Title:
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The experience of young informal civic educators in Palestine and Northern Ireland : a case study of public/popular achievement
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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.
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