https://www.peoplepowered.org/news-content/school-participation-practica...
As the most challenging issues of our time — from climate change, to technology’s impact on well-being, to violent conflict — accelerate, schools around the world are experimenting with novel models of governance, deliberation and collaboration to engage children and youth in the decisions that will shape their present and future. Participation in schools can develop active citizens with lifelong habits of participation, strengthen school communities, and encourage engagement in local government.
Even as schools become laboratories of democracy in a growing number of countries, it remains difficult for school administrators, teachers and civil society organizations to find relevant guidance on student participation. But practitioners need not reinvent the wheel when pursuing innovations like participatory budgeting, citizens’ assemblies and legislative theater: They can learn from experiences and best practices of school participatory programs around the world. To meet this need, People Powered has developed a suite of practical materials on school participation, including step-by-step guidance, research insights, sample materials and other helpful resources.
Hands-on guidance based on global research and practice
1. Step-by-step guidance
With Coglobal, we developed school-specific tracks of the Participation Playbook, an interactive website that guides users through the key decisions necessary to successfully advocate for and implement participatory programs. With the new content, you’ll be able to develop action plans for school citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting, legislative theater and participatory policymaking. The tracks are already being used by the current cohort of the Democratic Innovations Accelerator.
2. Impact data
With the People Powered research committee, we surveyed the global literature on the impacts of participation in schools. After examining more than 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, we synthesized 11 key findings organized in three groups — impacts on people, communities and governments — and accompanied by practical recommendations. Advocates can use this data to win support for school participation programs. The insights are available as a research brief (PDF) and an interactive Airtable.
3. Practical resource collection
The new guidance and research insights that we developed contribute to a growing body of practical resources — lesson plans, guides, toolkits and sample materials — created by school participation practitioners around the world. We’ve curated the most useful materials and gathered them in our online resource center so that you can benefit from the creativity and expertise of your peers. To access them, use the filter “Institution: School.”
How the resource package came to life
Image courtesy of Coglobal.
These resources are the fruit of one of the projects prioritized by the global participatory democracy community in last year’s edition of PP Decides, People Powered’s annual member decision-making process. Practitioners and researchers working in countries around the world identified a need for improved guidance on participatory and deliberative practices in schools. To implement the project, we collaborated with Coglobal to develop the Playbook tracks, organized co-creation workshops with members, gathered feedback from partners, and convened an expert committee to guide the process
