spain UK All

Definitely/ possible 11.2% 35.6% 11.5% 18.0% 17.5%

Not sure/No 88.8% 64.4% 88.5% 82.0% 82.5%

N 615 461 643 594 2313

However, while voting intentions appear to increase with age, the in-tention to possibly stand for election generally seems to decrease with students’ age. This may reflect a possible increase in political realism linked to age, possibly also to older students recognising

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alternative (and more possible or more likely) ways of taking part in the political process.

Whereas in intentions to vote there was no significant gender difference, there were significant variations in intentions to stand for election. Males were more likely than females to consider running for office, in each country, and in each age group (only Polish seventeen year old females were slightly more likely to seek election than boys). The overall ratio of difference increased with age: at age eleven, 12.6% boys said they were definite, compared to 7.7% girls; at age fourteen, 7.7% boys to 4.4% girls; and at age seventeen, 8.6% boys to 4.2% girls.

The two ‘informal’ possibilities for future action were working with pressure groups and simply ‘talking about politics with friends’.

Talking about politics with friends

Talking about politics with friends was the second most likely pre-dicted activity in the overall sample. While the Turkish students again seem most predisposed to this activity, the Spanish students seem less likely to engage in this activity (Table 5).

Table 5. Responses to the question “When you’re an adult how likely is it that you will talk with friends about politics?”

Country Poland Turkey Spain UK Total Definitely/possible 43.6% 60.3% 35.5% 43.6% 44.4% Not sure/No 56.4% 39.7% 64.5% 56.4% 55.6% N 617 468 639 596 2320

However, there are again variations by age, and this, like voting, is an activity that seems to be considered more probable as students grow older.

This activity also is gendered, though to a much less extent than is standing for election. Males are more likely to say that they will do this, and this increases with age: at eleven, 14.3% of males and 13.5%


of females say they will be definitely doing this (and 31% to 23% think it possible); by fourteen the ratio is 19.5% males to 13.9% females (but 23% to 27% possible); and at seventeen 24.2% to 20.1% (34% to 31% possible). There are some variations – there are more females than males among the Turkish eleven year olds and seventeen year olds.

Joining a campaign or an NGO

Taking part in campaigning groups was seen as a potential activity by about a third of the whole sample. This figure is significantly raised by the Turkish students’ high levels of positive responses: 58% of these students were definitely or possibly intending to take part in campaign-ing activity. In comparison, only 17% of Polish students intended this. The Spanish and the UK students were more likely to say that this was a possibility, rather than something that they would definitely do.

Table 6. Responses to the question “When you’re an adult how likely is it that you will join a campaigning group or NGO?”

Country Poland Turkey Spain UK Total Definitely/possible 17.1% 57.5% 37.1% 31.2% 34.2% Not sure/no 82.9% 42.5% 62.9% 68.8% 75.6% N 616 468 642 594 2320

There were variations by age in the responses: broadly, in Turkey, Spain and Poland older students were less likely to participate, while in the UK the intention to participate increased with age.

There were also gender differences between countries: in Turkey and the UK females were more likely to participate; in Poland and Spain it was males who tended to say that they would definitely or possibly participate.

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Table 7. Likelihood of joining a campaign or NGO when adult, by gender and country (percentage definite or possible)

Country Poland Turkey Spain UK Total Males 20% 55% 42% 25% 35% Females 15% 60% 31% 35% 35%

Joining a political party

Joining a political party was generally less popular than campaigning for specific issues. But there were very significant differences between countries. Again, the Turkish students were much more en-thusiastic than in any of the other countries, but Polish students’ dis-affection with political parties is clearly evident, and to a lesser extent, in Spain – in both of these countries, very substantial proportions of students said that they would not join a party (Table 8).

In both Turkey and the UK there appeared to particular dis-illusionment with political party joining in the middle age band: as they approached leaving school, their intentions rose. It is particularly noticeable that there are, in almost all instances, more students re-jecting the idea of political parties outright than there are those who even are thinking it possible that they might join.

Table 8. Responses to the question “When you’re an adult how likely is it that you will join a political party?”

Country Poland Turkey Spain UK Total Definitely/possible 7.6% 31.3% 12.8% 18.3% 16.5% Not sure 20.4% 28.4% 25.6% 26.9% 25.1% No 71.9% 40.3% 61.6% 53.0% 57.9% N 613 461 641 587 2302


There were also gender differences. Unlike the political campaigning option, males were more likely to intend to join political parties than females, in every country (Table 9).

Table 9. Likelihood of joining a campaign or NGO when adult, by gender and country (percentage definite or possible)

Country

Poland Turkey Spain UK Total

Males 12% 34% 16% 19% 20%

Females 5% 28% 10% 17% 15%

These responses show a number of interesting patterns. Intention to take part in voting seems fairly consistent, and most popular, in all countries, and the intention to do so rises as these young people approach voting age.

Far fewer young people consider standing for election, or joining a political party: any intentions to do so generally decline as students become older. This may be the result of a growing sense of realism in the case of standing for election, but in terms of joining a political party, this may also reflect growing cynicism about these political in-stitutions (though, perhaps ambivalently, coupled with an increasing intention to vote). Both of these activities, standing for office and joining political parties, are significantly more likely to be male activities. Polish students seem to be far less likely to participate in either of these activities, while Turkish students are (in all five acti-vities) the most likely to intend to participate.

Talking with friends about politics is a more likely activity than either standing for office or joining a party. This is, to a lesser extent, also more likely to be a male activity. As students grow older, they are more likely to say that they will definitely do this, and more likely to be see this as definite and possible. Other informal political activity, through campaigning, is also a fairly popular intended activity – more so, in most countries, with the younger and the older students. This is significantly more likely to be a female activity.

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Polish students were again very significantly less likely to see them-selves as engaging in this.

The Turkish students were most likely to see themselves as politically engaged, in both formal and informal politics, at almost all ages. The Polish students were generally most disaffected from politics of all kinds, formal and informal. Spanish students seemed more interested in informal activities – talking and campaigning – rather than working with political parties. UK students seemed in-clined to engage in both formal and informal activities, though not nearly to the same extent as their Turkish peers.

Formal activities – standing for election and joining parties – appealed generally more to males than females. Males were also slightly more likely to see themselves as engaging in political dis-cussion. Females, however, were more interested in campaigning.

Young people’s sources of political information

Students were asked to identify and rate their principal sources of in-formation about a range of issues. They were presented with each issue in turn, and then offering six potential sources, each of which could be checked as providing ‘a lot’, ‘a little’ or ‘nothing’. The in-formation sources, which were the same in each case, included both face-to-face sources that could be seen as informal activity, and sources that could only be accessed through more formal or indirect processes.

– family – friends and peers – school – television or cinema – the internet – newspapers


The areas that were asked about were

– the environment – poverty and unemployment – health – violence and conflict – tolerance.

Responses were coded for each information source, on a scale of 1 to 3, so that a high score indicated a higher rated source (max 3), and a low score (1) indicated an unused source. Average scores were com-puted for each group. This gives a broad indication of how each source was rated, but some caution needs to be made in simply com-paring scores, because differences in language, gender and age may mean that the questions are interpreted slightly differently. For ex-ample, on most issues Turkish students rated their use of all these sources more highly than students from the other three countries (with the exception of information about tolerance, which was much lower rated). This does not, though, mean that Turkish pupils did make greater use of any of these, but only that they tended to rate all sources more highly. What is significant is the relative ratings the Turkish students made for each source, and for each issue – for example, that newspapers were their prime source of information about issues of poverty, but the family was their leading source on environmental issues. What was the pattern in the whole sample? Table 10 shows the data in tabulated form.

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Table 10. Sources of information on specific issues: all pupils (scores and ranking of each source for an issue)

All Respondents

Family Friends School TV/ cinema

Internet Newspapers

Environment 2.34 2 1.88 6 2.52 1 2.31 2 2.31 2 2.25 5

Poverty/ Unemployment

2.31 1 1.77 6 2.22 4 2.30 1 2.20 4 2.32 1

Health 2.66 1 2.00 6 2.44 2 2.23 3 2.22 3 2.17 3

Violence/Conflict 2.31 2 2.13 6 2.35 2 2.40 1 2.24 5 2.29 5

Tolerance 2.19 1 1.91 4 2.19 1 2.02 3 1.95 4 1.94 4

Friends are seen as a relatively poor source of information on all social issues. The family is, on most issues, an important source – a little less so on conflict and violence. School is important for en-vironmental issues and tolerance, and television and the cinema score well for information on violence and poverty. Newspapers, and to a slightly less extent, the internet, are not seen as principal sources (ex-cept newspapers on poverty issues). Health issues are generally fairly well resourced for information, while there is not thought to be as much information available generally on tolerance or poverty.

Table 11. Sources of information on specific issues: by individual country (scores and ranking of each source for an issue)

Poland Family Friends School TV/cine

ma Internet Newspapers

Environment 2.14 4 1.66 6 2.3 1 2.34 1 2.33 1 2.14 4 Poverty/ Unemployment

2.19 4 1.62 6 1.89 5 2.36 1 2.27 2 2.29 2

Health 2.57 1 1.76 6 2.22 2 2.25 2 2.27 2 2.14 5 Violence/Conflict 2.20 5 2.08 6 2.27 3 2.39 1 2.33 2 2.24 3 Tolerance 2.43 1 1.99 6 2.27 2 2.17 3 2.18 3 2.05 5


Turkey Family Friends School TV/

cinema Internet Newspapers


2.49 1 2.07 6 2.32 5 2.36 3 2.39 3 2.53 1


Spain Family Friends School TV/



2.48 2 1.80 6 2.37 3 2.39 1 2.03 5 2.24 4


UK Family Friends School TV/



2.11 3 1.68 6 2.32 1 2.11 3 2.16 3 2.27 1


Country differences and similarities

There were some quite striking differences between the four count-ries studied. Table 11 shows, for each country in turn, the scores and the rankings for each issue. For Polish students, television and cine-ma are seen a leading source of information for three of the five is-sues, whereas in Turkey and Spain, students see the family as their leading information source, and in the UK schools are seen as most important. There are also similarities: friends are generally rated lowly, in all countries, and on all issues. The internet is in most coun-

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tries (except Spain) seen as relatively important, and generally more so than newspapers (again, except in Spain).

This level of disaggregation shows the extent to which Turkish students do not cite sources of information about tolerance. Polish and Spanish students, by contrast, appear not to lack sources on this issue. In all countries, information about issues of violence and conflict are gathered more or less equally from the whole range of sources. Information on health issues appear to be generally well resourced, in all countries particularly from the family, followed usually by school.

Polish students appear to rely particularly on media such as tele-vision, the cinema and the internet. They draw much less on the family than the other three countries, and generally rate friends as a particularly infrequent information source. Formal education through schools is most significant for information about the environment, but is also drawn on for information on tolerance, violence and health. Turkish students tended to rate most sources higher than students in the other countries, with the very notable exception of any sources on tolerance. It is particularly striking how they rate family as an important source on most issues, often followed by school: unlike the Polish pattern, this is a much greater emphasis on face-to-face learning. Media learning is more through the internet and newspapers than through television and cinema. The Turkish students also show the greatest degree of clustering: they tend to draw equally on a range of sources, rather than particularly rely on a few sources, and this includes friends as a source of information. Al-though friends are generally scored lower than most other sources, they are nevertheless close to the other sources.

Spanish students show a wide distribution of sources of in-formation: the family is important for health and tolerance, schools for the environment, violence and tolerance, television and cinema for poverty and violence. Friends appear as popular as the internet: the Spanish students appear to draw almost equally from inter-personal relationships (friends, family) as they do from media sources (in order of popularity, television, newspapers ands the internet). The Spanish are striking by the low level of importance given to the inter-


net: it is far more a common source of information in Poland, and also a useful source in the UK and Turkey.

The UK students are striking in that their dominant information source about most of these issues is school. This is followed gener-ally by the family and the internet. Information about violence come primarily from television and the cinema, but this source is not nearly so significant for other issues. Newspapers are not a major inform-ation source, but do figure more highly, certainly than in Spain and Poland. Friends score lowest on every issue.

There is not space here for a full analysis of the relationship be-tween sources of knowledge and kinds of intended political action: both those who intended to act in traditional civic politics, and those who intended to participate in new activism tended to be more likely to draw on both mass media and face-to-face sources of information, but the ‘new activists’ were twice as likely to use face to face sources than the traditional civic actors.

Teaching for issues and concepts

Behind many attempts to teach young people about social and political issues has been the use of broad social concepts. These, it was argued, could be used to organise analysis, comparison and con-trast. Conceptual frameworks for learning were increasingly popular in the 1960s: Bruner’s work that resulted in the MACOS1 project (Bruner 1968) and Senesh’s programme Our Working World2 (1964)

1 A course of study (MACOS) was a substantial curriculum project in the lower

secondary school social science teaching in the USA that was very directly founded on Bruner’s conceptions of the spiral curriculum, concept-based learning, and the centrality of pupils’ experiences in learning. It was widely discussed in many other countries.

2 Our Working World was a curriculum project, similar to MACOS, but focus-ing primarily on economic understanding and concepts.

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illustrated how social, political and economic concepts could be de-veloped in young people – younger than it had been previously thought possible. They built up concepts, in increasing layers of com-plexity and nuance, through repeated exposure to case studies, and through encouraging the learners to note, discuss and mark similarities, and to draw from this the abstraction that was encom-passed in the concept. The innovation was in the recognition that the abstraction, the concept, was best not taught directly, as a definition. However, to be useful, abstract concepts need some shared con-textual meanings, and to develop these, we need to trade the words about, to use them with references to our experiences, so that we use them in a way that others understand. This is why classroom dis-cussion must take place, so that meanings can be jointly constructed, not rote-learned in isolation (Bruner and Haste 1987). The potential for social and political future action can thus be rooted in an under-standing of issue, concept and process.

An example of such a concept list is the group developed by the Inner London Educational Authority in 1980 (ILEA 1980). This included

– The distribution of power and authority – The division of labour – Social control – Conflict – Interdependence – Cooperation – Tradition – Social change.

Another suggestion, rather more elaborate, was made by Crick in 1974 (Table 12).

The four concepts in the top row concern government: the four in the bottom row concern society. Linking each are four relational concepts, linking government and society, shown in the shaded row.


Table 12. Crick’s suggested model of political concepts

Government Power Authority Force Order

Relationship between government and society

Society

Natural rights

Individuality

Freedom

Welfare

There are three major potential difficulties with issues-based approaches. First and foremost, it requires committed and coura-geous teachers. Secondly, this approach can lead to over-emphasising the issues, or the experiential element of the learning. It is possible to develop an approach through a whole series of important social and political issues – engaging to young people, focussed on their ex-periences, arousing concern – which are not harnessed to any under-lying conceptual structures or frameworks. A teacher can develop lively classroom topics on environmental or social issues, for ex-ample, but without an attempt to encourage reflection on the prin-ciples of political behaviour that lie behind them, a valuable edu-cational experience is lost.

Young people need to construct a view of (adult) behaviour that enables them to see the competing interests, power structures, sys-tems of law, justice and authority systems that underpin how these is-sues are dealt with. . This will enable them to consider appropriate processes with which to engage in socio-political activity, if this is what they wish to do. Such an approach contrasts starkly with a strong educational ideology that the world should be presented to young people in a way that masks social conflicts and issues. Teachers (and trainee teachers) tend to present complex social issues in terms of simple solutions, with clearly defined ‘good’ and ‘bad’ perspectives. Thus Steiner (1992, 1996), evaluating how teachers approach world studies, concluded that

Law Justice Representation Pressure

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Most teachers concentrate on the self-esteem building, interpersonal and cooperative element of the world studies approach. They also engage in work that questions stereotypes such as racism or sexism. The environment, local or ‘rain forest’, is a common theme. Global issues, such as those to do with the injustice inherent in the current systems of the global economy or highlighting the cultural achievements and self-sufficiency of Southern societies [. . .] receive far less attention. (1992: 9)

A more recent study by Robbins, Francis and Elliott (2003) came to rather similar conclusions: trainee teachers seem to lack the con-fidence or expertise needed to translate their positive attitude toward education for global citizenship into classroom practice. A rather more radical view of the curriculum may be necessary to effect the necessary changes in attitude.

It is also tempting to take short-cuts, or to mistake the outcome for the process. Given a conceptual map, or a grouping of key con-cepts (for example, that proposed by Crick (1974) shown above), it is possible to offer pupils ready-made, hand-me-down definitions or summaries, that become the ‘correct’ answer. For example, in guide-lines for teaching social studies produced in 1980, definitions were offered such as:

Power is the ability to make others do as you want them to. Authority is based on the respect and obedience given to someone because of some official post that they hold and because they are agreed to have some personal ability and excellence in the task. […] All groups and societies exert social control on the behaviour of their members by making and defending rules and laws, and by expecting people to conform to certain conventions. (ILEA 1980: 7–8)

Given such definitions, it is all too easy to teach these summaries directly to pupils, rather helping them to construct their meaning through repeated exposure to examples and discussion about these, based on both direct (face-to-face) sources, such as friends, family and school and on indirect, secondary sources, such as the media (as above – television and cinema, newspapers and the internet). This is one of the traditions of the pedagogue in popular culture and ex-perience: the teacher knows, and tells the learner what is to be known. In political education, or citizenship education, this leads to a model of transmitting accepted knowledge: politics is a structured


activity with defined institutions, procedures and conventions. When one has the facts, the knowledge, then one can begin to understand political activity. This is the kind of political education that politicians would have us promote – explanations of the wonders of the existing system that confirm the legitimacy of politicians to young people, and the justice and the equity that they promote. This reinforces the uncontroversial and bland, and anticipates conventional ‘passive’ political participation through voting and membership of political parties. The trouble is that the pupils know better: they are aware that despite its rhetoric, the system isn’t handling a whole range of social, political and economic issues that concern them – racism, poverty, the environment, housing, pollution, corruption. They also see alter-native forms of political participation, perhaps more directly focuss-ing on the issues that particularly motivate them. If one wants to en-gage pupils in a learning process about politics, one has to start with the issues that concern them. School students do have such con-cerns, as evidenced, for example, in Claire (2001), which articulates the clear and often strong views young people hold about the world around them – about family and the politics of family life, about gender and sex, identity and racism, economic and social inequality.

A model for classroom action

The solution, I suggest, is a delicate balance combining several ele-ments: experiences, issues, concepts and structures and processes. All are necessary components – no single one may be left out. The se-quence of the learning programme is also critical. Crick’s conceptual model, given earlier, is as good as any, but this might be supple-mented by the ILEA list of social studies concepts (1980).

Firstly, begin with issues firmly grounded in the pupils’ own direct experience. Select issues that it is known – or that it can be predicted – will provoke some differences in the class. This will depend, particularly with students, on the location and composition of the community in which the school is set – rural, urban, multi-

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cultural, and so on. They may well (but need not) relate to the direct experiences of pupils in the group. Working as a school teacher in the 1980s, it was clear to me that the way to engage students in poli-tical education was to get them to talk, discuss and argue about con-troversial issues. It wasn’t to talk about structures: it was to get them to take on particular matters of concern: controversial issues, such as poverty, homelessness, pollution, capitalism, gender, ethnicity and language are all effective. The role of the teacher is to facilitate argu-ment, to protect different points of view, and to be prepared to chal-lenge the pupil’s viewpoints. I would put forward my own views, insisting that they were mine and need not be theirs.

At this stage, the teacher’s role would be:

– to protect the views of minorities in the class (whose presence might in any case meliorate extreme views)

– to help sort out the issues being raised (perhaps gently pointing out any inconsistencies in the views expressed)

– suggesting where, how and what further information the class might seek.

Secondly, the teacher plans out a programme, mapping the events and processes that surround the issue on a conceptual map. Crick’s conceptual framework could be useful, to check that debates and arguments include some core ideas of politics – rule of law, repre-sentation, democracy, political rights, separation of powers, and more – and to ensure that discussion could not just draw on these ideas, but form an understanding of what these concepts were from the issues and cases discussed. Issue-based teaching needs a conceptual framework at its core, and in the mind of the teacher if it is to amount to a political education. Economists would have another set, and sociologists another Wagstaff (1978). But it is only a map, and the concepts are merely heuristic devices – they are fluid in de-finition, and not to be taught as definitions.

Thirdly, the teacher needs to engage in discussion: to be pro-vocative, be a chair that allows dissent, that puts forward her/his views (but maintains that it is only a view), that protects minorities, that


advocates alternative positions. The teacher’s role is not neutral – we do not want young people to be neutral on issues that they are passio-nate about. The teacher encourages pupils to draw on and express personal experiences that will support their arguments, as well as any vicarious (second hand) experiences that are relevant. The intention is to give the class a model on engaging in political argument, of passing on by example the values of political debate – listening to others, putting forward evidence and arguments, allowing others to differ, picking up and elaborating points of similarity and difference. But the teacher is also a chair and must allow access – encouraging the quieter and more reticent, protecting the rights of the minority, and so on.

A third role, to be combined with the others, is to put forward views that have not been expressed. This means being able to put cases that challenge the pupil’s views – if necessary making it quite clear that they are not your views – in a way that allows the class to re-spond, to rebut, and to challenge them. This is particularly important if there is unanimity in the class: they need to know that others may have other views, and they need to rehearse their arguments against them. This is a challenging position for the teacher. For example, I once chaired a passionate discussion with a group of nine year olds who were incensed that some south-east Asian countries ate dogs, and unanimous in their position: I found myself in the position of arguing for cultural tolerance, and the right of other countries to make their own decisions on culinary rules and preferences. I didn’t persuade a single pupil, and was the subject of occasional strange looks from other students in the school for several months!

Offer a model of how to argue a case: show them how to avoid pejorative and offensive language (as well as telling them why it’s offensive). Demonstrate how to make a series of points. Show them how to construct a sequenced argument.

If the class are divided, encourage each issue to be explored from different perspectives. Don’t reduce the issue to ‘for’ and ‘against’: encourage a multiplicity of views.

Fourthly, encourage some finding out of information by the class, about alternatives, about facts. This stage is a return to more

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traditional teaching, and in particular using the indirect sources re-ferred to above: it may involve reference sources and library work, but may also involve direct sources, interviewing people, surveys, talking with parents and with other adults, or visits to particular loca-tions. Meanwhile, the teacher must check the conceptual map. After the initial discussions, does it appear that additional concepts are going to be raised? Will the original list all be present?

Collect material with the class: in a topical case, much will be from the press and from the internet.

Does the conceptual map still work: are all the ‘society’ concepts being explored? How far are discussions being moved towards governmental concepts?

Stage five. Re-engage in debate, bringing in the new knowledge that the pupils have researched, and encourage reflection, com-parison, alternatives that can be used to encourage the drawing out of generalisations. Conceptual learning begins to become evident. When a pupil begins to draw two events together, and can point to simi-larities in them, analyse the commonalities and begin to make a prediction, a rule that might apply – this is when the concept begins. Encourage it. It may well be only partly formed, it may well be “wrong” in terms of adult definition. You don’t have to agree with it, but you must praise the way of thinking, and endorse the process. Saying “No, that’s not right because you’ve not thought of Y” will simply stop further efforts to generalise. Let the idea be put out. Later on, consider what other information might be made available that will lead to a refinement of the concept. With a bit of luck, another student will raise some fresh evidence that challenges the generalisation. If not, perhaps you can engineer something. The principle is to get the pupil that put the proposition forward to re-think it, and to accommodate the new material in a reformulation.

Can the class talk about their ideas in terms of conflicting rights, about welfare, freedoms and individuals? Do they illustrate these ideas with examples from the discussion and their research? Are ideas changing, or being modified, or becoming more subtly nuanced? Does any of the evidence that has been collected challenge the initial ideas?


Sixthly, the teacher will need to provide the necessary structural information about the processes, procedures and forms of the political system that will enlighten and supplement the class’s under-standing. This should link to the evidence presented earlier in this chapter about pupils’ anticipations of how they will act politically: what can they do, how can they make their views known, when, where and how do they intervene? Voting procedures, the role of MPs, the Government and the police, the place of law: all this will now – and probably only now – be of interest and relevance. The machinery is much more interesting, and better understood, when the student knows what s/he wants to do with it.

Having completed this round, start again – but this time with a new issue, that will pick up on some different concepts (and maybe some the same), with the objective of visiting, over the year or years, all the major concepts if possible. And always encourage reflection and comparison, re-evaluation.

This is challenging. Teachers need a broad understanding of how structures work (not a detailed knowledge of the machinery of govern-ment); a conceptual framework on to which they can map issues as they arise; and to maintain a pedagogic style that permits them not to know the answers, and to not be the authority. To get away from safe teaching about structures and processes, about the neutral and the bland, we need to ensure that teachers are equipped with a wide con-ceptual understanding, with knowledge of the issues that might illus-trate these, and with the skills to manage covering the issues of partici-patory democracy through handling classroom political debate. There is much work to be done in developing these skills (Holden 1999).

Active civic competence is an attainable educational objective: the young people surveyed in our research show not merely an in-terest and concern for social and political issues, but also profess an intention to participate in political action when they are able to do so. Comfortingly, for politicians and political parties, such action will in-clude voting in elections – at a participation rate that will, if they all act as they say, at least match current election turnout figures. But they will also, they say, participate in informal activity, working in

A. Ross 160

some numbers – particularly females – in single issue campaigning, and in talking about politics with their friends. Schools and teachers, it is suggested, can harness this interest and concern, and can use the issues that concern young people to develop sophisticated conceptual understanding of the power relationships behind issues, and of how political activity works – and thus how it can be influenced. This will call for schools and teachers to show some courage, and to develop teaching tactics that develop conceptual and theoretical maps of these areas; an appropriate curriculum; and to harness the necessary policy support.

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Between Classroom and Social Reality – Developing Active Citizenship in School

BEATA KRZYWOSZ-RYNKIEWICZ & ANNA ZALEWSKA

One of the main roles of education is to help people learn to func-tion effectively in their environment – their immediate surroundings as well as a wider social environment. Inevitably, as social, political and economic transformations change the expectations and oppor-tunities in today’s society, the role of education gains even more importance as students must learn to deal with these rapid changes.

As has been demonstrated in this study, the transformations European youth are experiencing are significant. This could be noted especially in the results of the Polish youth who participated in this study. It could be argued that the changes which have occurred in Poland in the last two decades are unique in scope although they are obviously related to the changes that concern the whole world (such as globalization). However, there have been important socio-histo-rical transformations connected with the changes in Poland’s political system. In the political sphere these changes mostly mean the fairly re-cent introduction of a new, democratic system, while in the social sphere they are related to issues of social stratification, exclusion, changes in values, social orientations, etc. which have accompanied these political changes. Additionally, in the economic sphere these changes are connected with the introduction of free trade. All of this is reflected in everyday problems and challenges which teachers face; not least of which is helping youth be able to deal with these multiple transformations by accepting them, coping with them and even influencing them.

Research done in the 1990s by Reykowski (1994) showed that a large part of the Polish society preferred a welfare state that would distribute goods equally and justly. Only a percentage of educated

B. Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz & A. Zalewska 164

people were willing to opt for a participatory democracy and were willing to take an active role in everyday social and political life, leading to the conclusion that education has an important role to play in how people view their own agency within political systems. By equipping people in key knowledge and skills necessary for active citizen, it can help students to reflect upon the changes and under-stand their complexity, as well as cope with current difficulties and help prevent future ones.

At the same time, research involving young people in Poland systematically shows that their interests are limited to their immediate surroundings – in particular their families and friends. Similar results were found in the other countries in the ESF study and also corro-borate other studies that indicate youth are only slightly concerned about transformations and social issues in the local and global per-spectives (Malak-Minkiewicz 1995). This bears grave consequences as it makes young people likely to be ‘silent witnesses’ to social reality and makes them susceptible to radical ideologies, populist ideas and authoritarian control instead of enhancing eagerness to participate in social and political reality in the atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation (Herzog 1998).

The need for active citizens: roles and responsibilities

An analysis of the concept of “citizen” and “citizenship” shows the complexity of those terms, as well as their embeddness in political, historical and cultural contexts. In times of war the concept of a ‘citizen’ is saturated with patriotic content and resembles an idea of soldier-citizen, in times of intense reconstruction it gets closer to a builder-citizen, and in times of a catastrophe – citizen-assistant (Melosik 1998). More current and pertinent to most EU youth of today, it seems that the transformations of the 21st century encourage a modern understanding of citizenship – not only the in relation to the

Between Classroom and Social Reality 165

state approach but also in relation to an active practice (Nelson and Kerr 2006). Such an approach is represented, for instance, in Theiss-Morse’s (1993) concept of citizenship that differentiates between a citizen-voter (responsible for getting the necessary information to make an informed decision), a non-engaged citizen (who trusts political leaders and is not interested in influencing their actions) and a citizen-activist (characterized by a mistrust towards authorities, who defend their rights by protesting) and a citizen-representative (someone who takes an active role for certain interests). The idea of a citizen who takes an active role in social life can also be found in Kennedy’s (2006) and Herbst’s (2005) work.

How is this significant to education? The roles and responsi-bilities of active citizens (and the subsequent role of education to produce active and responsible citizens) is patent in an ever-changing, globalised world It becomes more and more significant whether citizens are ready to act every day, not only to vote in elec-tions or defend the sovereignty of their country, but also if they can relate to, understand, cope or influence the problems that appear every day – not just turning out to vote once every four years. For teachers, a key question is: what type of citizen is needed in times of social transformation in this new millennium?

There is no way to answer this question without understanding global and local social changes. The main areas of transformations are related to the following factors (Kerr 1999: 7–9):

– Movement of people between countries – The increase in awareness about one’s rights, especially among

the discriminated and among minorities – The change in the role of women in society – Impact of global economy – Effect of innovation in Information and Communications

Technologies – Increasing global population

Those changes are all indirectly or directly linked to many social and political problems such as pollution, terrorism, conflicts and social


stratification. Ipso facto they can contribute to the increase in xenophobia, racism and discrimination as well as poverty and health-related issues. Active citizenship requires dealing with those and other problems that may occur alongside changes happening in the modern world. Significantly, these were all issues that emerged from our four-country study. Giving voice to the children and youth in Turkey, Spain, Poland and the UK highlights the fact that they too are aware of how paramount transformation is for themselves and the society they live in (and the society they will inherit as active citizens in the near future).

Social participation and active citizenship in the 21st century will depend highly on young people’s attitudes towards key social issues (such as the issues which emerged in our study). An underlying premise of active citizenship is taking interest and gaining knowledge about current social issues, and applying critical thinking to the dif-ferent perspectives of the issues. It also implies perceiving oneself as someone who can have an impact on social and political issues and who is ready to act for change. What can educators, be it parents or teachers, do to encourage young people to take an active role in in-fluencing social life, instead of being interested only in their own problems, demonstrate apathy or else perceive the problems of their own country and the world with a feeling of hopelessness and pessimism (Galas 1996 )?

Research on the effects of citizen education in Poland shows that Polish students know exactly how many members of parliament there are and what the duties and functions of various institutions are (Kose�a 2005), in other words, they are ‘politically literate’. Similarly, Spanish children and youth were able to name current politicians and political events on local, national and global level, just as were many of the UK research participants. However, youth in our study also indicated that they felt somewhat helpless against everyday problems, mistrustful towards government institutions and see themselves as in-capable of making any impact or bringing about change. It seems then, that schools are effective when it comes to passing on know-ledge about modern democracy, but they fall short when it comes to


helping young people develop skills necessary to creatively function in that democracy. Teachers must be aware that citizen education means not only the transfer of knowledge about theories and na-tional history but that it must also enhance social broadmindedness, and motivate children and youth to seek valid information and mul-tiple resources about social problems and their causes. Above all, education must help young people gain experience that would en-courage active citizenship.

Research results and their importance to active citizenship

As has already been pointed out in the introduction to this book, one of the aims of this study was to explore the significance of school as a source of knowledge about social changes in comparison to other sources such as family and friends or the media. This issue is vital for the teachers to understand the role of the school as a source of in-formation and its critical evaluation. Ideally, as the student reaches higher levels of education the school’s role in providing information should diminish because students are increasingly more motivated to seek information on their own and, perhaps most importantly, able to approach sources critically.

It can be presumed that as the motivation to independent ac-quisition of information on key social issues increases, and the stu-dents feel the need to seek out information outside the school and textbooks, the role of school as a source of knowledge decreases and the role of the media (TV, newspapers and the Internet) gains signi-ficance. As this reliance on outside sources increases, the need for critical thinking becomes more essential – and the school plays a vital role in assuring that the student has these skills and strategies.

Apart from this, critical thinking must be accompanied by an attitude that it is possible to be agents of change. ‘Critical’ thinking that only criticizes but does not seek to find alternatives can lead to


an overwhelming negative attitude toward adversity. As has been em-phasized throughout this book – a main aim of this study has been to understand how children and youth perceive their local and global future. Earlier studies conducted in other countries (Hicks and Holden in the UK 1995; Oscarsson in Sweden 1996; Hutchinson in Australia 1996; Rubin in Finland 2002) show that students are rather optimistic about their own, personal future, but they are more pessimistic about the global future – they are concerned, for instance, about poverty, crime and environmental problems. This has been corroborated by this study – on the whole the participants in the study tended to be much more optimistic about their own ‘personal’ future than the world’s future (see also Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz and Zalewska 2009).

The study aimed to establish how young people at various age levels substantiate their optimism – what is it grounded in and what does it mean? The way in which students channel their optimism (into agency or passivity) is a key feature for teachers to be aware of and try to influence. Likewise, they must have an understanding of how young people at various education levels perceive the causes of social problems – do they see these causes as something that is within or outside their control? This has further repercussions for the willingness to get involved and the conviction that change is possible and it constitutes the cognitive aspect of developing active citizenship.

Another important feature of the research was to delve into whether young people at various age levels are interested in social issues. Are these issues perceived as unimportant and disconnected from everyday life? This is vital for the motivation (or lack of moti-vation) to talk about these issues, learn about them and deal with them. This constitutes the volitional aspect of active citizenship. And finally, the research looked into whether young people at various age levels are willing to act for change. Do they see themselves as someone who can improve social reality? What are young people’s experiences with social activities? For teachers wishing to instill the ideals underlying roles and responsibilities of participating in a democracy, these elements con-stitute the behavioral aspect of active citizenship.


Being informed

Beginning with the question of the significance of school as a source of knowledge about social issues, the research subjects were asked to indicate on a 3 point scale (none; a little; a lot) how much inform-ation about poverty, unemployment, violence, tolerance, health and environment they obtained from varying sources. In closed-ended questions we included 2 categories of sources:

1. Direct sources – “personal”, connected to interpersonal relationships, which included family, friends and school.

2. The media as “impersonal”, which included newspapers, cinema and TV, and the Internet.

The research indicates that media influences the perception of social issues more than any other indirect sources, at least among the Polish students. Among direct sources the family has the greatest signi-ficance. Interestingly, opinions, comments, experiences and know-ledge from family members influence the attitudes of young people towards active citizenship the most while the significance of friends is surprisingly low (see also Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz and Zalewska 2009).

Among the Polish student, the issues analyzed in the ESF study are not generally topics of conversation among peers. Moreover, while school is a source of knowledge, its importance is relatively low and decreases with age. The results indicated school is significantly more important for 11 year olds than for 17 year olds. It appears that as students get older, they are more motivated to seek out in-formation from various sources on their own, which is reflected in the lower average in their answers but does not necessarily mean that school completely loses importance. On the contrary, it implies that the function of school needs to change. Consider what one of the students said in an interview:

I think that those topics, which we talked about are interesting, we can discuss them with people that surround us. We have no one to talk about them in school. (Boy, 14 years old)


This indicates that the older students felt the need to “discuss” issues important to them – open discussion and critical thought are more important than mere information and unfortunately, according to them, they do not find this in the school environment.

Looking closely at the role of the media, an opposite tendency can be seen. Our study indicates that the use and importance of media (in all formats) increases with age. As the students get older the importance of newspapers and TV decreases slightly, but the role of Internet increases steadily. This may be because of the perceived greater freedom of content choice in Internet – the students can con-trol what they read, they have immediate access to comments and discussion with other Internet users, which is impossible in the case of other media.

Inevitably, the teacher can play a key role in how this use develops – and how the students use Internet responsibly to become active citizens. Teachers should try to stimulate and orient students towards critical reflection. According to Mohanan (1997), human beings tend to exhibit five characteristics in the formation and re-tention of beliefs (and subsequent thinking and behaving): con-formity, emotional clouding, resistance to change, trust in authority, and gullibility. The way in which Internet is used might either ex-acerbate these characteristics or, with the correct guidance, the student could be encouraged to develop and apply critical thinking. This requires showing students how to move beyond information ex-change to critical awareness of the information available to them.

The study indicates that the children and youth are aware of the significance of media on their lives:

Everyone takes note of that, the media publicizes that, that there is unemployment, that it is hard to get a job. (Girl aged 11, talking about unemployment)

Ecological products are introduced into shops, it becomes more common. There are advertising campaigns […] lately, there was something about those bunnies on creams, that one should pay attention. There are so many campaigns about furs, so that animals don’t get killed. (Girl aged 17, talking about environment)


In their comments students mention the power of the media, who “publicize” and conduct campaigns. It seems that the media can be perceived as an important source of information because of their strength, but also due to their ease and availability of information and discussion of up-to-date issues. The respondents mentioned how there is talk about the flu in the media when people get sick, there is talk about terrorism and tolerance (for instance when the World Trade Centre was attacked) or other political summits. For them, the media is closer to real life, in contrast to the school. There are no current affairs in a textbook, which is of course understandable, but some teachers fail to notice the possibility of linking school pro-grammes to current issues.

To sum up, school is perceived by the students as an important source of information about social issues, but the media is more im-portant. The significance of school decreases with age just as the im-portance of the media increases with age. However, the decrease of school’s significance does not necessarily mean that teachers should not be implicated. School and teachers should not only provide in-formation about the issues that students find important, but must also fulfill the role of a critical and reflective partner for discussion.

In order to enhance active citizenship it is important to discuss current social issues in school. The information provided by the media is often shallow and it is the school that should give it deeper meaning through multilevel analysis and the use of general knowledge. Of course the educator should not and can not indoctrinate, but it has to help shape the students’ own opinions, basing their development on reliable knowledge and not random bits and pieces of information.

Another area in which educators can engage their students towards constructing values and behaviours related to active citizen-ship is through self and peer analysis of their expectations and wor-ries about the future. Scrutinizing whether they feel optimistic or pessimistic – and why – can prove to be a powerful teaching source. As has been pointed out previously, the respondents in the study show that the level of optimism about local future is stronger than the one referring to global future. This tendency applies to almost all


the issues examined in the study: poverty, unemployment, violence, environment and health.

Analysis indicates that age is an important factor as refers to optimism and pessimism (see table 1): 11 year olds are significantly more optimistic about local issues (violence, poverty, health) and al-most all global issues. The level of optimism changes most of all bet-ween age 11 and 14. This change pattern is different for local and global perspectives. In the case of global perspective, the change is systematic: from age 11, to 14 and then to 17. Local optimism, on the other hand, decreases up to age 17 only in the case of health. Optimism towards other issues either does not decrease with age at all, or decreases only between age 11 and 14 and then remains stable.

Table 1. Age and the perception of social issues: local and global perspectives

Issue F/age in local F/age in global Violence 4.32* 11.11*** Unemployment 0.72 XXX Tolerance 0.35 0.46 Environment 0.66 4.42* Poverty 3.36* 9.24*** Health 13.74*** 17.79*** Degrees of freedom 2, 611 2, 612

Note: * p<0.05; ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001

It can be seen that the younger children’s optimism often stems from a naïve belief in the goodness of human nature.

I think it will be better […] Those people will maybe stop behaving like this and ... and will be better … because maybe they will see that this is inap-propriate and they will be better. (Girl aged 11, talking about violence)

They also hold a conviction that people have unlimited possibilities in dealing with set-backs:

There will be less [unemployment]. For example, technology will develop; they will build homes on Mars, that would be good. We could move there and there would be no ozone depletion. (Boy aged 11, talking about unemployment)


There reasoning appears to stems from an inability to understand the core of social problems:

There are, after all, those machines that print money. (Boy aged 11, talking about poverty)

Younger children’s optimism is idealistic and unrealistic. Arguably, there are similarities in their display of local and global optimism and the way in which adults’ optimism between local and global has been categorized. Among grown-ups, optimism in the global perspective had been called essential or defensive (passive) optimism (Czapi�ski 2005; Stach 2006) because it is connected to the idealistic conviction that the world and people are generally good in nature. Such op-timism shields the individual from negative emotion but does not lead to action aimed at improvement (you don’t have to do anything because it is out of your hands – God, other people and fate will intervene so that everything will turn out all right). On the other hand, optimism in the local perspective is more functional in nature. It is more often saturated with expansive or functional (active) opti-mism, which is based on the belief in one’s own possibilities to in-fluence events in order to improve life situation; its high level facili-tates coping with failures (Nicholls et al. 2008), undertaking difficult tasks, and achieving success (Czapi�ski 2005; Seligman 2002).

It is also a fact that the unemployed and professionally passive demonstrate a higher level of pessimism and a lower level of internal control in comparison to professionally active (Zalewska and Jaros 2008), which confirms the significance of sense of control and optimism/pessimism in active citizenship.

When 14 and 17 year olds talk about expected improvements in the future, they justify their opinions with specific observations of changes as well as realistic possibilities of action:

It is now better than it used to be, for sure. There are trash cans for plastic, paper and glass … yes, that is very cool … but there are so many more things that are thrown there. Where I live, there are 3 trash cans in the middle of the housing estate. (Girl, aged 14 talking about environment)

[…] I think that everything will be developing, that they will need people for those new positions. There will be more companies – some pizzerias that will


need waiters, some new shops that will need assistants, they will need because they will build new companies to profit from them. (Boy, aged 14 talking about unemployment)

Much is said about tolerance and it yielded results. People can be convinced; my mom is the best example. A year ago she was very intolerant, but now for her being gay is something normal. (Boy, aged 17 talking about tolerance)

Ecological products are introduced in shops, it becomes more common. There are advertising campaigns … Lately, there was something about those bunnies on creams, that one should pay attention. There are so many cam-paigns about furs, so that animals don’t get killed … People are more and more aware about what is going on. Thanks to this, they are more aware and care more about all that. (Girl, aged 17 talking about environment)

With age, optimism becomes more and more realistic. Students also begin to voice critique – they are sometimes very pessimistic about the future. This is more often observed among older students, who perceive the complexity of problems. 14 and 17 year olds notice more factors influencing social issues and they are more likely to stress that those factors are outside individual control. Below is a 14 year old boy’s statement about poverty, who notices the limitations of dealing with poverty; his reasoning connects to social stratification which in turn leads to social exclusion:

Very often the place where you are born is also the place where you die. If you were born in the slums, you will probably die there, unless you get out. I think people stay in that neighborhood and it is hard to get away from something that has been there all your life, the people you hang out with. It is very hard to change the social group you grew up with, you were born into. I read this article about Romanies and they asked them in a special school who they would like to be when they grow up. They said, they would like to be pensioners. They just don’t see the need to work, they are comfortable with being on the dole, they don’t care if they have warm water or wash their clothes, they just want to get by and play cards. This suits them. (Boy aged 14, talking about poverty)

It would seem, then, that the level of global optimism decreases with age to a greater extent than the level of the local optimism. This is a very important factor for teachers concerned with developing active citizens. It would appear that students feel that local problems can be


controlled and influenced by individuals – acting for change is pos-sible and a higher level of optimism when it comes to local issues can enhance the willingness to face challenges and seek solutions to problems. With age the pattern of optimism changes. Essential global optimism decreases with age, which does not necessarily indicate a lack of faith in the world. It may be connected to the natural loss of belief in humanity’s good nature, a more critical approach to reality, awareness of the complexity of social issues, which leads to the loss of naiveté and of the conviction that ‘everything will be fine’.

Local optimism, in comparison to global optimism, decreases with age to a lesser extent, however it becomes more realistic (young people demonstrate awareness of issues and are able to define con-crete actions which can influence social issues, e.g. campaigns or re-cycling). Older students’ optimism takes up a more expansive form than that of 11 year olds. Older students consider whether or not an individual can act effectively (that includes themselves, i.e. anyone can recycle or apply for a specific job), which means that although ol-der students are less optimistic, they are probably more prone to act for change. It is vital that the educator know how to recognize the ‘phase’ of optimism that students are in – passive or expansive optimism – and to work with the students to develop a critical stance that does not fall into naïve optimism nor indifferent pessimism.

Another significant question is how children and youth are aware of the underlying causes of social problems or where they stem from. The study shows that young people usually locate the causes of social problems within reach of individual control and influence. Students at every age, regardless of the place they live in attribute the main source of problems to the lack of motivation and lack of deter-mination for self-improvement:

[…] there are people in our school who go to the store a couple of times a day and buy crisps, or they voluntarily don’t exercise because they are too lazy. (Girl aged 11, talking about health)

Sometimes it’s because someone can’t find [a job] because they don’t want to. […] They wait for an opportunity to come along, that they find something, they wait. They wait for the fate and they don’t care. Sometimes they simply


pretend that they are looking for a job. (Boy aged 14, talking about unemployment)

They don’t invest in their future, I am talking about this practice, that they take the line of least resistance, they pass life and later they have no possibilities. The fact that you have some certificate is not enough to find a job and get by, you need to have something in you, want to develop. (Girl aged 17, talking about unemployment)

The Polish respondents stigmatized passivity – students talked about passivity and lack of motivation with irony and aversion. Even when they pointed out causes that are beyond individual control (e.g. handicaps, lack of perspectives and violence) they also noticed their volitional aspect – people’s deeds that contributed to them, and which could have been avoided:

Sometimes these are congenital diseases; a woman smoking cigarettes during pregnancy or, I don’t know, getting drunk. And sometimes other reasons. Negligence [....] (Girl aged 14, talking about health)

Lack of perspectives […]. People don’t know what to do so they go to have a beer and then to beat somebody up. Then they go back home, they have nothing to do, they don’t want to look for that. (Boy aged 17 talking about violence)

Students of all ages link behavior patterns learned at home to many of the problems – unwillingness to study, violence, tolerance, etc.:

This is connected to upbringing… these are people spoiled by their parents … they have everything they want, they don’t have to earn anything, they feel more important and better than others. (Girl aged 11, talking about tolerance)

B1: Sometimes these are people who have no motivation, like their parents. Here in our school there are [people].They have some problems and the parents don’t care what their children do. So that person thinks that if the parents say you don’t have to learn, then why should you?

B2: If someone hits somebody at home, then you get used to that situation and this continues all your life. (Boys aged 14, talking about violence)

[…] values are taught by parents. It depends on whether they are tolerant or not. In some families they discuss it, that every human being deserves respect. In others, they even pester “don’t get close, you might catch something.” (Girl aged 17, talking about tolerance)


Older students mentioned the role of public figures as examples to follow; although they demonstrated critical awareness that not all public figures always act appropriately:

G1: […] the late Pope, this is the first person that comes to mind, because he didn’t see any boundaries, he always reached out to everyone. And Dalai Lama.

G2: Our politicians – unfortunately not. Mr. X [a well-known Polish politician] demonstrates his intolerance towards homosexuals; he mentions it in many debates. (Girls aged 17, talking about tolerance)

In some statements, students demonstrated that they are aware of limitations to what one can do. Social stigma was mentioned as a serious barrier in dealing with problems. Another 14 year old men-tioned commercialization of education, which limits the chances of securing one’s own future:

You won’t find a sponsor just because you are nice. You need to have a degree, and in order to do that, you need a couple thousand [zloty]. You won’t get that money collecting metal cans. It is a vicious circle – no money, no education; no education, no money. A vicious circle. (Boy aged 14, talking about poverty)

In short, the young people in this study indicated that motivational factors are the cause of most social problems – willingness for self-improvement, openness to change and education. Even in the case of congenital and permanent hindrances they point out that some people have control over them (e.g. a mother that does not smoke during pregnancy). Young people are also aware that having good models to follow is also important – be it family members or other socially influential persons.

At the same time, this sense of self-determination is not always apparent in their responses. Some students pointed out that inadequacy of official actions and social mechanisms create barriers that prevent action. In other research it has been argued there is a high level of expectation or demand of ‘being taken care of’ by a government which stems from years of living in a communist country (Sztompka 1992). However, this was not observed in our research – pessimistic opinions were accompanied by the conviction that one can and should take action because everyone is responsible for one’s own


life (which is strongly connected to functional optimism). In any case, the teacher can take advantage of both individual and collective ‘lived experiences’ to explore further the role of individual self-determination within the parameters of social norms and responsibilities – as well as the responsibility of important public figures.

Similar to the question of local and global optimism, the respon-dents demonstrated interest in the social topics according to whether it was more likely to affect them on a personal level.

For now, the computer is of more interest to people my age than something like […] war. (Boy aged 11, talking about his interests)

[…] for now, it’s not, because our parents support us, for now our parents provide for us. (Boy aged 17, talking about unemployment)

[…] no, because until there are problems, there is nothing to worry about, they think that we are too young, so nothing bad can happen. (Girl aged 17, talking about health)

Not surprisingly, those issues gained importance when they are directly related to school environment where they affect them per-sonally:

I have a couple of friends who … you may not notice, but they are poor, and when we go somewhere we always chip in […]. If they don’t have money, everyone will contribute so that they can come with us. (Boy aged 14, talking about poverty)

I saw it, I was in XX School, I saw such behavior, there was a girl of color, black I mean, everyone turned their back on her, no one wanted to help her or talk to her. (Boy aged 14, talking about tolerance)

Threats, extortion of money and cigarettes. There was this one who called me a fag and a pedophile, and so on, one day he hit me bad so I called the police and they expelled him. (Boy aged 17, talking about violence)

It seems that there are two important factors that may encourage students to become interested in social issues – personal experiences with a particular issue and publicizing them in the media.

The crisis did not afflict me, so I wasn’t interested in it. But if they fired my dad, I would be interested. (Girl aged 17, talking about unemployment)


Everyone takes note of that, the media publicize that that there is unemploy-ment, that it is hard to get a job. (Girl aged 11, talking about unemployment)

On the declarative level, then, students presented only a small in-terest in social problems. These issues were not commonly discussed among peers and only rarely did the students demonstrate conscious reflection about them. The issues were considered important, how-ever, when students experienced them themselves or when they were publicized in the media. This shows that preparing young people to be active citizens in the future would have to involve combining the global perspective with problems in the students’ immediate environ-ment and should take into consideration their individual experiences.

A final, but essential matter that emerged from the research was how the children and youth perceived the ability/possibilities to act for change – now and in the future. In a closed-ended question the students were asked to indicate on a 5 point scale (1 – nothing to 5 – everything) if they could do anything to make the world a better place. Data indicated that only 4.4% of the students thought that they could do nothing while 95.6% felt they could do something to make the world a better place. Over 1/3 of the students (35%) felt that they could do a lot to shape the social reality, which points to-wards a strong sense of agency. Further analyses show that how they perceive the possibility to act is independent of age – it is similar among the different age groups.

Many of the examples the respondents made to the question of exactly what they might do to influence social reality centered around two types of activities: small everyday contributions, connected to constructive solutions and which might serve as good examples for others to follow and the second dealt with personal effort for self-improvement. The first type of activities was most often mentioned by younger students:

And to encourage others […] and not to break down if someone is intolerant towards us. If he isn’t nice, just ignore him, don’t give those people a thought, those who are intolerant. They will get bored eventually. (Girl aged 14, talking about tolerance)


For example when there is a fight in the classroom, you should break it up and try to solve it together and not let them fight. (Girl aged 11, talking about violence)

You can separate waste and organize campaigns in your neighborhood; use little water and electricity; turn the light off when you go out of one room. (Boy aged 11, talking about environment)

The second type of activity was personal effort, for instance, studying and working, both of which were perceived as means to solving financial problems and decreasing poverty.

To learn, get a degree, it will be easier to get a job. (Boy aged 11, talking about poverty)

This depends on our generation, if we make an effort. If there is education, if people want to learn and they will have degrees, it will be easier to get a job. There will be money. (Girl aged 14, talking about unemployment)

To work! Most of all to show, that it is cool. And if you work, then not only officially register, but also make an effort in that job. (Girl aged 17, talking about unemployment)

Studying and working as means to decrease poverty and unemploy-ment demonstrates a significant change in attitudes of the new gene-ration towards everyday life in comparison with attitudes of adults examined two decades earlier. Research conducted by Doli�ski in the mid-1990s (1995) indicated a shortage of attitudes related to produc-tivity ethics – work, learning, thriftiness, etc. Our research, however, indicates a shift in attitudes – the students who participated in the study perceive work ethos as a way to face economic challenges.

Older students showed more awareness of limitations to being about to have an impact on social reality or bringing about change. This was coupled with some indications of pessimistic attitudes and fear of failure in the face of strong competition but also awareness that it is necessary to act in a certain way (e.g. get good grades, go to the university). The older group was also aware of the need to make a personal effort but that this does not guarantee success, mostly due to strong competition and commercialization of education:


Because they usually have no degree, and right now degree matters in any kind of job. If someone wants, they can always find a job. Expectations are rising. There are many young people and many are applying for one job. Even getting to the university, there is 5 people for one spot, even getting to high school you need to have good grades, or connections, connections to get to the university. Even when you get to the university and have the best mark on your thesis, you need to find a good company and a good position. There are many people like us, those who have good marks, applying for one position. It is hard to get a job, and even if we get it, we may not keep it. (Boy aged 14, talking about unemployment)

Limited possibility of action for change is also related to the re-spondents’ present status of being a student; a transitory state be-tween now and adulthood. Only in adulthood will their true potential be unlocked:

B1: We don’t work, we go to school. What kind of a job is that? To do homework, study a bit, this is no work to be honest. Yeah, sure we go to school, we sit there but we practically do nothing. We write something down from time to time, we listen to the teachers. This isn’t work.

B3: Some of us don’t even bother with the things they should be doing now, let alone in ten years when they have to work.

B1: Then there will be no slacking. Now you can re-write your paper or play hooky. How can you play hooky at work? (Boys aged 14, talking about unemployment)

Young people acknowledge the possibility of taking action to im-prove social reality. Nonetheless, this ‘agency for change’ does not involve spectacular or revolutionary activities. On the contrary, a re-naissance of work ethos (perceiving studying and work as an advan-tage over competition) can be noted. Moreover, awareness and ap-preciation for minor everyday practices, which can contribute to im-proving social practices, give hope that social activity will change. With age comes awareness of limitations in what one can do and as they get older, youth more fully understand the difficulties they will face in the future.

This may hinder motivation to act but may also lead to more rea-listic solutions. Opinions about the role of a student should make teachers think and search for better ways of helping students realize


that the role they fulfill is an important one. The school’s task is also to make students understand that institutional education is aimed not only at providing knowledge but also at developing responsibility and active citizenship.

How can the study be applied to teaching active citizenship

It stands to reason that education should always be in touch with the students’ real life. If we look at social, political and economic reality of the past couple of years, we immediately see the challenges that people and societies face. One of those challenges that communities and individuals face, and that stems from globalization and cultural transformation, is the need to cope with changes on a personal and social level. The ability to deal with changes can influence not only individual well-being, but also the condition of societies and count-ries. This is why politicians, educators and scientists ask questions about the interdependence of individuals and the state in societies of the 21st century. Cultural and social make-up of modern times de-mands that we look at the role of individuals in the society – at citi-zenship – in a different way. Citizenship is no longer only a state of being, it is also readiness to act and engage in social reality and the changing thereof. Better understanding of young people’s opinions about key social issues can help teachers face the challenge of assist-ing students in developing active citizenship.

It is argued here that active citizenship can be encouraged on two different levels – one is related to young people’s developmental and personal predispositions to approach and face social problems; the other one concentrates on the condition of citizen education – its nature and direction in which it should be developing in order to successfully fulfill the role of an institution that prepares young people to be active citizens.


As has been evidenced by the study described herein, young people are optimistic about social issues. It has also been described how this optimism changes – from a naïve belief in the goodness of human nature, to a realistic conviction that the future will be better than the present. These convictions stem from awareness of current changes. This particular optimism is functional in nature – it is related to the belief that individuals can change social reality. The importance of motivation to act, eagerness to learn and work as well as serving as an example to others in dealing with everyday problems and coping with social issues all constitute a solid foundation for developing active citizenship and sense of agency. However, teachers must provide stu-dents with examples of pro-active team work that could facilitate change otherwise (as happened in this study) there is a risk that idea for change will refer principally to individual reactions to negative events.

School and the media compete in providing information on social problems. Teachers and parents need to be aware of the fact, that handing education over to random people or factors (which some media are, and whose aim is not necessarily the raising of awareness and competences of their recipients) carries grave risks. This might put young people at risk of facing extreme, populist ideas without understanding them and without being able to make in-formed decision about accepting (or rejecting) them.

How should then civic education be implemented, so that it edu-cates active and aware citizens? The classic form of citizen education should give way to new concepts of teaching citizenship. In order to put modern attitudes towards citizenship into practice, civic education needs to be implemented complementarily – it cannot be limited to one class, such as civics. It needs to be a part of the whole curriculum, including geography, history and science, which raise questions about current social issues that young people face every day. Every teacher has a responsibility to equip students not only in knowledge, but also help them develop critical thinking, decision making, reflective thought and a willingness to act so that students are exposed to open-ended, dialogic processes in all their classes, not just in citizen education class (see Ross, and Holden, this volume for a specific proposal for carrying


this out). It is important to include the development of active citizen-ship in the whole curriculum, e.g. in native language classes, science and mathematics (see the previous three chapters for concrete outlines of teaching proposals in different disciplines that aim to promote critical thinking and active citizenship).

Conclusion

Citizen education should be related not only to political systems, it should enhance eagerness to engage in social life, so that in the future young people can participate in society not only by electing and de-manding, but also by facilitating change through their own actions. This can be carried out by anchoring citizenship education in a broa-der social context, perhaps through specific subjects such as the ones described in this book. Opening up classes to more participative, cooperative, problem-solving can show students that they can be so-cial actors capable for making changes. Active citizens are born in schools where students can discuss politics, sign up for organizations, clubs and societies (Kose�a 2004: 230). Schools should serve as a place, where such experiences can be gained through the curriculum and extramural activities. Only then will students develop the con-viction, that they can influence school reality and learn that they can also shape social reality in the future.


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Bridging the Gap: Primary and Secondary Students’ Engagement with Global and Environmental Issues

CATHIE HOLDEN

How is it that by the time they leave primary school, children want to know about the world around them and want to act for change but when they leave secondary school, some five or six years later, these same young people may be sceptical, possibly even cynical, admitting that they unlikely to participate in democratic processes and feeling inadequately prepared for their role as active citizens? Is it the fault of the school, the media, or part of young people’s ‘natural’ de-velopment? This chapter will use data from a major European study to look at how young people’s interest in, understanding of, and commitment to local and global issues change between the ages of eleven and seventeen, and what teachers can do to maintain and build upon students’ initial enthusiasm. Whilst the study took place in Spain, Poland, Turkey and England, this chapter derives mostly from data from the South West of England.

The first section reports on findings from the ESF study into students’ concerns for the future, specifically focusing on data con-cerning students’ involvement in projects and organisations acting for change, individual action to improve the community and actions they may take in the future. Differences of opinion, understanding and action according to age and gender are discussed and conclu-sions drawn. The second section debates what can be done, sug-gesting approaches and providing case study examples. The impor-tance of the chapter lies in the voices of the students as it is they who articulate their priorities and talk about what they do now and would like to do in the future.

C. Holden 190

Background: Civic engagement and young people

Since 1990 there has been a growing concern in the UK that today’s young people are opting out of society, that they are not being edu-cated as responsible citizens. Concerns about the youth ‘opting out’ have been around young people’s social and moral behaviour (Lawton, Cairns and Gardner 2000), about the low voting record of 18–25 year olds (Heater 2004) and about increasing racial tensions in some areas of the country (Runnymede 2000). Anxiety about a decline in parti-cipation in national elections is not limited to the UK: it is mirrored across Europe as indicated by the International Institute for Demo-cracy and Electoral Assistance (López Pintow and Gratschew 2004).

One of the direct results of these concerns was the introduction of ‘Education for Citizenship’ as a new curriculum subject in the UK in 2002. This had social and moral education, political literacy and community involvement as its three core strands. Following on from this, the emphasis on community was strengthened by the Ajegbo Report (2007) which brought about a call for renewed efforts to build community cohesion. Partly as a result of this report, the re-vised National Curriculum for Citizenship Education (QCA 2007) indica-ted that the focus should now be on the three core strands of politi-cal literacy, rights and responsibilities and education for cultural di-versity. Furthermore the revised curriculum reaffirmed that Citizen-ship education had at its heart the key processes of critical thinking and enquiry, advocacy and representation and taking informed and responsible action. The advent of short and full exam courses (GCSE) in Citizenship Education included course work based on community action, thus underpinning the belief that taking an active part in society is central to effective education for citizenship.

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Transition from primary to secondary school

Parallel with this is a concern that children leave primary school, at age 11, generally enthusiastic about learning, but that they ‘slip back’ in the first two years of secondary school and then many become dis-affected as they grow older. A recent study on transfer and transition from primary to secondary school indicates that:

� there is a dip in attainment and attitude in Years 7 and 8 (ages 11 and 12)

� there is little liaison between primary and secondary schools on pedagogy

� pupils’ social maturity is neglected (Galton, Gray and Rudduck 2003)

Guidance in ‘Curriculum Continuity’ (DfES 2004) notes that on moving to secondary school, students are less likely to experience collaborative group work and opportunities for discussion and de-bate. Primary schools also regularly encourage children’s social skills by allocating pupils a variety of roles and responsibilities. Many Year 5 and 6 pupils (aged 9–11) will be involved as school councillors, peer mediators, playground buddies or may help in the school office, showing visitors around and answering the phone. Research indicates that this social maturity is often neglected or unrecognized when these eleven year olds arrive in the secondary school. Rudduck and Flutter (2000) note that:

Secondary schools offer less responsibility and autonomy than many young people are accustomed to in their lives outside school. […] This exclusion of young people from the consultative process, this bracketing out of their voice, is founded on an outdated view of childhood which fails to acknowledge children’s capacity to reflect on issues affecting their lives. (2000: 86)

Following on from this, Galton, Gray and Rudduck (2003) warn of the danger of disengagement when pupils find that their increasing social maturity is not recognised and not matched by yearly enhancements of opportunities and responsibilities. Such lack of opportunities, together with the fewer opportunities for debate, discussion and collaborative

C. Holden 192

group work noted above, indicate that developing the key processes of Citizenship in secondary schools may present a challenge for many teachers. (See also the previous chapter by Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz and Zalewska for a discussion concerning the need for more dialogic classrooms to support the development of active citizenship.)

Methodology

This chapter takes a key strand from the research described in the in-troductory chapter of this book. From the overall study into children and young people’s concerns for the future, the strand reported on here focuses on action for change. This chapter is especially con-cerned with the results dealing with what students do now, as agents of change, and what they feel their country’s leaders have done. It also looks into how they measure their ability to influence the future (both what they can do as individuals and how they might influence others) and the role that education has played in supporting such action. The study used open and closed questions to elicit initial re-sponses, with subsequent interviews illuminating pupils’ thinking. The first age group covers Year 6, which coincides with the final year in primary school in England. Students of 13–14 are in Year 9 which is the third year of secondary school in England, and the 17–18 year olds were students in the first year of post compulsory education and had thus made the commitment to stay on at school for further study. By focusing on these year groups, we were able to compare the perceptions and understanding of those who had just completed primary education, those with an additional three years of secondary education and those who were about to gain the right to vote (amongst other things) at 18.

As stated above, the methodology for this study is described in the introduction to this book. Data for this chapter was obtained by questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 200 students from the

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south-west of England in 2007–08. Schools were chosen to ensure a balance of urban and rural catchment areas and different socioeco-nomic classes. Ethnic minority children were also represented al-though the area as a whole is one with little cultural diversity.

Findings: Action for change – the current situation

The first question in this strand of the study relates directly to Citizenship Education as it is understood in the English National Curriculum (see explanation above). It asked students whether they had helped with any local or national projects or been involved with any organisations concerned with ‘making things better’ e.g. Oxfam. Table 1 indicates that nearly two thirds of students have not been in-volved with local projects or national organisations.

Table 1. Involvement in projects or organisations acting for change (n=200)

Age Total 10 13 17No 47.4% 76.8% 55% 61%Yes 52.6% 23.2% 45% 39% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Girl Boy Total No 57.7% 66.2% 61% Yes 42.3% 38.3% 39% 100% 100% 100%

However there is a stark difference in responses by age as just over half of primary children (aged 10) have participated in action for change whereas only one quarter of the 13 year olds claims any in-volvement. The older students, who have elected to stay on in education, appear to be more involved than the 13 year olds but not as involved as the primary children. There is a marked gender dif-

C. Holden 194

ference with girls being more likely to have participated in projects or been involved with organisations working for change.

Looking more closely at the kinds of things the students were in-volved with, one can see that the majority of the activity is around fundraising for charity. Students cite raising money for Oxfam, Comic Relief and the Red Cross. In fact one quarter of the activity is related to charities involved in world development. Other examples relate to the environment (e.g. Greenpeace), animal welfare and health (cancer charities).

The interviews revealed that whilst many students could name charities they had been involved with through their school; their un-derstanding of the mechanisms of poverty relief was somewhat limited. Ten-year olds at one school were able to cite fundraising for national charities such as Christian Aid, Children in Need, Sport Relief and Red Nose Day but were at a loss to explain how their ef-forts helped. One finally said: “You had to walk or run ten miles to like raise money for poor people in Africa and then they’re less poorer” (girl, 10). Thirteen year old girls in a focus interview had a similarly superficial view of what they had done. They explained that most fundraising was organised by the school through “non-uniform days where you bring in a pound”. One explained “If it was Children in Need […] you’d have to wear something yellow or spotty or some-thing like that”. When asked what happened to the money, one ex-plained: “I think some of it goes to the school and some of it goes to charity or something like that.” They were unsure of how much went to the charity concerned and what exactly was done with it.

A further question looked at action taken at an individual level to help make the community (local or global) a better place. This question asked students to ‘give up to three examples’ of things they had done ‘to make the local community and world a better place’ in order to understand what they had done beyond being involved with external organisations. As students could name up to three examples, percentages do not add up to 100. Table 2 indicates that the majority of students gave examples of action related to the environment.

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Table 2. Action taken to make the community (local or global) a better place (n=200) (percentage of that age group/gender naming something in each category)

Age 10 Age 13 Age 17 TotalBoys Environment 46%

Relationships 11% Action and campaigns 9% Health 6%

Environment 45%Action and campaigns 21% Relationships 3% Health 0%


Environment 48% Action and campaigns 18% Relationships 6% Health 2%

Girls Action and campaigns 62% Environment 60% Health 17% Relationships 14%




Actions falling into this category were to do with picking up/not dropping litter, saving energy, recycling, and walking to school. A ten-year old explained that she did these things because her school “makes people recycle and walk to school and do planting stuff”. A seventeen-year old talked in the interview about the “good recycling schemes at the college” and one mentioned the influence of the nearby Eden Project 1in making them environmentally aware. One said that she did what she could but concluded “everyone could do a bit more”.

The category action/campaigns included buying FairTrade goods, volunteering and giving money to charity. Comments about helping people and “being kind” and “not being a vandal” were categorised under ‘relationships’. A final category – health – encompassed actions related to living a healthy lifestyle (not smoking, not drinking and a good diet). Whilst actions relating to the environment were most commonly cited, action/campaigns came a clear second. Gender differences are worth noting: half of boys mentioned examples relating to the environment, and one in five boys gave an example categorised as action/campaigns. By contrast over three quarters of girls referred to environmental action and just over half mentioned participating in action/campaigns. Girls – and older girls in particular – were more

1 The Eden Project is a huge botanical garden which focuses on conservation

and education. <www.edenproject.com>.

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likely to cite actions to do with relationships. When looking at differences by age, it would appear that primary school children (and girls in particular) are more likely to mention actions related to health than secondary students, whilst the reverse is true of environmental action, even though this is high for all age groups.

The two questions above asked students to cite examples of what they did and as a result we were able to build up a picture of the kinds of things they were involved in and how these varied by age and gender. A further question in this section asked whether they thought there was anything they could do to help make the world a better place, giving the options ‘anything, a lot, something, a little and nothing’ rather than asking for open ended examples as above.

Table 3. What can you do to make the world a better place? (n=200)

Age Total 10 13 17

A lot 30% 24% 22% 26% Something 38% 45% 45% 42% A little 22% 29% 28% 26% Nothing 10% 2% 5% 6% 100% 100% 100% 100.0%

Girl Boy Total

A lot 28% 23% 26% Something 47% 33% 42% A little 22% 32% 26% Nothing 3% 12% 6%

100% 100% 100.0%

Answers for ‘anything’ were combined with ‘something’ in the above tables. The majority of students felt they could do something but it is the primary children who were the most optimistic. Mirroring this, the older students, both aged 13 and 17, were more likely to say ‘a little’ than the younger students which could indicate a growing sense of realism or cynicism. However 10% of the younger children said

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‘nothing’, a view particularly expressed by boys. Indeed boys in general are less optimistic than girls.

A final question sought to find out what students thought they could do in the future.

Table 4. Action you would like to take in the future to make the world a better place (n=200)

Age 10 Age 13 Age 17 TotalBoys Environment 31%

Relationships 6% Action and campaigns 6% Health 6%


Action and campaigns 10% Environment 0% Relationships 0% Health 0%


Girls Environment 67% Action and campaigns 26% Relationships 16% Health 14%


Action and campaigns 73% Environment 67%Relationships 7% Health 0%


Once again, students could give up to three examples so the figures reflect the percentage of that age group giving examples in these categories. As with the earlier question (Table 2) which asks what they do now, fundraising and living a green life style remain the two things that these young people believe they can do to make a dif-ference. However the reference to the future prompts some interes-ting responses. Included in action and campaigns are students who say they will “work in a developing country” (mentioned by tenyear old boys and girls and thirteen and seventeen year old girls), “become a councillor” (girl aged ten) and “join campaigns” (all girls and thirteen-year old boys). Many also mention volunteering of different kinds. Environmental action still includes recycling but extends to “not driving a car” (ten and thirteen-year olds only) and “having a low emission house” (girl, aged thirteen). Health issues in the future relate to having a healthy lifestyle and are particularly mentioned by the younger girls. It is noticeable that the seventeen-year old boys appear to be disengaged from this question. Whereas 70% mentioned things they currently did to help the environment in Table 2, they

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appear to have reached a blank when asked about the future. Their only suggestions related to actions and campaigns, such as volun-teering. Girls in general appear to have far more suggestions for what they may do as adults.

As a corollary to this, students were asked how important it was to learn about these issues at school. The majority of students said it was either extremely important or very important, with a handful of boys (10%) saying it was not important. In an interview one of these boys (aged ten) explained that he thought they did “too much” about such issues at school and found it all “a bit confusing”. Whilst this is a small number, it is nonetheless significant in the overall picture of boys being less optimistic about the future and the role they can play. By contrast a thirteen-year old girl said that whilst her school did cover many of the issues and had “charities and sponsors and every-thing going on; it’s not really enough”.

Discussion: Ways forward

In the UK we have had education for citizenship since 2002 and a key strand of this is helping young people to be active citizens, work-ing for change. The study indicates that this appears to have had a mixed degree of success, with younger pupils being more committed to this role than older pupils and girls more committed than boys. Much of the activity would appear to be around charity work or-ganised by the school but students’ understanding of this is limited. The environment is a real concern to young people and there is evidence that this is something they feel they can do something about in the future. Again there are differences in commitment to action in the future by both age and gender.

There are implications here for teaching. It would appear that more work needs to be done around helping children and young people understand the work of organisations acting for change and

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that much more needs to be done to harness their interest and com-mitment to environmental issues. In terms of pedagogy, there would appear to be a real need to engage boys in these issues so that they do not become disengaged and disaffected as they grow older. This relates to what is known about engaging boys in teaching and learn-ing, including teaching styles and relevant content.

The rest of this chapter looks at ways in which teachers might address such issues. The focus will be on three areas: helping stu-dents to understand global communities; helping students understand and act for environmental change and finally engaging with the key processes of Citizenship Education in schools to ensure active par-ticipation by all.

Understanding global communities

This has been selected as a focus as it is evident from the above study that many schools already do much in this field through their engagement with charities and campaign groups working for change, but that whilst young people think it is important they nonetheless lack a real understanding of the issues involved. This is both in terms of understanding the reasons why countries need to receive aid in the first place and what happens to the contributions that are sent to the country in question.

Such an understanding is important. As Martin (2007) has indicated, without a good understanding of the causes of poverty and unemployment, giving to charity and fundraising can become the new colonialism, whereby more advantaged children in the North raise funds for children in less economically developed countries in the South and perpetuate the stereotype of ‘helping out’. Martin dis-cusses the current move for schools in the UK to foster links with schools in the South, often working in conjunction with a charity, and ways in which schools can use such links to help children be critically reflective and aware of global communities rather than merely accepting a role as ‘givers’. She cites an example of a primary

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school in England which has an active three-way partnership with a school in Tanzania and the USA. It is part-funded by the Depart-ment for International Development (DfID). Rather than focussing on fundraising the teachers have identified a range of activities that will form part of the link. Their actions are characterised by:

– regular, confident and persistent communications between lead staff at each school to plan, regulate, monitor and audit develop-ments and relationships;

– visits between the three schools whenever possible, to facilitate conferencing;

– various forms of communication between pupils of similar age groups to help build long term relationships with partners in each school;

– exchanges of artefacts, images, flags, maps and symbols to be displayed in each school and used as teaching aids;

– a dedicated area in each school – a display board, artefact table, zone or class area – that symbolises and celebrates the links;

– each school to incorporate the study of the localities of the other two within their geography, history or PSHE programmes;

– sustainability as a significant part of discussion and linked work; – tree planting at all three schools, symbolising the life force of the

link and contributing to the local microclimate; – schools communicate their strategies for improving the sus-

tainability of their schools. (Martin 2007: 156).

This is not to say that there is no fundraising, as the UK school raised monies to develop a computer centre at the Tanzanian school to facilitate regular communication, but the heart of the three way link is learning about each other with ‘sustainability’ as the focus. Martin explains:

This clear conceptual focus, underpinning all linking activities and relating to each school’s overall educational aims, has affected the curriculum at Somers Park School. During a visit to Chumbageni, teachers learned how the Tanzanian School had created a vegetable garden which the pupils were responsible for, a patch allocated to each class. The produce was used by the school and the wider community. Thus, through active participation, the

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pupils learned how they could contribute to the sustainability of their community. Somers Park School adapted this idea to suit their own context. As well as a Global Garden which is the joint responsibility of Year 6 and Reception children, the school is developing other sustainable practices such as composting areas for grass cuttings and food waste. This is having a positive impact on teachers and parents, who are now composting more of their organic matter at home, a success that has been shared with the partner schools. (Martin 2007: 157)

Purposeful school linking, as above, is thus offered as one solution to help students understand more clearly the complexities of the global economy and move away from one-off fundraising activities which may leave the students feeling good but with superficial under-standing of the issues2.

Students can also be helped to understand more about action for change and the role of charitable agencies by using many of the ex-cellent resources put out by the agencies themselves. This sounds self evident but it is surprising how many schools only take the first step of raising money through non-uniform days or cake sales, and don’t ‘go the extra mile’ by informing children of the work of the charities: why they are there in the first place and what happens to the monies raised. Oxfam, Save the Children, The Red Cross and Amnesty Inter-national, to name but a few, all provide resources for both primary and secondary schools about their international work. Many will also run free workshops for schools. Without such an understanding, there is a danger that students will leave school uncommitted to the working for social and economic justice, seeing the fundraising they did at school as merely something organised by teachers which was a ‘fun to do’ but not meaningful beyond this. If we are to have young people who leave school committed to working for the global good, we need them to ensure that they are well informed about the reasons for aid, and for action at international level.

2 More about school linking can be found at: <www.britishcouncil.org/

schoolpartnerships.htm>.

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Action for environmental change

The study reported on above indicates that the environment is a real concern to young people. The majority of students gave examples of things they currently do related to the environment, such as picking up or not dropping litter, saving energy, recycling, and walking to school. Most importantly there is also evidence that they feel they can do something about the environment in the future, though the disengagement of the older boys is noticeable. There appear to be two issues here. The first is about engaging students more fully with environmental issues so that they can go beyond seeing action for the environment in terms of picking up litter/recycling/saving energy. This is not to decry the importance of this instead to note that stu-dents need to understand the wider issues around environmental change and sustainability if they are to leave school equipped as adults to engage with current debates. Secondly (and related) is the need to ensure that older boys in particular are engaged with these issues. There may be a case of expressed and operative values (Wright 1971) wherein they know that it is a ‘good thing’ to walk rather than drive, but as seventeen-year olds who are able to drive a car for the first time, their preference is for a car of their own. De-bate and discussion needs to engage these young adults with such dilemmas. Again, schools need to move beyond the action they en-courage in primary schools (recycling etc) to a more sophisticated understanding of the issues and related actions in secondary schools.

Examples abound of work to do with the environment at primary school level. Wade (2007) cites the work of TIDE (Teachers in Development Education) and the Global Footprints project as two examples of the current focus on Education for Sustainable De-velopment. She writes in detail about a primary school where, in con-sultation with pupils, parents and governors, teachers developed a whole school curriculum underpinned by the principles of global citizenship and sustainable development. Extracts from their school documentation illustrates how this is done. Through the core curriculum including:

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– Promoting recycling in What a Waste! (Y3) – Campaigning on global development issues If The World were a

Village (Y6) – Pupils contacting and writing to decision makers (e.g. mayor or

MP) through persuasive writing units linked to humanities and citizenship in Y4, 5 and 6.

Through the informal curriculum including:

– Promoting and helping to run environmental initiatives such as recycling, energy saving

– Inbuilt flexibility to respond to current events, e.g. raising money for disaster relief (tsunami and Pakistani earthquake appeals)

Through staff, governors and parents, who have worked to develop sustainable practices including:

– A commitment to energy conservation following the guidance of an energy audit commissioned from the Carbon Trust. This in-cludes replacement of electrical and lighting products with energy efficient alternatives on a rolling programme.

– A commitment to waste minimisation including re-use of paper in class, double sided photocopying where possible, re-printing on used paper for internal documents; increased use of email to replace paper memos and newsletters

– A commitment to water conservation including installation of water saving taps and rainwater harvesting for watering the garden

– Recycling of waste including paper, cans and plastic bottles, composting fruit and garden waste

– Purchasing of fair trade teas and coffee for staff – Implementation of a School Travel Plan to reduce the school’s

carbon dioxide missions from transport (Wade 2007: 108–09)

Tanner, writing about global Citizenship Education gives another ex-ample of primary children taking action in response to what they saw as a real problem:

Kings Norton Primary School in Birmingham has not only managed to fit Safe Routes to Schools into its curriculum – its pupils are influencing the

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decisions of local politicians. Transport is a huge issue for the school, which is situated on a the busy Pershore Road, a main arterial route through south Birmingham, with jams, heavy lorries thundering past, and frequent accidents. Children were asked to complete online surveys on how they came to school and the information was used as part of school’s travel plan. The survey highlighted real issues for those walking to school. A main pathway was blocked with overgrown ivy, and drivers were parking on double yellow lines opposite the school, causing a hazard to the children crossing the road. Kings Norton School Council was invited to put its case to Birmingham City councillors. The pathway has now been cleared, and some of the children’s suggestions have been incorporated into transport consultation for the area.

‘I think its brilliant’ said the senior teacher responsible for citizenship ‘They’ve developed confidence in talking in an adult environment and in expressing their opinions in a way that understands that people have to make priorities.’ (Tanner 2007: 156)

The challenge is for secondary schools to build on this work. There is scope in geography, science and citizenship lessons and in the recent move to link subjects together in cross curricular initiatives. Marshall (2007) gives examples of how secondary schools have taken on glo-bal citizenship through initiatives such as the International School Award, school linking and eco-schools. The key would appear to be to involve pupils in what they see to be relevant issues and to give them a sense of agency in working for change. This leads to the final section of this chapter: how to foster the key processes of Citizen-ship Education so that pupils, and in particular boys, remain engaged as they pass through secondary school.

Developing the key processes of Citizenship Education

Citizenship Education was introduced with the specific purpose of developing the key processes of critical thinking and enquiry, advo-cacy and representation, and taking informed and responsible action. Developing such processes requires a pedagogy which is part-icipatory, open ended and interactive. Such an approach builds on the writings of Paulo Freire (1972) and Carl Rogers (1983) who take

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as fundamental the tenet that in order to educate children to think and to participate; one must use interactive participatory methods of teaching. Learning approaches might include:

– Small group discussions followed by plenary sessions to develop and synthesise arguments

– Open-ended collaborative enquiries on topical and controversial issues

– Role play, simulations and debates that reflect events in society – Direct interaction with community members – Live correspondence with others living / working inside and

outside of the immediate locality – Participating in democratic processes of change.

The examples given above of work on global communities and the environment use such methods. The argument is, then, that more needs to be done in secondary schools to continue these approaches which are often found in primary schools, especially if one is to keep boys engaged with the issues. Research into boys’ underachievement has shown that secondary classrooms are more dominated by teacher talk than primary schools and that boys, whether underachievers or high achievers, participate less in classroom interaction than girls (Myhill 2002). There may be various reasons for this, such as peer group pressure, but the more that boys feel they own the agenda and choose causes which interest them – and which they feel are relevant to their lives – the more likely they are to stay on task and learning.

There is evidence that some secondary schools are beginning to make significant changes to ensure that curriculum reflects young people’s interests; and that active and participatory teaching methods are used. There are examples of this in individual curriculum subjects (Marshall 2007) and in whole school approaches. Barton (2008) de-scribes how his school is built on the premise of student voice and action, with the work of the school council as central:

The full Council meetings are chaired by Head Girl and Boy and have a formal structure, with reports from the various year councils and then a focus on a single main issue – such as how we might get more students to

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participate in clubs and activities – or (our present theme) how students might be involved in reviewing the quality of teaching and learning across the school. […] We also routinely involve students in our community activities. School Council recently hosted a visit of the local Town Centre Management Board, giving them feedback on plans for developing the retail opportunities of Bury St Edmunds. From that they were invited to address the Borough Council and to give councillors and planners an insight into how young people perceive the amenities of the town. Youngsters have since been invited to work with the Town Centre Management group to help to supervise public events – a deliberate attempt to involve young people proactively in the work of the town. (Barton 2008: 82)

Other examples from secondary schools include initiatives to sell Fairtrade goods, hold human rights days and become eco schools alongside sustained involvement in community projects. If schools can be encouraged to take on board such initiatives and to build on what is done in many primary schools, there is a chance that the active learning pedagogies of primary school can be transferred, that there will be less of a Year 7/8 ‘dip’ and that motivation to act for change amongst both boys and girls can continue throughout and be-yond secondary school.

Conclusion

As pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, in the research carried out across four EU countries, young people indicated their commitment to and interest in global and environmental issues. This chapter has illustrated how it is possible within both primary and secondary schools to involve young people in debate about such issues and subsequent action and to move beyond a superficial understanding of charity work or collecting litter. What is key is the focus on young people selecting authentic issues of importance to themselves and then articulating their responses. In so doing they learn the skills of advocacy and responsible action, they learn about

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democratic processes and the power of their voices now and in the future. Whilst it may not be possible for every student to be involved in community action, certainly all children can be informed of the issues and involved in debate. Such an approach will require time in the curriculum, and will thus require teachers who are open-minded, prepared to take risks and to move beyond the basic curriculum. However, if the end result is young people who understand global and environmental issues, who value democratic processes and who feel confident that they can work towards effective change, then surely such time and effort is justified.

Works Cited

Ajegbo, K. (2007) Diversity and citizenship curriculum review. London: DfES. Barton, G. (2008) Pupil voice in practice. Citizenship Teaching and

Learning, 4(2): 78–83. DfES (2004) Curriculum continuity: Effective transfer between primary and

secondary schools. London: DfES. Freire, P. (1972) Education: The pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin. Galton, M., Gray, J. and Rudduck, J. (2003) Transfer and transitions in

the middle years of schooling: continuities and discontinuities in learning. London: NFER.

Heater, D. (2004) A history of education for citizenship. London: Routledge. Lawton, D., Cairns J. and Gardner R. (2000) Education for values:

Morals, ethics and citizenship in contemporary teaching. London: Falmer. López Pintow, L. and Gratschew, M. (eds) (2004) Voter turnout in

Western Europe since 1945: A regional report. Strömsborg: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).

Marshall, H. (2007) Global citizenship in the secondary School. In D. Hicks and C. Holden (eds) Teaching the Global Dimension: Key prin-ciples and effective practice (pp. 176–190). London: Routledge.

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Martin, F. (2007) School linking: A controversial issue. In H. Claire and C. Holden (eds) The challenge of teaching controversial issues (pp. 147–160). Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham.

Myhill, D.A. (2002) Bad boys and good girls? Patterns of interaction and response in whole class teaching. British Educational Research Journal 28(3): 339–352.

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) (2007) Citizenship Programme of Study. London: QCA.

Rogers, C. (1983) Freedom to learn for the eighties. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill. Rudduck, J. & Flutter, J. (2000) Pupil participation and pupil pers-

pective: ‘carving a new order of experience’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 30(1): 75–89.

Runnymede (2000) The future of multi-ethnic Britain, The Parekh report. London: Profile Books.

Tanner, J. (2007) Global citizenship. In D. Hicks and C. Holden (eds) Teaching the global dimension: Key principles and effective practice (pp.150–160). London: Routledge.

Wade, R (2007) Sustainable development. In D. Hicks and C. Holden (eds) Teaching the global dimension: Key principles and effective practice (pp.104–113). London: Routledge.

Wright, D. (1971) The psychology of moral behaviour. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Dealing with Citizens of the Future’s Needs through the Promotion of Self-Efficacy in Teaching

ELENA BRIONES & CARMEN TABERNERO

One of the main aims of the ESF Research1 is to explore the extent to which young people’s home and school experiences have helped them understand their attitudes towards current European and global issues, such as democratic processes, poverty, unemployment, and human rights. Significantly, the qualitative and quantitative data from the four European countries (England, Poland, Turkey and Spain) – encom-passing respondents with varying social, economic and political back-ground – showed that students considered their teachers as one of the most important sources of information about those issues.

When the research project was designed, a potential impact ex-pected for the professional community of education stakeholders (e.g. teachers, youth workers, and NGOs) was to provide some guidelines for those working in the field of education on how they can approach global issues and engage children and youth in de-mocratic processes. The role of these stakeholders is paramount to the success or failure of such endeavours. Quoted below are several extracts from the qualitative data recompiled during focus group di-cussions between Spanish students and interviews. All of these ex-tracts highlight how the students understand the importance of the role of the teacher when the students are learning about issues such as violence, health, tolerance, and employment:

1 In addition to the EUROCORES Project: “Citizens of the future: the con-

cerns and actions of young people around current European and global is-sues” (06_ECRP_FP007) outlined in the introduction to this book, this chap-ter has been written partly in relation to the Research and Development Projects SEJ 2006 – 07741 / PSCE funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.

E. Briones & C. Tabernero 210

[…] nos podrían hablar más sobre la violencia en el colegio porque siempre hay conflictos, por ejemplo sobre la violencia que hay en el patio, en el recreo, a veces no es de pegarse ni na, pero a veces la gente se insulta y eso, y en-tonces yo creo que nos vendría muy bien. (11 year old boy)

They (teachers) could talk to us more about violence because there are always conflicts, for example about the violence in the playground, during the break, not so much because there fights, but people sometimes insult, and then I think that could be nice for us to have more information.

Interview with a group of 14 year old students: S1: Los profesores nos dicen que tenéis que tolerar S2; pero una charla no nos dan S3: sí, una vez un profesor nos habló de técnicas para resolver conflictos. S1: the teachers say: you have to be tolerant S2: but we didn’t get any talk about it S3: yes, one time a teacher talked about techniques to solve conflicts

Muchos se quitan de estudiar a los 16 años que es la edad de trabajar, y la verdad, los estudios de la ESO no garantizan tener un trabajo estable, y si sumas otros muchos que se van sin ese título […] pues deberían dejar claro (en el instituto) ese tema (orientación laboral) (18 year old boy)

Many leave school at age 16, because they are enough old to work, and really, the Secondary Studies do not guarantee having a permanent job, and if you also consider the students that quit without these studies […] well I think the teacher could clear up some questions about job orientation.

Creo que tenemos suficiente información pero no suficientemente compren-sible (sobre medio ambiente). No somos conscientes del daño que estamos haciendo (18 year old boy)

I think we have enough information but it is not made to be understandable enough (about environmental issues). We are not aware of the damage that we are doing

La información que tenemos sobre salud procede básicamente del instituto, también de los medios, pero sobretodo del instituto. (17 year old girl) The information we have about health issues comes mostly from the school, also from mass media, but above all from school.

Antes teníamos una asignatura en segundo de bachillerato, que era iniciación a ciencias de la salud, que nos metían en el tema de las enfermedades y esas cosas, pero ya la han quitado, nos han unificado las optativas a todo el bachillerato, y no la tenemos, no estaría demás tenerla. (17 year old girl)

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Before, the high school included a subject about initiation to health sciences, which an introduction to diseases and things like that, but now we have combined elective subjects, we can not study that subject, and it would be nice to study it.

The quantitative data from the questionnaires carried out in this re-search also showed that the students considered the role of formal education to be important to them. 69.6% of the British respondents, 49.7% of the Polish students, 62.86% of the Spanish youth and 91.6% of the Turkish respondents considered it very important to study issues such as poverty, health, environmental, violence, unemployment and tolerance at school. Moreover, the adolescents from the four countries considered school – together with the family – the most important source of knowledge about those issues; as can be seen in the Figure 1.

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

2.2

2.4

Family Friends School Cinema/TV Internet Newspapers

2 . 3 7

1 . 9 4

2 . 3 42 . 2 62 . 1 92 . 2

Sources of knowledge

Fig.1. Importance perceived (1: not important, 2: important, 3: very important)

Furthermore, the recent introduction of citizenship education in the curriculum (this is especially recent in Spain) highlights the extent to which the society places trust in the teacher’s role in the transmission of information, values and proactive behaviour when dealing with local, European and global issues as well as when considering political actions.

Given then, the inherent importance of the teacher in such weighty matters as preparing future citizens, then it is imperative to also consider how to provide the teacher with sufficient psycho-


logical support to face these challenges. With this propose, we illustrate in this chapter empirical evidence of the consequences that constantly changing situations and new demands have on teachers’ health and the effect that psychological variables play in this re-lationship. In this sense, the important role played by teacher’s belief of their professional efficacy to cope with the new demands – to pre-pare young people as ‘cosmopolitan citizens’, to cope with cultural diversity as a consequence of increased European mobilizations, etc – will be explained. At the end of the chapter, a program is proposed to encourage the teaching of self-efficacy.

The new demands of the teaching profession and their impact on teachers’ health

The teaching profession is rated as one of the most stressful vocations in terms of stress and burnout; burnout often leading to diminished productivity and effectiveness (Farber 1991). Teachers often find themselves beleaguered by disruptive and non-achieving students, are held accountable for their students’ achievement and well-being, and depend on others, for example, parents, colleagues and the principal, to get things done (Friedman 2003). They are also affected by various psychological and social factors, and must work under conflicting expectations, pressures and demands (Chan 1998).

Literature appears to support the notion that occupational stress and burnout are associated with poor health in teachers (Guglielmi and Tratrow 1998: 81). In Spain, the FETE (Federation of Educational Workers 2004) reported that over 63% of teachers suffer a high risk of stress. This report highlights the aspects that teachers consider most stressful in relation to their profession, such as the in-corporation of new technologies, the feeling of society’s loss of values, the difficulties derived from current social problems, diversity in the classroom and constant curricular changes.


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The stressors of the teaching profession were classified by Fried-man (1997, 2002) as task, organization, and relation stressors2 (see Figure 2). Friedman established these classifications following inter-views conducted with 25 elementary and high school principals and a survey carried out on 821 full-time elementary and high school princi-pals. Task stressors were both quantitative – working long hours, time pressure, heavy workload – and qualitative overloading – where the job’s requirements outstrip the employee’s skills, role ambiguity, con-flict, and inadequate administrative and technical assistance in teaching. Organization stressors are pressures originating from problems in-volved in human resource management issues and resource depen-dence, and relation stressors are the external relations with parents, supervisors and representatives of local and central administration.

Role stressors Subtype Examples

Organization

A. Human Resource Management

1. Unmotivated teachers and students

2. Uncooperative teachers 3. Discipline and insubordination

B. Resource dependence 1. Financial resources 2. Social and supervisory support

Task

A. Quantitative overload 1. Long working hours 2. Time pressure 3. Heavy workload

B. Qualitative overload C. Role ambiguity D. Role conflict E. The functioning of administrative assistance (help given to

the principal for task performance)

External relations

A. With parents and parental organizationsB. With authoritiesC. With supervisors

Fig. 2. Principal role stressors’ classification by Friedman (1997)

2 Stressor is understood here as a wide variety of events and conditions that are

perceived as threatening to an organism.


Teacher burn-out

But, what is teacher burnout and how does it originate? The general consensus is that burnout is a multi-stage process (Friedman 1996; Schwarzer and Kleiber 1996). The first stage of this process involves a stress-generating imbalance between resources and demands, and the second encompasses an immediate emotional response to this imbalance. This stage is characterized by feelings of anxiety, tension, fatigue and exhaustion. The third stage consists of a number of changes in attitudes and behavior, such as a tendency to treat re-cipients of services in a detached and cynical, or mechanical fashion. In addition, the teacher develops negative feelings toward him/her self (Cherniss 1980). In other words, burnout has been defined as a syndrome of various reactions, including physical and emotional ex-haustion, depersonalization of service recipients (e.g. students), or powerful negative feelings towards them, and sense of lack of per-sonal accomplishment (Maslach and Jackson 1981; Jackson, Schawb and Schuler 1986).

In workshops designed to alleviate burnout among teachers con-ducted by Friedman (1996, 1997), participants defined burnout as a feeling that:

“I cannot achieve the target that I am aiming for; it is connected to a sense of unfulfillment”, or they simply say that for them burnout was nothing but “a professional failure”, “a sense of making no progress”, “failing to reach predetermined goals”, or “not being able to get things on the move”. (Friedman, 1997: 1)

So, in the case of burnout among teachers, exhaustion is viewed as emotional, cognitive and physical fatigue; accomplishment as the self-perceived success or failure in fulfilling educational-managerial duties at school, and depersonalization as the psychological detachment, im-personal relations, aloofness, and distancing from subordinates and/or colleagues and students at school.

As shown by various studies conducted around the world – for example, in Britain by Borg 1990; in the USA by Farber 1991; in Israel by Friedman 2003; and in China by Tang et al. – high stress in


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the teaching profession seems to be a global phenomenon, in part-icular in countries where constant change is taking place over which the teacher has no control. In this respect, Tang and Lau (1996), showed that teachers face increasingly stressful working conditions due to the amount of classes they have, the lack of educational re-sources and the scant reinforcement they perceive in their work. In addition, these authors found that teachers had a lower level of per-sonal accomplishment and satisfaction with their work than nurses and police officers. These data correlate with the increase in the number of suicide attempts in teachers (Hui and Chan 1996).

Self-efficacy: What is it and why is it important for teachers?

Given the seriousness of the situation, it might be interesting to put forward answers to the following question: what are the general en-vironmental and other work-related factors that generate feelings of personal or professional inconsequentiality or failure? Cherniss (1993) argued that there is a link between a sense of professional self-efficacy and burnout as an explanatory factor. Furthermore, teachers with strong self-efficacy beliefs seem to be more prepared to ex-periment with and subsequently implement new educational practices (Evers, Brouwers and Tomic 2002). Self-efficacy is generally under-stood as one’s belief that he or she is capable of carrying out acti-vities in order to achieve certain goals. Inevitably, it is essential for teachers to believe that they can ‘make a difference’ in their teaching in order for them to face the numerous challenges to be found daily in the classroom.

How can teachers’ behaviour be explained in terms of (self-efficacy or lack of it)? According to Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura 1997) and the contributions of the Cognitive – Affective Processing System (CAPS) model devised by Mischel and Shoda (1995), human functioning is seen as the product of a dynamic inter-play of diverse influences: personal (e.g. age, gender, self-efficacy), behavioral (e.g. job satisfaction, burnout), and environmental


(complexity and novelty of the task, cultural diversity, social support). Taking into consideration personal factors, the belief in one’s own professional competence plays a crucial role in satisfaction. It is widely documented that self-efficacy has a decisive impact on several areas of functioning and behavior. Dembo and Gibson (1985), Ashton (1985), Ross (1994) and Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk and Hoy (1998) link teachers’ self-efficacy to the adoption of innovative teaching materials and approaches, classroom management strategies, motivation, effort dedicated to teaching, targets set for themselves and their enthusiasm and professional commitment.

Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura 2001) states that self-efficacy is the most important personal belief in human agency. According to this theory, the more someone believes in their own self-efficacy in a specific context, the greater their satisfaction in said context will be, since a series of internal and external rewards are associated with effectiveness of performance. Moreover, many studies have looked at the relationship between job stress, satisfaction and self-efficacy, finding a direct link between these variables (Kyriacou and Sutcliffe 1978; Travers and Cooper 1994). For example, Pines (1993) de-monstrated how people with low self-efficacy run the risk of suffer-ing from stress, fatigue and ultimately dissatisfaction.

In this relationship between self-efficacy and stress, social support within the organization and organizational support act as a springboard in relation to stress, along with self-efficacy (Friedman 2000; Van Dick and Wagner 2001). Hence, social support can reduce the perception of burden that often leads to stress reactions. Further-more, support from colleagues can have a direct influence on teachers’ self-efficacy in several ways. For example, collaboration can facilitate the development of a series of procedures and techniques that teachers could use to reassert themselves in relation to the quality of their own work and, hence, adjust their expectations of subsequent performance.

Pisanti et al. (2003) demonstrated that social support is one of the most important explanatory variables for the well-being of high school teachers in Italy. Therefore, a culture of collaboration and


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leadership, which is able to respect the needs of the teachers, con-tributes to the positive development of their professional endeavor.

The role of self-efficacy on teaching satisfaction and burnout

The ESF Research showed that children and youth are worried about how increased global mobility will affect their local and national en-vironments. It also indicates that there are conflictive narratives of what immigration and respect means for them at micro- and macro-levels (see Oller and Vallejo, this volume, for further discussion). It stands to reason that teachers must orient youth about these – often-times controversial – issues. It also stands to reason that teachers much be prepared themselves to deal with constantly changing situations in which they work. Following a study by Briones, Tabernero and Arenas (2005), one conclusion that can be drawn is that teachers with a high level of diversity of students in their class-rooms displayed a lower level of self-efficacy, a lower feeling of per-sonal accomplishment and less satisfaction than control groups, implying that diversity among students is a stressor for the teacher. This result concurs with the observations made by Tatar and Horenczyk (2003) in Israel, which led them to suggest a theory of diversity-related burnout, probably because teachers may not have sufficient or appropriate strategies to cope with this new situation.

Briones, Tabernero and Arenas’ study also concluded that the “buffer effect” of teaching self-efficacy on two dimensions of burn-out – emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment – supports the suggestion made by Cherniss (1993) that teacher self-efficacy could be the link between the stressors and burnout. Therefore, de-signing an intervention to improve self-efficacy using its four sources: mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological factors (Bandura 1997) could improve the oc-


cupational health of teachers. This four sources are explained further, in the last section of this chapter where a proposed self-efficacy pro-gram for teachers is presented.

Based on Social Cognitive Theory, a second study by Briones, Tabernero and Arenas (in press) explored the influence of positive constructs, such as self-efficacy and social support from colleagues, on teachers’ job satisfaction and experience of burnout. In addition, an attempt was made to devise an explanatory model for job satis-faction among teachers.

Bearing in mind the aforementioned literature, this study pro-poses the following hypotheses:

a) Teachers’ self-efficacy affects perceptions of support, emotional exhaustion and professional achievement. Teachers with high levels of teaching self-efficacy should perceive more support from colleagues and principal, and should display a higher sense of professional achievement and less emotional exhaustion.

b) Teachers’ self-efficacy affects job satisfaction, directly and indirectly, owing to its impact on perceptions of support, emotional exhaustion and professional achievement. That is, teachers with high levels of teaching self-efficacy should display greater job satisfaction.

c) Perception of support, emotional exhaustion and professional achievement affect job satisfaction. Teachers who perceive more support, have a greater sense of professional achievement and less emotional exhaustion are expected to display greater satisfaction with their work.

The study by Briones, Tabernero and Arenas (in press) found that self-regulating variables have a significant impact on job satisfaction. As ex-pected, the construct of support was closely linked with job satis-faction (Friedman 2000; Van Dick and Wagner 2001; Pisanti et al. 2003). The variables analyzed self-efficacy as a teacher, emotional ex-haustion, personal achievement and perceived support from colleagues and found that them to result in 41% of the total variance in relation to job satisfaction, as shown in Figure 4. This revealed that perception


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of support; professional achievement and emotional exhaustion have a direct impact on job satisfaction. Self-efficacy as a teacher is directly and indirectly linked with job satisfaction, owing to its impact on pro-fessional achievement and perceived support from colleagues.

Fig. 3. Path Analysis for self-regulating variables predicting job satisfaction.

Having demonstrated the relevant role played by teacher self-efficacy in their performance and health, we feel appropriate to follow in this chapter with a detailed explanation of how teachers can learn to de-velop self-efficacy for themselves.

Programs for training for self-efficacy

When introducing the concept of self-efficacy, Bandura (1986) shows four sources that can play a role in self-efficacy training programs: mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological states. Specifically, Bandura shows that it is necessary to combine three elements in these programs: firstly, we must promote the basic skills that are essential to the job by establishing a series of rules and operational strategies via an instructive model training program;


secondly, so that each of the trainees generates their own judgments of capability they should use simulation practices related to their actual job so that they can develop greater confidence in their capabilities; finally, they should present day-to-day work situations in which they can practice and transfer the skills learnt which helps increase their per-ception of achievement and control over their capabilities.

One of the most popular training programs for generating self-efficacy in the workplace was developed by Latham and Saari in 1979. This training program encompasses three stages:

Firstly, they used a model to show supervisors or section managers the interpersonal skills necessary to carry out their job effi-ciently. To develop the program, Latham and Saari highlight the in-fluencing skills associated with the job, which the supervisor can use when dealing with staff in order to generate better motivation. They then show a video of a model tackling and resolving the day-to-day situations of a supervisor’s job. Specifically, the model uses different strategies to motivate staff; shows how to use feedback, the re-percussions that can be caused, which goals to establish and how to cope with problematic absenteeism or resistance to change.

Subsequently, they present scenes of real-life behavior so that the supervisors can discuss which working methods are the most useful, carry out role-playing so that the supervisors can confer and prove that they are capable of dealing with day-to-day situations, receiving specific feedback which helps them improve their skills.

Finally, to aid the transfer of learnt skills to their working environ-ment, the supervisors are instructed to use the skills they have learnt on the course for one working week in their normal job. After that week, they meet up to discuss the difficulties they encountered when putting the skills into practice and also the results they had achieved. In order to solve possible problems, the supervisors are retrained using an instructive model on how to deal with complex situations.

Latham and Saari evaluated their training programme in two stages; immediately after the training and one year after completing the program. The results showed that the training program had a positive effect both on the morale of the teams and on the produc-


221

tivity achieved. The training program has also been applied to other aspects of work, and its effects have been noticed both in the im-provement of decision-making and problem-solving skills and in the levels of absenteeism and staff turnover.

Going back to the effect of self-efficacy on the reduction of burnout, Bandura (2000) points out that this type of training program can be used for various purposes, not just to improve performance. For example, it could be used to help reduce the anxiety associated with stressful situations or phobias which develop when facing threatening situations. The use of model-based and guided-learning training has a positive and rapid effect on the way people tackle situations perceived as threatening. People are trained to develop confrontational strategies which allow them to use their own experience to convince themselves that they are capable of con-trolling potential threats.

Another training program for developing organizational self-efficacy was introduced by Gist, Bavetta and Stevens (1990). This is a guided-model training program for negotiation skills. We mention this program because it includes a module on the development of capabilities in order to tackle difficulties. Following a similar three-stage strategy as in the previous program, Gist and her contributors (1990) suggest that the final stage should encourage workers to anticipate all of the situations which could potentially cause them stress, to think of ways to overcome them, to evaluate the efficacy of the strategies used to deal with situations, and to use their internal re-sources to keep going and not give up. This cognitive training strategy seeks to teach people how to react to negative results and to anticipate the strategies which will allow them to maintain their level of effort. Bandura (2000) says that there are more and more programs that use guided-model strategies, but most of these programs fail because they do not develop the third stage of generating self-efficacy judgments and the anticipation of strategies that will help people face up to bad results or failures in a real life context.


Our self-efficacy program to encourage teachers’ efficiency and occupational health

Taking account of all the aforementioned training programs, we have created an adaptation of the three-stage training program developed by Latham and Saari (1979) applied to a stressful work situation (Tabernero, Arenas and Briones 2009), in this case teachers:

Instructive Model

Firstly, the program should show a model on how to efficiently tackle threatening activities so as to help trainees overcome them. In order to do this, we must first make a list of the tasks that intimidate people and divide them into sub-tasks so that they can be tackled in smaller steps. The model should show how to tackle these situations step by step until they can be successfully completed. The individual develops a sense of self-efficacy by watching and identifying with the model because they are dealing specifically with what the trainee sees as threatening. In this case it is essential that the trainee identifies with the model in order to generate self-efficacy, since this process is based on social comparison (‘if she can do, so can I’). As shown in Figure 5, this enables the trainees to ‘rebuild’ the threatening situation once they see that certain strategies are successful for the task.


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STAGE 1. INSTRUCTIVE MODEL

Strategies Examples Sources of self-efficacy

A. Make a list of:

the specific skills needed for your job

the situations you see as threatening

Motivate colleagues or influence management decisions

Disagreement/conflict with collea-gues or unfair distribution of jobs

Interpreting the physiological symp-toms experienced when faced with stressful situations

The use of knowledge gained from past stressful experiences (recoding)

B. Divide those skills into sub-tasks

A sub-task to motivate colleagues would be to organize tasks according to the interests and strengths of the individual

The use of your own and others’ experien-ces in order to succeed in your profession

C. Presentation of a model way of tackling these situations (sub-tasks), using different strategies, resolving the situations success-fully

Record some of your colleagues’ presentations watch them back and analyze the strategies they have used to motivate their sub-ordinates.

Observing and model-ing yourself on others (identification and generation of an eva-luation of the capabili-ties you possess which are similar to those of the model). “If he can do it, so can I”.

Learning how the mo-del persuades using messages or the ver-balization of strategies.

Fig. 4. Outline for the first stage of the proposed training program to improve self-efficacy among teachers

Development of past experiences in a simulation and/or through role-play

Bandura (2000) shows that another good way to overcome anxiety is to carry out the threatening tasks for a short amount of time only.


This method could be used as the second stage of the program, as shown in Latham and Saari (1979). As people begin to feel more self-assured and confident in the task, the amount of time spent on the task can be increased. The success of this method stems from the fact that people experience for themselves that they are capable of dealing with and overcoming the situations they once considered threatening and this helps them to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy.

STAGE 2. DEVELOPMENT OF PAST EXPERIENCES IN A SIMULATION AND/OR THROUGH ROLE-PLAY


A. Present scenes showing real-life situa-tions in order to discuss the most useful working methods with which to resolve them.

B. Use role-playing techniques

Present a real case of an under-performing employee to the group and discuss how you would deal with it.

Swap/exchange the roles of boss and subordinate amongst the course participants in order to practice the different stra-tegies covered/learnt.

Learning how to re-solve problems and develop skills by ex-periencing and over-coming situations simi-lar to those which you face at work.

Fig. 5. Outline of the second stage of the proposed training program to improve self-efficacy among teachers

Transferring skills into a real-life context

In the final stage of the program, it is important to select activities or tasks that give individuals the opportunity to put into practice the newly-learnt strategies and therefore realize that they are capable of dealing with stressful situations, i.e. to generalize judgments of their day-to-day self-efficacy. This last stage is where the judgment of self-efficacy is reinforced and the teacher is able to eliminate or ‘re-interpret’ their feeling of excitement or adrenaline that certain situa-tions provoke.


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Fig. 6. Outline of the third stage of the proposed training program to improve self-efficacy among teachers

As we have seen (Figures 5, 6 and 7), a three-stage training program is an efficient way to reduce or prevent the development of chronic occupational stress in the workplace. This programme uses four sources – own experience, vicarious experience, persuasion and physiological states – to strengthen feelings of self-efficacy in each of the stages. The program also works on confrontational skills training, to ensure protection against stress – always through the support of the trainers and a team (ideally, other teachers). As it has already been mentioned, not only are children and youth facing new challenges brought on by the transformation of society, teachers as well must be prepared to face these same challenges. It is our hope that this pro-posal will help teachers towards that goal.

STAGE 3. TRANSFERRING SKILLS INTO A REAL-LIFE CONTEXT


A. Give instructions to use the skills learnt du-ring their normal work-ing week.

B. Evaluation of the dif-ficulties encountered and achievements made in practice.

C. Anticipation of strategies to be used to face future problems

Keep a diary of all situations faced, along with the strategies used and note down any achievements or difficulties encountered.

Personal evaluation of the results achieved by following the strategies and analysis of possible alternatives.

Note down any different stress-ful situations experienced by your colleagues along with the strategies used to overcome them.

Generalization of real-life self-efficacy eva-luation using the four sources: own experience, observation, persuasion, and the interpretation of physiological symptoms.


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Fostering Cooperation to Manage Situations of Interdependence Successfully

CARMEN TABERNERO & ELENA BRIONES

Cooperative behaviour is essential in a prosperous society, especially in situations of interdependence (Aumann and Schelling 2005). The need for interdependence in cooperative learning has been discussed in previous chapters (see Vallejo and Oller, Dooly); it has been argued that cooperative learning must be understood as a basic com-petence we need to provide to students for the future. More and more workplaces emphasize the need for cooperative teamwork, highlighting the need for this competence for future citizens (Nadler and Tushman 1999). At the same time, it must be recognised that situations of interdependence may bring about moments of social interaction in which individuals attempt to maximise personal benefit, irregardless of the possible detriment of the collective to which they belong, especially when a group of people has to share a limited number of resources. In such cases, there is a tendency to act self-sufficiently, even though they know that mutual cooperation could produce greater benefits for more people. Therefore, understanding the behaviour of young Europeans when faced with social dilemmas and designing programmes that can guarantee their future cooperation in the European Union are critical issues in today’s world (Weber, Kopelman, and Messick 2004).

This chapter examines some of the variables that help to con-struct a context of cooperation in order to suggest intervention strategies that foster cooperation between people from different backgrounds. This chapter focuses primarily on the Ultimatum Game (principally using data collected in Cordoba, Spain with 173 participants) in order to explore the behaviour of children and youth when faced with a dilemma based on cooperating or competing for a

C. Tabernero & E. Briones 232

limited resource. The children and youth took part in the Ultimatum Game with partners from their own school, partners from schools in Barcelona and partners from Poland (see the introductory chapter of this book for more details). The results from the Ultimatum Game were then correlated with the participants’ experiences of having pre-viously collaborated with NGOs (data taken from the ESF question-naires) and having participated in a cooperative context. It was found that these factors were strongly associated with future cooperative behaviour. Based on these results, this chapter offers a new approach to intervention when tackling situations of competition and social di-lemmas, based on the creation of training programmes that facilitate situations of cooperation, generate group efficacy and also foster early involvement in altruistic actions, with a view to promoting co-operative behaviours in the future.

Social dilemmas

On 10th October 2005, the Royal Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics to Robert Aumann (Mathematician) and Thomas Schelling (Economist) for their contribution to the analysis of situations of conflict and cooperation based on ‘Game Theory’. These researchers attempted to explain human behaviour in situa-tions of war and conflict. The authors maintain that cooperative be-haviour is necessary for society to prosper; furthermore, they stress that the field of psychology should be contributing greater know-ledge and research in terms of how people manage to strike a balance in situations of conflict. Environments that foster competition force people to face social dilemmas – a phenomenon know by be-havioural researchers as the ‘Psychology of Sharing’.

A review carried out recently by Weber, Kopelman and Messick (2004) presents social dilemmas as situations which require decision-making that focuses on the question of appropriation: what does

Fostering Cooperation 233

someone like me do in a situation like this? Social dilemmas are de-fined by two characteristics: a) whether, at any point during the decision-making process, individuals receive rewards for making selfish choices rather than cooperative decisions; without taking into account the choices made by those with whom said individuals inter-act, and, b) whether those involved receive less of a reward if each of them makes selfish decisions rather than cooperative decisions (Dawes 1980; Messick and Brewer 1983).

In recent decades, social psychology has chiefly focused on re-searching processes generated in working groups. This interest corresponds to one of the most important changes experienced in the organisational sphere: the implementation of work in inter-dependent groups. For this reason, Nadler and Tushman (1999) believe that the effective management of teams is one of the key skills that organisations must have in the 21st Century. Perhaps in re-sponse to these needs, social psychology is interested in examining the psychosocial processes that encourage an individual to behave cooperatively, putting the interest of the group ahead of his or her own interest. And for teachers it is a key behaviour that they should inculcate in their students since interdependent teamwork will be re-quired skills in the future.

When working in groups, individual behaviour can be affected both positively and negatively. For example, Zajonc (1965) de-monstrated that the group can have a positive influence on individual behaviour through ‘Social Facilitation’ or ‘Mere Presence’. However, Zimbardo (1969) stated that when the collective facilitates anonymity and ‘deindividuation’1 the individual can become more violent or ag-gressive towards others than a person would be in a situation of iso-lation. Osofsky, Bandura and Zimbardo (2005) maintain that certain social situations facilitate the individual’s moral detachment from the action they have just committed. Furthermore, people use strategies 1 Fraser and Burchell (2001) define deindividuation as ‘a process whereby nor-

mal constrains on behavior are weakened as persons lose their sense of indi-viduality’ (p. 186). The psychological state of deindividuation is aroused when individuals join crowds, large groups or when the situation include anonymity.


so as not to feel morally responsible for the effect their decision or action has on those who are affected by it.

These theories show that individuals need to categorise a situation before making a decision about their behaviour. Typically, the individual poses the question: is this a cooperative or competitive situation? Is this a group or individual task? Is this a game or a prob-lem to be resolved? Is this a single-choice dilemma or a sequential dilemma? Is this a dilemma that demands an anonymous or public choice? How each individual defines the situation will inform the person involved about the relevant norms, expectations, rules, learned behaviours, skills and possible strategies.

It seems that more classic psychosocial theories might hold the key to understanding the behaviour of individuals when faced with social dilemmas. Often, behaviour that seems reasonable and justi-fiable to the individual leads to a result that is damaging for the group. Such situations, or as defined earlier ‘social dilemmas’, are be-hind many of the social problems we must face (Weber et al. 2004). A lot of research has been carried out on ‘social dilemmas’ ranging from the well-known “prisoner’s dilemma”2 to “the tragedy of the commons3” (Hardin 1968). Research in social dilemma is based on

2 This consists of possible crime scenario: “You have been arrested along with

a companion and you are both accused of taking part in a robbery. You do not know what information they have about your behaviour and similarly you do not know what your companion has said about you. So, the police ask if you wish to cooperate and accuse your companion or keep quiet. Implicating your companion has more favourable benefits in the short term; however, maintaining your loyalty towards your companion and not reporting him/her will certainly bear a cost for both of you”.

3 This is made up of the following scenario: “You are a farmer with a large head of cattle and belong to a cooperative with 100 other farmers with whom you share pastureland. The agreement is that every day only one cow can be put out to graze in each field. Given that the area has no security or surveillance, the temptation is to put out more cows to graze and double your earnings. However, if all the farmers engaged in this kind of behaviour, the results could be disastrous for the cooperative, since it could strip the land bare”. The question in this situation is: what would you do? Would you think only


the need to choose between self-sufficient behaviour and coopera-ting for the common good. According to Hardin (1968) these kinds of situations are very similar to those we are facing today with “the use and abuse of natural resources”, for example owing to the lack of water or environmental pollution, but also when it comes to paying taxes (Messick and Brewer 1983).

Students can observe how they, and people around them, must make difficult decisions on a daily basis. For instance, a student’s mother may be a business owner, wondering what to do when facing the possibility of earning higher profits or reducing the level of pro-duction to generate lower CO2 emissions. Youth who are old enough to drive must face the decision of whether to drive more slowly and create less pollution or whether they prefer to arrive at their de-stination sooner. These are social dilemmas in which either personal or collective interests must be put first. The same is true of what authors have termed “common resources”, resources from which everyone can benefit without having contributed to their creation (for example, public television, a project to improve the community, etc.). These two categories of social dilemma share a common fea-ture: when someone cannot be excluded from the benefits provided by others, each person will be motivated not to contribute to the joint effort but rather to take advantage of the efforts of others. However, if we all choose not to collaborate, it will be impossible to benefit the collective as a whole. The question is the degree to which members of the group can regulate themselves.

Variables that modulate self-interested behaviour in social dilemmas

The results found in numerous research papers show that on most occasions people tend to act in self-interest. Hsee (1995) suggests that, in general, personal interests will dominate in situations where

about yourself and your family or would you think about the good of the col-lective, the other farmers?


the individual is uncertain of which criteria are relevant to the task. Some authors advise that “in order to predict how uncertainly might affect choice behaviour, firstly we must analyse which information is used by members of the group under conditions of environmental certainty” (Van Dijk et al. 1999: 130).

Insko et al. (1994) claim that there are five factors that determine an individual’s behaviour in social dilemmas. Firstly, group size affects collaborative behaviour. As the number of members involved in decision-making increases, responsibility becomes more diluted. Se-condly, the possible cost of the individual’s behaviour in terms of cooperating or competing; in other words, what effect does the individual feel his/her decision-making will have? Thirdly, situations of uncertainty promote greater risk-taking in behaviour and, therefore, the individual is more likely to act with a view to obtaining the maximum benefit for him/herself (Arenas, Tabernero and Briones 2006). Fourthly, when the social situation favours anonymity, it is more likely that each of the possible participants will see their responsibility in the group as being rather diluted and will, therefore, act competitively. And finally, when the individual perceives that s/he cannot exercise control to change or influence the situation created, s/he will act with more self-interest. Morris, Sim and Girotto (1998) claim that when the individual is enthusiastic about being able to influence the behaviour of his/her fellow members his/her behaviour will be more collaborative.

Another decisive variable when it comes to analysing how a situation is characterised might be the temporal order in which each of the individuals makes use of a common resource. Within the tem-poral order, there have been several theories proposed to explain decisive variables, based on the metaphor of games (see Budescu, Au and Chen, 1997; Rapoport, Budescu and Suleiman, 1993). Decisions of the “players” in the game may be based on simultaneous protocol (de-cisions are made simultaneously without knowing the choices of the other players; only the common good); based on sequential protocol (choices must be made in sequential positions, usually according to hierarchy; the ‘players’ are aware of common good left after each decision), or positional protocol (similar to sequential protocol but they


do not know how much of the common good is left). This protocol gives rise to three possible hypotheses about the players’ decision making. Firstly, given that the sequential information about the size of the common good is not available, position should have no effect, and the results should be similar to those of the simultaneous protocol. Secondly, if players are expecting position to have an effect, they will act accordingly and this effect will appear, yielding similar results to those of the sequential protocol.

A third hypothesis is that the results would be somewhere in between the previous patterns (Budescu, Suleiman and Rapoport 1995; Budescu et al. 1997). Finally, Budescu et al. (1997) described an accumulative protocol in which the player only knows how much of the common good is left but does not know his/her position in the series.

Another important modulating variable in the structure of decisions in social dilemmas is the possibility of choosing from a number of available behaviours. Which options are open to the people facing the dilemma? Most experimental research into social dilemmas has been developed in contexts of “obligatory play”. In other words, participants in these kinds of experiments generally have no other choice than to play with the companions assigned to them. However, this circum-stance does not represent the majority of social dilemmas in real life.

Another well-documented finding in the literature about social dilemmas is that communication between participants gives rise to higher levels of cooperation. Dawes and Messick (2000) have pointed to two possible explanations: a) communication improves group identity and/or solidarity; and b) communication elicits commitments to co-operate. In a meta-analysis of the research conducted into social dilem-mas between 1958 and 1992, Sally (1995) found that communication was the most powerful decisive factor in increased levels of coopera-tion in approximately 40% of studies. There are two general theoretical explanations as to why discussion increases cooperation (Kerr and Kaufman-Gilliland 1994): social identity theory and social pacts.

According to ‘Social Identity Theory’, discussion might lead people to see themselves as members of a group (Hogg and McGarty 1990; Tajfel and Turner 1986). This group identity in turn would lead


to a prosocial transformation of motivation directed at the self, so that people would be motivated to improve the results of those with whom they identify (Kelley and Thibaut 1978). Certain authors have pointed out that the nature of the discussion, and not just its occurrence, significantly affects levels of cooperation (Dawes and Messick 2000). This observation has led researchers to propose a second explanation regarding the impact of discussion on cooperation, maintaining that discussion allows people to make promises (Kerr and Kaufman-Gilliland 1994), create expectations and develop psychological or normative contracts regarding what they expect from the other party.

One of the most widely agreed modulating variables in research into social dilemmas is that smaller groups are more capable of estab-lishing and sustaining cooperation than larger groups (e.g., Agrawal 2002; Dawes 1980). In this respect, Kerr (1989) maintains that self-efficacy could provide an explanation for this finding. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief regarding his/her capacity to achieve a specific result (Bandura 1997). The perception of self-efficacy is not neces-sarily the same as the objective capacity of an individual to achieve that result. Kerr demonstrated that even when group size does not have an objective effect on the capacity of individuals, participants feel more effective when they are in smaller groups. Kerr proposed that smaller groups not only increase the perceived potential efficacy of their own contributions, but also improved evaluations of the po-tential efficacy of contributions from others. In this respect, although Kerr did not mention it specifically, it seems clear that smaller groups find it easier to generate perceived group efficacy, which is decisive in conflict resolution and cooperative decision-making (Tabernero, Arenas and Briones 2005).


Teaching approach: How can we study students’ behaviour on social dilemmas situations? An example

As mentioned at the start of this chapter, cooperative behaviour is the key to a prosperous society (Aumann and Schelling 2005); espe-cially when dealing with situations of interdependency, which charac-terise relationships in an increasingly globalised world. Understanding the behaviour of global citizens in the face of social dilemmas may be crucial when it comes to affecting cooperation between nations, as well as fostering cooperation on more microlevels between indivi-duals at local and regional levels.

The authors of this chapter believe that the best way of tackling cooperative behaviour among youth – especially when looking at youth from different countries – is to study it from the perspective of ‘Social Identity Theory’ (Tajfel and Turner 1979). Given the impli-cations that identifying with one’s own group and attitudes towards other groups have for inter-group relations (Tajfel and Turner 1986), ‘Social Identity Theory’ implies that people are motivated to achieve and maintain a positive self-concept. Furthermore, since the defini-tion of self-concept integrates group affiliations, people are also mo-tivated to rate the groups to which they belong positively and, there-fore, create a positive social identity and self-concept in general.

According to this theoretical approach, evaluations made about one’s own group are relative and comparative in nature, insofar as a value is assigned to one’s own group in comparison with other significant groups in regard to the dimensions being evaluated. This inter-group differentiation obeys, first and foremost, the effects of social categorisation; in other words, the increase in inter-category differences and intra-category similarities, and secondly, the search for positive distinctiveness in one’s own group, which would be favourably compared with other groups in the dimensions evaluated. Consequently, in these social comparisons with other groups, students will have to establish positive differences in favour of their in-group, thereby developing in-group favouritism (Tajfel and Turner


1979). This in-group favouritism might be manifested through the level of confidence, positive consideration, cooperation and empathy towards one’s own group (Hewstone, Rubin and Willis 2002). An-other result derived from these social comparisons might be ingroup bias, which as well as in-group favouritism also encompasses an active component of aggression and disregard towards the out-group (Brewer 1999, 2000).

The study described here uses the concept of comparative identity (Huici and Ros 1993) which, when linked to the above approach, makes reference to the overall consideration of the degree of iden-tification with two social categories that vary as regards the degree of abstraction or inclusiveness, specifically considering the degree of iden-tification with the category of ‘Spanish’ and the category ‘European’.

Therefore, the first hypothesis of this study is that a greater ten-dency to display cooperative behaviour towards the members of one’s own group (national) is expected when resolving a social dilem-ma, when comparative identity (national clusters) and in-group bias are high. Furthermore, in the study, we saw how young people, whose groups develop an initial strategy of cooperation, tackled their decision regarding a social dilemma cooperatively. This result can be explained in reference to classic theories from Social Psychology about the formation of social norms, specifically highlighting that before making a decision about behaviour to be carried out, indivi-duals need to identify the situation; in other words, they need to know or create a framework of reference on which to base their actions (Sherif 1936). Doing so provides norms, expectations, rules, learned behaviours, abilities and possible strategies. This line of argu-ment begs the question as to whether one could expect to see a greater tendency to display cooperative behaviour in a situation of interdependency when the people involved have prior experiences of collaboration in altruistic activities, such as getting involved in NGOs. In other words, if one can expect a certain generalisation of this behaviour to a social dilemma.

The second hypothesis put forward is that young people who have experienced cooperative and/or altruistic situations – both prior


to and in the context of the social dilemma – will display a greater tendency to develop cooperative behaviour regardless of whether the social dilemma is carried out with a national or European teenager.

Method

A total of 173 teenagers from Cordoba took part in this research project. They were aged 10 to 18 (M= 14.03, SD= 2.68); 53.8% were girls and 46.2% were boys. The study also comprised 87 teenagers from Barcelona (52.9% girls and 47.1% boys) and 86 teenagers from Poland (48.8% girls and 51.2% boys). Part of the study which was not included in the ESF research (and not carried out by the rest of the partners in the research project) consisted of getting the participants to identify themselves as ‘Spanish’ or European’ (known as their ‘Comparative identity’; Huici et al. 1997). In addition, the participants had to tackle the social dilemma known as the Ultimatum Game (described in the introduction of this book). As shown in Table 1, the participants were assigned to one of the following roles or conditions of the UG: 1) Proposer, a teenager from Poland; 2) Proposer, a teenager from Barcelona; 3) Acceptor of the proposition, a teenager from Poland; 4) Acceptor of the proposition, a teenager from Barcelona. The gender of the participants were paired in such as way as to maintain some control on the possible effect on the results.

Table 1. Allocation of participants to UG conditions

Role Origin of partner Gender of partner Total Girl Boy

Challenger Poland 23 23 46 Barcelona 23 20 43

Acceptor Poland 19 21 40 Barcelona 23 21 44

Total 88 85 173


Measurements

Comparative identity: The teenagers chose one of the following options to define themselves: “European, never Spanish”, “almost always European and at times Spanish, “European and Spanish”, “almost always Spanish and at times European”, “Spanish, never European”. Given that the students from Cordoba mainly identified with the label “European and Spanish” (52.8%), and that just 5% claimed to feel “Spanish, never European” and 4% “European, never Spanish”, the measurement was recategorised with three response levels in order to conduct the analyses. To do this, the responses “European, never Spanish” and “almost always European and at times Spanish” were integrated into a single label that reflected an inclination to feel European. Furthermore, the responses “almost always Spanish and at times European”, and “Spanish, never European”, were integrated in a single label that reflected the tendency to feel Spanish.

The in-group bias consisted of the difference between attitudes towards the Spanish (in-group) and attitudes towards Europeans (out-group). These attitudes were evaluated using the Inter-Ethnic In-group Bias Test (Rojas, García and Navas 2003). Following the in-dications of the test’s creators, values higher than 0 were considered “in-group bias” or the tendency to favour the in-group, lower values were considered “out-group bias” or tendency to favour the out-group, and values of 0 were taken as a “lack of bias”.

Previous altruistic experience or behaviour was measured using the questionnaire item: “Have you ever collaborated in a project with an organisation such as Manos Unidas, Intermon-Oxfam, Setem, SOS Racismo, Amnesty International, etc.?” The responses were categorised as follows: 0, no involvement; and 1, involvement with at least one NGO.

During the social dilemma (UG), the amount of money shared by the participants was recorded. Using this information, a variable was created with three levels: competitive context (offers or receives less than 40%), cooperative (offers or receives 50%) and altruistic (offers or receives over 60%).


Cooperative Behaviour: After playing the UG, the participants were once again offered the same initial amount of money and asked: as the decision-maker, will you share less, more or the same amount as you offered or received in the UG?

Results

64.2% of the participants experienced cooperative behaviour (offer-ing or receiving 50% of the total amount), 21.4% competitive be-haviour (offering or receiving less than 40%) and 14.3% generous behaviour (offering or receiving over 60%) as the result of the UG resolution. An analysis to ascertain the relationship between the three variables of previous altruistic experience, the UG context and cooperative behaviour after the UG, was carried out. Previous altruistic experience and the context created in the UG (Chi2

(2.159) = 12.35, p<.01) were significantly related, as shown in Figure 1; participants who were in-volved in NGOs displayed more cooperative and less competitive behaviour when playing the UG (see Figure 2).

5.715.1

6.98.2

39.6

24.5

0

15

30

45

I've never collaborated with anNGO

I've collaborated with an NGO

Context of the UG

Perc

enta

ge

Competitive Altruistic Cooperative

Fig. 1. Previous altruistic behaviour and context created in the UG

Figure 5 shows that involvement with an NGO is also linked to a greater tendency to display cooperative behaviour after tackling a social dilemma (Chi2

(2.159) = 5.88, p<.05).


Will you offer more, less or same as you received or offered in the UG?

8.212.2 7.510.1

36.524.5

0

15

30

45

I've never collaborated with an NGO I've collaborated with an NGO

Perc

enta

ge

Less More The same

Fig. 2. Relationship between previous altruistic experience and cooperative behaviour

The chi-square analysis performed on the context of the UG dilem-ma and subsequent cooperative behaviour was significant (Chi2(4.173) = 109.69, p<.01). The majority of those who displayed cooperative behaviour (in other words, they responded “the same”) were those who experienced a cooperative context in the UG (see figure 3).

Will you offer more, less or same as you received or offered in the UG?

11.568.672.31 1.733.4712.14

1.166.94

52.02

015304560

Competitive Cooperative Altruistic

Context of the UG

Perc

enta

ge

Less More The Same

Fig. 3. Cooperative behaviour after the UG depending on the context created in the UG

To study the effect of national identity and in-group bias on the sum of money shared by the students from Cordoba with the teenagers from Poland (condition 1 of the UG) and Barcelona (condition 2 of the UG), a Univariate General Linear Model was applied. This ana-lysis considered factors such as condition in the UG, comparative identity and in-group bias; and the amount offered in the UG as the dependent variable. The model proved to be significant (F(13.59) =


2.14, p<.05), and the direct significant effect of the experimental condition was obtained (F(1.59) = 10.33, p<.01) along with the signi-ficant effect of the interaction between experimental condition and comparative identity (F(2.59) = 3.47, p<.04).

As for the direct effect of the experimental condition on the amount shared, the results of this study did not support the hypo-thesis put forward initially, since the teenagers from Cordoba shared more money with the teenagers from Poland (M= 4.74, s.d. = 1.77) than from Barcelona (M= 3.18, s.d. = 2.71). On the contrary to the hypothesis put forward, the teenagers from Cordoba with a stronger Spanish identity tended to be more competitive with the teenagers from Barcelona. However, it should be pointed out that this trend was maintained by 4 teenagers included in condition 2 of the UG and so should be treated with caution.

Conclusions

Two core findings are derived from this second study. Firstly, re-garding the implications of involvement in altruistic activity and ex-perience of a cooperative context, previous altruistic experience was seen to encourage teenagers to display more cooperative behaviour when tackling a social dilemma, and even afterwards, when they all acted as the decision-makers for dividing the money. This finding seems to indicate the generalising power of cooperative or altruistic behaviour on future behaviour. This may be due to the learning of strategies or behavioural norms in situations of interdependence in relation to limited resources, as explained by Sherif’s classic theory (1936) about the formation of social norms or frameworks of re-ference when making decisions about behaviour to be taken up. Linked to the results of the study, the context created in the development of the social dilemma was also seen to be related to the cooperative behaviour displayed by the teenagers towards the same player. However, it should be pointed out that further research will be required to prove whether it is the previous altruistic experience


that promotes future cooperative behaviour or whether individual differences – personality – are at the root of the tendency to develop altruistic and cooperative behaviours.

Furthermore an – a priori – unexpected effect was obtained for comparative identity. Teenagers with a stronger national identity dis-played a more competitive behaviour towards national players (from Barcelona) than those with a European identity. This result could indicate that the European category, since it is more inclusive than the national category, leads players to integrate both groups, teenagers from Barcelona and Poland, within their in-group. However, it could also be due to the condition of the national players in the UG, the players were presented as being from another city in Spain (Barcelona), instead of simply saying that s/he was Spanish. This contextual element might have created a source of differentiation between regional groups, which could comprise greater elements of in-group differentiation than the category of Poland as a European nation – about which teenagers might have less stereotypical information and therefore not present an out-group bias towards this nation.

Turner (1987) proposes that the categorisation of the self occurs at different levels of abstraction. So, from this perspective, it is suggested that the situation determines the functioning of the self-concept: therefore a specific situation would activate a particular self-concept (for example, being from Cordoba as opposed to from Barcelona) which would produce self-images (for example, a certain high standard of living) with the corresponding consequences in terms of behaviour (for example, less cooperative or altruistic behaviour displayed towards a teenager who has a higher standard of living).

This finding could open up the debate about the effectiveness of promoting a supranational category, such as Europe, to improve interactions between nationals and transnationals or Europeans, based on the theoretical approach provided by the Contact Hypo-thesis (Allport 1954; Cook 1985). The paradigm of the Contact Hypothesis maintains that in-group conflict can be reduced by pro-moting contact between conflicting groups. To do this, a series of pre-requisites must be present, such as: equal status between the


members, cooperative interdependence, opportunity for self-reveal-ing interactions and egalitarian norms. Gaertner, Dovidio and Bach-man (1996) state that these in-group interaction conditions help transform members’ perceptions from “us” and “them” to a more inclusive “we”.

Final Words

The most interesting implication of this study is the role played by the group’s prior experience in the resolution of a social dilemma. If individuals act self-sufficiently in the resolution of social dilemmas owing to a lack of frameworks of reference, the group must be given norms or references before they attempt to resolve problems. There-fore, by working with real groups, training programmes could be created with solvable tasks that permit the groups to gain experience of cooperation. The importance of these programmes is that con-vergence towards the norm follows a time pattern and by the time this happens, many collectives might have already exhausted their re-sources or broken down into conflict.

Furthermore, the group’s previous experience might be able to generate judgements of perceived group efficacy in individuals. AS Bandura (1997) states, prior experience is the first source of self-efficacy. Hence, by creating programmes based on providing training in cooperative problem-solving, the members of the group are not only given a framework of reference to guide their actions in the future, but individuals also gain confidence in their group’s capability to successfully resolve the task entrusted to them. The results show that individuals whose groups develop an initial strategy of cooperation and maintain a high level of perceived group efficacy tackle social interactions more cooperatively. For this reason, it may be more effective to develop a new approach to intervention in order to face situations of competition and social dilemmas based on the


creation of training programmes that facilitate situations of coope-ration in order to generate group efficacy, and which foster early involvement in altruistic actions, given that both actions should promote cooperative behaviours in the future.

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Contributors

Elena Briones is a postdoctoral fellow at ERCOMER (European Re-search Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations) at Utrecht University, sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. She received her Ph.D. Europeus with distinction in the University of Salamanca and has been an Assistant Professor at Department of Social Psychology of the University of Seville and Cordoba. Her main research focus is on self regulation and psychosocial variables related to the acculturation and psychosocial adaptation in academic contexts. She has published several conference papers, chapters and articles in scientific journals (The Journal of Social Psychology, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, International Journal of Psychology, Psico-thema). Currently she collaborates on international and Spanish projects on education and social psychology, and she is member of the research group “Gender, communication systems, beliefs and education” belonging to the PAIDI (Andalusian Research Plan).

Esther Collados Cardona is lead teacher in Sketching in Secondary Education and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Didactics of Music, Art and Corporal Expression at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. She has published several handbooks and teacher guidebooks on teaching methods in visual and plastic arts as well as articles related to artistic education. She is currently carrying out re-search in the history of art education in Spain, focusing on education practices as discerned through scholastic art books. Dr. Collados is a member of the SEA (International Society of Education through Art) and as an active member, she has participated in conferences in Europe and Japan.

Melinda Dooly teaches at the Faculty of Education, Autònomous Uni-versity of Barcelona (Spain). She is the author of numerous journal

254 Contributors

articles, chapters and books dealing with language teacher training. She has been a guest teacher at universities in Europe and the USA and has participated in several international educational projects and is currently the national coordinator (Spain) of the Academic Net-work Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe. She is the co-editor of the book series entitled Telecollaboration in Education (Peter Lang). Her most recent book, Doing Diversity. Teachers’ Construction of the Classroom Reality (2009) is part of the Linguistic Insights book series.

Cathie Holden is Associate Professor at the University of Exeter, UK, and Head of Initial Teacher Education where she also trains teachers on the one year citizenship PGCE course. She has contributed to the revised national curriculum for citizenship and was responsible for the secondary strand of <www.CitizED.info>. She has recently co-ordinated an international study into children’s understanding of local/global issues and their role as active citizens. Her books include ‘Education for Citizenship: Ideas into Action’ (2002) (with Nick Clough), The Challenge of Teaching Controversial Issues (2007) with Hilary Claire and ‘Teaching the Global Dimension: Key Principles and Effective Practice’ (2007) with David Hicks.

Beata Krzywosz-Rynkiewic received her Ph.D. from Warsaw University (Poland). Currently she works as a tutor at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. She is the author or co-author of over 30 articles and 4 books in the field of social and educational psychology, specialising in active citizenship and self-responsibility. She has been involved in international projects on citizenship education and has been member of seven scientific grants funded by national and inter-national organisations. Currently she is leading two international re-search and educational projects, is a member of the Executive Com-mittee of the CiCea international association and a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Science Foundation. She is also active in popularising psychological knowledge in both ed-ucation and business through publication in journals such as the Polish version of the Harvard Business Review.

Contributors 255

Montserrat Oller i Freixa is Professor at the Departament de Didàctica de la Llengua, de la Literatura i de les Ciències Socials, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the author and editor of numerous articles, chapters and books in the field of Social Science Teaching Methods and is a frequently invited guest speaker for teacher training throughout Spain. She has participated in various research projects on local, national and international levels in reference to teaching and learning Social Sciences as well as Citizenship Education. She has wide experience in Postgraduate and Masters Courses for university teachers of different national and foreign university and institutions.

Alistair Ross is Emeritus Professor of Education at London Metropolitan University and Jean Monnet /ad personam/ professor-ship (awarded by the European Commission). He was founder and president of the Academic Network Children’s Identity and Citizen-ship in Europe (linking over 100 university departments in 30 count-ries (1998–2008). He was Director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Education at London Metropolitan from 2000 to 2009. His most recent book, A European Education, was published by Trentham Books in 2008, and he is currently making a study of young Europeans’ constructions of identity and citizenship: Crossing European borders.

Carmen Tabernero is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cordoba, Spain. She defended her PhD in 1998 at the University of Salamanca, where she was Assistant Professor. Her re-search training was carried out in different overseas Universities such as Keele University (U.K. 1995), University of New South Wales (Australia, 1997, 1998, 1999), Northwestern University (U.S.A., 2003) and University of Lisbon (Portugal, 2000, 2001, 2007–08). She has supervised six doctoral theses and she is teaching in masters and doctoral programs in the Autonomous University of Madrid, Valencia, Seville, and Salamanca. She has participated in several National and International Congresses. She has published in journals such as OBHDP (1999), APIR (2000), Psicothema (2005, 2009), SB&P (2006, 2009), JSP (2007), IJIR (2009). She is the main re-

256 Contributors

searcher in four National Research Projects, 2003–2004 (Error management on risk behaviors), 2004–2006 (Self-regulatory pro-cesses in acculturation strategies of immigrants) and, 2007–2009, (Self-regulatory processes in intercultural education), 2009–2011 (A multilevel perspective to explain prosocial behaviors).

Claudia Vallejo Rubenstein is Research Assistant at the Departament de Didàctica de la Llengua, de la Literatura i de les Ciències Socials, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and member of the ESF re-search team for ‘Citizens of the future’, where she has taken part in the compilation and analysis of data of the Spanish-Catalan team. She studied Communications at the Universidad Católica de Chile and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and has specialized in re-search in the areas of socio-linguistics, discourse analysis and didac-tics. Among her research interests are the social representations of minorities and gender in public spheres such as the Mass Media and the educational realm. She is currently finishing her PhD thesis which proposes a critical analysis of the social representation of gender violence and the androcentric discourse of the Spanish Mass Media.

Anna Zalewska is Associate Professor at Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities (Poland) where she is Head Chair of Psychological Diagnosis, Organiser of Education. She teaches courses in psychology in areas of individual differences, quality of life and job attitudes. Her main fields of research are the impact of in-dividual differences in personality and environment factors on social behaviour, subjective well-being and quality of life of adults and youth. She is lead member and member of research teams funded at local, national and European levels. She has recently published Two Worlds. Affective and cognitive evaluations of quality of life and their antecedents among high and low-reactive people and is author of over 60 articles in specialized journals and books. Currently she is member of the ESF Pool of Reviewers, the Polish Psychology Association, European Association of Personality Psychology (EAPP) and Children’s Identity and Citizenship European Association (CiCea).

their hopes, fears and reality: working with young people and children for the future (proofs)

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