My Participation is Often Dismissed: Youth Experts in Societal Change Processes

• In Event: Global Civic Engagement Education: Ideas, Directions, and Calls for Action

Abstract

The precondition for a healthy democracy is the participation of its young people from various backgrounds in various forms of democratic participation. In view of the desired goal of an equal, inclusive and sustainable societies, the active participation and empowerment of youth is an essential requirement for lasting legitimate change. However, in democracies such as in Finland, vocational school students are not taught civic engagement and ways of being an agenda setter in the society, as high school students are. Based on this research students of vocational schools are not empowered, taught or seen as active participants in societal and political change processes and their potential as participants in democratic processes may be overlooked by officials and politicians. Democracies, such as Finland, require broad participation and preparation for democratic participation via education and by other means such as through activism which are not tied to existing structures such as schools. Based on the empirical data, this research shows that vocational students are not given such preparation but act as agenda setters in their own lives through activism and consumer behaviour. However, their participation often is discarded or not valued which the young students themselves say out loud. These conclusions have been drawn from a qualitative research that studies how vocational school students regard themselves as “societal actors / agenda setters” and how they participate politically - if at all - in society. The theoretical framework combines communication, human rights and power relations theories. The empirical case study combines data gathered from n=23 workshops, which took place at vocational schools in Western Finland during 2018-2020 and answers from n=185 students between 16-26 y/o.

If democracies are going to be equitable, we must recognize the value of the participation of students similarly situated, teach equitably of the various ways of participation so it empowers young people from various backgrounds to participate in various forms. The results of this study indicate that students have several understandings on participation. They already participate in valuable ways such as actions against climate change and racism. Some students are active agenda setters in society, but are not seen as agenda setters in the traditional sense in the Finnish society. Some students have considerable knowledge that could be applied to the development of societies from grassroots level to legislative processes. Yet, young people fear participation due to bullying or think that their participation is not valued or even seen. Therefore by reading the results closely we can ask, if students from vocational schools say that they did not think that they could influence society and that they are too small or “cannot say it in the right way”… has anyone asked them yet?"

Author

• Niina Meriläinen, Tampere Univeristy