Non-formal education for youth-led change

Description

This AHRC Follow-on-Funding project sought to develop new pathways to impact by directly shaping the development of new and future Non-Formal Education (NFE) programmes, working in particular with the British Council and their Youth Connect programmes. Ultimately, this project aimed to enhance understanding of the importance of different forms of learning for youth empowerment, and in the long term, sought to contribute to creating effective spaces for the expression of youth voice and youth-led social change.

NFE for youth-led change incorporated insights and knowledge gained from the AHRC-funded project 'Changing the Story' (CTS) into a fresh set of NFE programmes being developed by the British Council. CTS ran 30 projects, in 12 conflict-affected contexts, with the aim of evaluating present and informing future practice of civil society organisations working with young people in these settings to build strong institutions that could support communities to deliver sustained social justice. The project demonstrated the role that NFE can play in promoting transrational and affective learning, which takes into consideration the emotional, the embodied and the affective. This opened the potential to politically empower young people to contribute to societal change and peacebuilding.

Aims

Non-formal education for youth-led change aimed to build on the research findings from CTS, by creatively and systematically engaging with new projects and audiences. It sought to promote stakeholder engagement in educating youth by collaborating with researchers, colleagues from the British Council, and partner organizations to enhance educational programming for new NFE initiatives led by the British Council. This project aimed to establish an evidence base regarding the role of NFE in contributing to youth-led social change. Furthermore, the project aims to impact programming and policy through knowledge exchange workshops and feasibility studies that examine the potential of diverse pedagogical approaches in non-formal education in contributing to civil society building and promoting youth-led social change.

Outline of project

1. A knowledge exchange workshop was held in March 2024 which bought together 44 participants from 17 different countries, including academics, British Council staff and implementing partners to explore the transformative potential of NFE in fostering youth-led change
2. Feasibility studies were conducted in Bangladesh and Ethiopia to examine British Council NFE programmes. Young programme participants, programme teams and programme facilitators were involved through qualitative to understand how the programmes contributed to youth-led social change, and challenges that arose in the projects.
3. The British Council funded commensurate research in Myanmar to map NFE initiatives across the country.
4. The ‘Non-formal education for youth-led change’ report was developed (avaialble at the bottom of this page), brining together the findings from across the projects
5. Dissemination events included a presentation to the British Council’s Education Community of Practice; a conference in Bangladesh with participants including practitioners, policy makers, young people and academics; and an online, participatory final event.

Impact

• Programmatic - integrating the original project’s research findings into the development of new programmes with young people;
• Community - creating spaces and opportunities for youth-centred approaches to civil society building, and youth-led change for socially just societies;
• Organisational - integrating understandings of the different forms of learning enabled by NFE into future British Council programmes; and
• Policy - furthering the evidence base for the role of NFE in peacebuilding and engaging with policymakers at the local, national and regional level.

Publications and outputs

Non-Formal Education for Youth-Led Change – Final Report

Non-Formal Education for Youth-Led Change - Bangladesh Country Report