The case draws on the international, web-based educational project titled ‘Young Minds – exploring links between youth, culture and the use of alcohol’. In
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‘Young Minds’, students from Danish, the Czech Republic, Macedonian and Swedish ENHP schools explored links between youth, culture and alcohol consumption through cross-cultural collaboration and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Box 1 below summarises the main underpinning principles or criteria for the Young Minds project.
The participants in the project were primary and lower secondary school students in the age range 12 – 16. Approximately 100 students in four classes in the four countries mentioned above as well as their respective teachers were directly involved in the project. Students presented their investigation results, ideas and opinions relating to the area of alcohol and young people on the project’s website (Young Minds 2000-2001).
An important feature of the project was its presentation by student representatives from all four classes at the WHO Ministerial conference ‘Young People and Alcohol’ that took place in Stockholm. This presentation was construed as a special kind of student action contributing to the project’s main aims. The action-focus in the project was designed according the conceptualization
Box 1.Underpinning principles for ‘Young Minds’
• Schools’ projects are targeted towards action and change. Students’
visions and ideas play crucial roles with regard to which changes and actions have to be carried out. The IVAC (investigation-vision-action-change) approach (Jensen, 1997) is employed as the main framework for structuring the school projects.
• Students in the participating classes are actively involved in deciding about specific aspects within the area of alcohol with which they wish to work
• Teachers have the role of responsible facilitators with the tasks of inspiring, supporting and challenging the students
• The project emphasises the cross-cultural collaboration by using the benefits of involving four classes in four European countries working on the same overall issue at the same time
• The project explores possibilities of and barriers to integrating ICT within participatory and action-oriented health education
of action suggested by Jensen and Schnack (1994): delineating characteristics of an action in relation to other kinds of behaviour are its intentionality and directedness towards bringing about positive changes in regard to the problem in question. With their action at the conference ‘Young Minds’ students, supported by their teachers and the projects’ consultants participated actively in voicing young people’s opinions about alcohol consumption and problems related to it, with an aim to influencing the ideas and opinions of the conference participants as well as alcohol policies that concern young people.
The material used in this analysis forms part of a wider body of data, collected for the evaluation study researching the students’ work with the issue of alcohol as well as the participating teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the main aspects of the educational approach (Simovska and Jensen, 2003).
Data was generated through document and web content analysis as well as interviews with the teachers and students. In what follows I will discuss only the findings concerning the issue of student participation.
Participation in meaning
The analysis of the contents students presented on the Young Minds website showed that students worked with open concepts within the area of alcohol, using a plethora of enquiry methods that they chose independently and/or in collaboration with the teachers. Table 2 summarises the variety of investigation methods that students used to explore and discuss the issue of alcohol consumption, examples of content-focus in their inquiries and the participation structures observable in the web contents. The findings of the students’ investigations as well as their conclusions and reflections were also presented on the website.
The contents students presented on the website reflected the complex nature of the issues at hand as well as students’ own interests and lived experience. For example, they addressed negative, as well as positive effects of alcohol consumption; made links between the consumption of alcohol and traditions and customs in different cultures; presented national guidelines for moderate drinking issued in a number of countries in Europe; discussed social as well as individual causes for alcohol use and misuse. Evidently, in their work students considered the links between lifestyle, living conditions, culture and context. They also developed visions about solution strategies concerning alcohol-related problems, and, in some schools, took action in their schools to address some of the problems. Examples of actions documented on the website
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include: alcohol-free party at school; a debate about alcohol and young people between parents and students organized at school; change of the school policy concerning advertisements in school (a ban of using free drinks to advertise junior parties).
In addition, the students who participated in the conference in Stockholm interviewed a number of conference participants (policy makers and politicians) in an attempt to raise their awareness for the need to listen to the voices of young people and engage young people in dialogue and decision-making processes about issues that concern their lives. In the positive reactions and feedback they got from the conference participants the students could see the immediate impact they made on the conference process. This had quite an
Table 2.Investigation methods, content-focus and participation structures in exploring links between youth, culture and alcohol consumption
Investigation methods related to drinking in a historical perspective
• having fun and alcohol
• goods and bads about drinking
empowering and motivating effect. Students’ accounts in the interviews are a clear signal that they felt that their participation made a difference to the conference. Examples capturing the feelings of empowerment and ownership include:
They [conference participants] should tell if we made a difference, I would like to hear that. But I think we made them think that what we feel matters. (student A)
…I don’t know if they made a law or something like that, but we asked a lot of questions, important questions. Sometimes, the politicians tried to slip away, to lie, but they could not. (student C)
The students’ ideas presented on the website and their accounts in the interviews indicated that the aims and the outcomes of their participation were open and divergent, depending on the choices that students, together with their teachers made during the process. There were no predetermined contents in the alcohol area that the students had to learn, recall and employ. Rather, students were exploring the area in their own ways, supported by the teachers and using the broad possibilities of ICT and cross-cultural collaboration. The website reflected the fact that the focus of the participation was placed on critical reflection and negotiation of meanings related to the issue of alcohol consumption rather than on changing students’ behaviour with this regard. Furthermore, the action students took at the conference brought learning closer to ‘real life’ and so contributed to enhancement of students’ commitment, participation skills and authentic action experience. All these point to the genuine participation discourse in which student involvement aims primarily at their socialisation towards the democratic processes of making decisions together with others, acting to reach shared goals, creating meanings together and developing social, emotional and personal competences in the process. Table 3 summarises the characteristics of student participation in the project by using the participation model discussed above.
The data from the case study showed that an important aspect of learning in the project was peer collaboration, both within the class and across the classes in the four countries. However, not all forms of peer cooperation were necessarily beneficial. It was only when students shared the logic of the task and when they focused on solution strategies for handling a problem that their
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participation in cooperative activities was mutually beneficial. Thus, consistent to the research within socio-cultural theory (Rogoff, 1995; 2001) the present case study demonstrated that intersubjectivity and collective thinking, supported by teachers’ guidance, allow for creating levels of meaning that transcend students’ individual efforts. When students are actively engaged in a creative process in which intersubjectivity is achieved, this leads to generating new insights, systems of meanings and new solutions. As Vygotsky points out (1987), intersubjectivity as a ground for communication encourages the extension of students’ understanding to new information and further activities. Students internalise, or, appropriatethe social and cultural tools of knowing as they use them in joint problem solving. Genuine participation has an embedded capacity to encourage processes of collective learning, which in turn is beneficial to the individual student as the individual’s initiative, commitment and critical thinking are fostered.
The Young Minds students used a number of ICT resources to present their class work and teamwork, and got feedback from students in the other classes.
Through the feedback, the young people provided one another with guidance, challenge and inspiration. Furthermore, at the conference students acted in Table 3.Characteristics of student participation in Young Minds
Characteristics of participation
Student participation was focusedon
The expected outcomes concerned
Students’ actions targeted
Examples
inquiry in the area of alcohol consumption, creation of shared frames of reference, development of common understandings and visions across classes
students’ enhanced awareness in relation to alcohol-related problems, critical thinking, creative articulation of ideas and planning for action together with others
the everyday school life, alcohol policies and decision-making mechanisms on a whole school level, the awareness of parents and of policy-makers about young people’s voices
cross-cultural teams, planning and preparing their actions together. Additionally, throughout the project students used the online forum to discuss, confront and share their opinions and ideas related to the project topic with young people from different countries within the ENHPS. All these project activities contributed to creating a dynamic collective zone(s) of proximal development which was more inclusive, motivating and in advance of the developmental level of any individual student. Contrary to the traditional understanding that students need to be motivated in order to learn it seems that this project supported Vygotsky’s (1987) claim that children need to learn in meaningful ways in order to be motivated.
Further, the online learning environment as created for the project, combined with the participatory and action-oriented teaching approach, demonstrated to have the potential to challenge traditional power relations in the classroom. The interplay among cross-cultural collaboration, action-taking and participation in an online learning environment contributed to students’
increased sense of self-determination and control over their activities and so their learning. ICT provided structures that encouraged the students’ freedom to learn in their own ways and pace, as well as to create and communicate meaning in more flexible, inclusive and democratic ways. The participation in the community of learners as defined in this project allowed for authentic and intentional learning where common understanding was created in a shared process of goal setting, decision-making, planning and taking action. To use the expression of Rogoff, it was a ‘minds-on’, purposeful learning through reflective participation in socially structured practices (Rogoff et al, 2001).
The students’ individual choices, which they made over the course of the project, were not independent of each other; rather, they constituted each other and depended on the possibilities that existed at the level of the group or the community of learners. The community of learners was heterogeneous with regard to competence, skills and knowledge. This created a flexible, dynamic structure of learning ‘zone’ consisting of more as well as less experienced peers that helped and complemented each other’s learning. Thus, learning in the zone of proximal development as described in this project was facilitated by mutual or peer relations, as well as by the asymmetric relations with teachers as more experienced partners in the educational dialogue.
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