Abstract:

The EU Youth Strategy for 2019-2027 focuses on youth participation in democratic life and aims to ensure that all young people have the necessary resources to take part in society. In line with this strategy, a study was developed aiming to identify different youth-led co-creation, participation and empowerment scenarios at schools, according to Crowley and Moxon’s classification. The study also aims to explore possible evidences of curricular innovation at the participant schools. Following an interpretive perspective, data was collected through semi-directive interviews with 20 school leaders from Portugal, Greece and Spain, who belong to an Erasmus+ project - BE PART, focused on youth-led development for schools’ participatory management. The content analysis of the school leaders’ responses allowed identifying, on all the three countries, traditional participation scenarios, as well as, more alternative ones. Despite the high level of students’ participation, in general, there is a predominance of traditional forms and non-innovative approaches at school, such as school assembly and delegate or class representative. The results also point that alternative forms of participation are not necessarily innovative and that traditional ones could be innovative if new methodologies to encourage participation are used, such as digital participation, co-management, co-production, deliberative participation and open participation spaces.

Keywords:

Youth participation, curricular innovation, digital participation.