In the past few decades there has been growing scholarship about the nature and approaches of young peoples' engagements with and participation in political and social issues at the local, national and global levels. Research has provided evidence that young people tend to become interested in politics if the issues matter to them and they are drawn into a process of active engagement to address them. Alongside formal citizenship education provided mainly through schools, NGO led programmes are increasingly being introduced to engage young people in these, This study looks into one such model of youth civic engagement practice implemented in Northern Ireland and Palestine, two politically contested and divided societies. It investigates the model as pedagogical practice whether it qualifies as informal civic education and consequently acquire a better understanding of young adult (coach) as informal educator. The findings demonstrated that informal civic education offers a free and safe space for young citizens to lead determined, democratic, inclusive and civic action and embody the possibility of hope to transform realities and conditions in politically contested societies. The research has shown that the educative process provided opportunities for positive change to take place at the individual and group levels. The worker's proposed occupational title of Young Il'\formal Civic Educator for coaches engaged in this particular practice in Northern Ireland and Palestine, is put forth and described alongside 'family of resemblances' compared to other similar' professions. At an interpretative level the study has an added layer of complexity of the politically contested nature of the societies whose influence on practice and worker is also examined. This thesis suggests that the informal civic education approach, and the young informal civic educator could play a crucial role in catalysing and sustaining democratic spaces and processes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:675946 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Al-Bakri, Tareq Zulkifle |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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