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‘Oh yeah that’s awful, that’s terrible. Somebody should do something about it ... .......... but not me!’ Revisiting ‘Standpoints’: Attitudes to Global Justice Among Young People and Youth Workers in Ireland Hilary Tierney, Maynooth University Dublin Castle 8th October 2014 Development Education in youth work aims to: Increase young people’s awareness and understanding of the interdependent and unequal world in which we live… Challenges perceptions of the world and encourages young people to act for a more just and equal society at a national and an international level. (NYCI) Research Aims • Identify and explore the awareness levels of, and attitudes towards, a range of development and global issues among youth workers and young people • To give a voice to participants’ in framing definitions and interpretations of ‘development and global issues’ and identifying youth work’s role in relation to them Research Approach - Qualitative • Focus groups with youth workers/young people • Groups purposively sampled from national youth work organisations • Group members: attempt to reflect the range and diversity of young people involved in youth work – not specifically those involved in Dev. Ed • Three areas selected: Mayo (West), Waterford (South East) & Dublin (South) • Advisory Group Focus Groups Questions 1. How do participants see the world: what type of knowledge/information do they have about (different parts of) the world, and where do they get it? 2. What do they see as the main relationships/links between and within different parts of the world? 3. What do participants identify as the key ‘global justice issues’? (did not pre-define the concept) 4. What do they think is being done/should be done about these issues, and what is (or should be) the youth work response? Mapping the world… ‘One is the one you normally get and one is the one how everything is, like the true shape of everything, Ireland is a lot smaller than it is actually shown on the one that we [usually] get’. ‘You realise how many more people would be affected by Africa I suppose, because in this one it looks a hell of a lot smaller and in this one it looks huge and then obviously it means that…it just seems like a really big place to have droughts and famine’. ‘It would probably be [people from] the northern hemisphere making maps’. Global Justice Issues • It’s (the world) divided up between rich and poor – North/South • Poverty • Inequality • Injustice • Human Rights • War • Environmental damage • Trade and Fair Trade esp. Coffee • Child Labour • Cultural Differences • Employment/migration Global Relationships • Unequal power relations (aid, trade, charity) e.g. ‘America or Ireland wouldn’t like to see Africa being the wealthiest country in the world because it’s [about] power’ • Ireland: aligned with powerful countries but not powerful itself (neutrality) ‘not really though’ ‘supposedly’. • Political change: little political will to upset the ‘balance of power’ e.g. ‘It’s about who has the most money and who has the most weapons I think nowadays, has the most power like’ Responding to Global Justice Issues • Many – perhaps most – do not necessarily make concrete connections between their own locality and the wider global context • More general sense of powerlessness as young people individually or collectively though some cited individual choices re consumption/environmental activism • Motivation to act problematic - perceptions of ‘global issues’ as ‘far away’ ‘People are in their own little world, that’s very far away and it happened somewhere else’ • Equally poor perception of ‘mainstream’ politics and charities Issues emerging • Formal Education significant e.g. Geog/CPSE, diversity in classrooms. Question of how ‘global’ is perceived & taught. • Very varied degree of knowledge and awareness, opinions and interest e.g. positive & negative about Ireland in relation to global issues- Ambivalence • Limited reference to youth work as a context to explore global issues (Scouts the exception) • Fieldwork highlighted the capacity* of young people to engage in discussion and debate of complex issues Youth Workers • More nuanced understanding of different representations of the world • Knowledge and information organised with a distinctive focus e.g. travel, migrants, emerging economies, own ‘development work’ • Conscious that their experience is a different perspective to ‘mainstream’ view e.g. impact of trade agreements on self sufficiency, stereotyped views Global Justice Issues • • • • Environment Minority control of resources Capitalism as a system Human Rights (China, Guantanamo, Child Slavery, Asylum Seekers) • Gender (prostitution, trafficking, general cultural issues) • Racism in Ireland ‘my sister was going to get a flat and she didn’t because ….’ Responding to Global Justice Issues A need to link global issues with the localised context of young people’s everyday lives How individuals can change their own behaviour and encourage those around them to do the same? Fair Traded products not a simple option because of expense Complexities of making the ‘right choices’ in consumption and other aspects of lifestyle e,g Coca Cola, donations Challenges to engaging with global justice issues • Cited lack of organisational supports/lack of knowledge of issues • Apprehension about getting into discussions with young people – or beginning more structured sessions with them – finding that they were not sufficiently ‘informed’ to handle questions arising • Structured programme on a given theme in the youth group is a sure way of losing young people’s interest – finding another way in … • ‘Justice’ a loaded term for some young people Opportunities • Examples of planned and purposeful interventions e.g. one world week, international food fair, recycling project * • In youth work context adults can learn with young people and indeed from them .. shift focus from individual to collective • Appropriate youth work approach might involve enabling the young people to put the entire project in social and global context Points to highlight • Talk of what could be done or what should be done rather than what is being done and what has been learned from that • Ambivalence - not just mixed views within the group but ‘mixed feelings’ on the part of individual participants • Need to interrogate key concepts & articulate the connection between them in youth work contexts e.g. youth work, global justice, development education, global youth work, power and agency Some Recommendations • Awareness raising within the youth work sector about the overlapping objectives of both global justice and youth work can be best pursued and achieved • Immediate opportunity to utilise Goal 5 (Connected & Respected) of the National Policy Framework for Children & Young People (2014) to develop an overarching strategy for a global justice dimension of youth work • Maximise young people’s and youth work participation in the implantation of the National Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development (2014) and Post 2015 Development agenda. • Develop specific continuous professional development opportunities and work to include specific reference to global justice/global youth work in any Irish professional youth work standards and on the curriculum of FE & HE institutions Dream for the Future A global justice dimension is embedded across youth work policy and practice. Work with young people in ways that enable them to make sense of their lives, examine the contexts within which their experience is shaped and an understanding of the global forces that shape those contexts, so that they take action in and on those contexts Global youth work is practiced by all, not just the passionate and committed few