Youth Policies, Politics of Difference and Youth Life Contexts

Code:

DE212

Acronym:

PDCT

Instance: 2011/2012 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Education Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	Master Degree in Educational Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MCED	14	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	6	49	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

1. Introduction
Education, especially formal education, is framed by the state, the economy and civil society. It envisages the education of citizens, workers and individuals and groups. Education is organised around this triple mandate and in the beginning of its historical development, the differences (based on culture, gender, age, life styles, etc.) did not appear at the core of the political concern. In the contemporary contexts, deeply marked by globalisation, the transition of sociocultural paradigms and by enhanced individualisation, the indifference before differences has been challenged tem by educational contexts. The ‘youth’ in these contexts appears simultaneously as a social and sociological problematic. The development of ‘disorganised capitalism’ and the growing centrality of the identity of groups, individuals and of the so called ‘new social movements’, in the context f globalisation, have significant implications on the notions, concepts and in the actual and individual living of youths in the framework of what might be called ‘new forms of citizenship’. This curricular unit aims at analyzing the diverse dimensions that the problematic of youth is confronted with in the present educational, social and political contexts.

2. Objectives of the curricular unit
- To identify the modern matrix of the disourses in education and the challenges that emergent sociocultural paradigms present to it.
- To relate the mandates addressed to education to the present developments of policies in the social field of education.
-To characterize the rising forms of citizenship among youths on the basis of identity and social reflexivity.
- To analyse the ‘sites’ of inclusion/exclusion (body, work, citizenship, identity and territory) in their interaction with education in the Framework of the problematic of youth.
- To discuss the need to question pre-constructed and naturalised realities
- To problematise the concept of youth, emphasising the devices of its social construction: social, scientific, cultural and political.

3. Competences and learning-outcomes
- Negotiation between the demands derived from the differences of individuals and groups and the demands and norms of the educational policies, local and national, in the field of education.
- Analysis of the modes and proposals of interventions with youths.
- Performing advising and consultancy functions in the design of projects and strategic plans in the field of education/training .
- To be part of teams that conceive and manage projects in the Framework of education/training.

Program

1.
1.1. The ‘invention’ of youth:
- a “reality which has been noticed”
- The youth as object and cause of “suffering”
1.2. The scientific construction of youth:
- The ‘object’ of psychological discourses
- The ‘object’ of sociological discourses
- Culture and youth: the fragmentation of the concept and its re-conceptualisations

1.3. The construction of youth policies: questioning specific proposals

2. Modernity, education and school: the triple mandate addressed to education
a. The youth as a social and sociological problematic
b. Training for work-place
c. Educating citizens

The ‘sites’ where education and ‘diferences’ confront the body;
 work;
 citizenship;
 identity;
 territory

2.2. Models to conceptualise/legitimise differences and education
2.3. The relational model versus inter/multicultural: criticizing the critic

3. Contexts of youths’ life

3.1.Digital platforms and citizenship:
- Leisure and multi-literacy spaces
- The self-image, the social expression of the ‘singularity’
3.2. The present: citizenships in the spaces of formal education
- The image beyond the text
- The technology and the teacher

3.3. The future: citizenship in the work-place
- The democratisation of the geniality: the cooperative work
- Generational changes: from the do «Dutiful citizen» to the «Actualizing Citizen»

Mandatory literature

GEE, James Paul; Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of , New York: Routledge, 2004
MAGALHÃES, António M. E, STOER, Stephen R. ; A Escola para Todos e a Excelência Académica, Profedições, 2002. ISBN: 972-8562-05-5
PAIS, José Machado e CABRAL, Manuel Villaverde (orgs.); Condutas de Risco, Práticas Culturais e Atitudes Perante o Corpo: Inquérito aos Jovens Portugueses, Oeiras: Celta Editora, 2004
SAWYER, Keith ; Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration, New York: Basic Books, 2007
STOER, Stephen R. e MAGALHÃES, António M. ; A Diferença Somos Nós – a gestão da mudança social e as políticas educativas e sociais, Afrontamento, 2005
STOER, Stephen R., MAGALHÃES, António M. e RODRIGUES, David; Os Lugares da Exclusão Social, Cortez Editores, 2004

Teaching methods and learning activities

Presentations by the teacher, debate, presentations by the sudents. Individual and team work.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	26,00
Team work	Participação presencial	14,00
Individual and group turorial	Participação presencial	15,00
Analysis of texts	Trabalho laboratorial	35,00
Debate	Participação presencial	10,00
Writing short texts	Teste	12,00
Wrinting a paper	Trabalho escrito	50,00
	Total:	-	0,00

Eligibility for exams

The students must attend at least 75% of the sessions.

Calculation formula of final grade

i. Participation in the tasks distributed in each session
ii. Elaboration of a scheme to develop a scientific paper
iii. Writing a 3000 paper (references included) with the following features:

 Identification of a problematic (theoretical introduction/ literature review)
 Identification and justification of a methodology for policy analysis
 analysis of a policy or a corpus of policy texts
 discussion of the results and conclusion
 references

The final mark of the curricular unit is expressed in a 0-20 scale. The implication of the students in the tasks i. and ii. will be evaluated with a maximum of 25% of the 0-20 scale. The paper referred to in iii. will be evaluated with a maximum of 75% of the 0-20 scale.
The final mark is the result of the sum of the two components of the process [(i+ii) + iii] = final mark). The tasks i. and ii. without the final paper will not be evaluated. In this situation, students can use the extra assessment forms.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

The students legally authorised to not attending the sessions will deliver, besides the paper referred to above, two reports on the basic bibliography (in accordance with the professor).

Classification improvement

Those students whishing to improve their evaluation or those who could not meet the regular procedures can (re)write the paper or be submitted to an oral examination about it.