Topic 2 Voices and Advice of Young People
The sharing of practice and ideas between practitioners has been hugely valuable, One of the best things about the EDURAD project has been our Expert Youth Advisory Group. Here is some of the guidance that they shared with us. We hope as educators and policymakers, you find it useful. Lots of their ideas, suggestions, and pedagogical strategies are woven through the text as well. So, remember what they say about what they’d like from their teachers, youth workers and wider policy spaces next time you are wondering what to do.
Advice for Young People for Educators
- If someone says an ‘ism’ (racism, sexism..) don’t ignore it. To do so makes young people think you don’t care, and it makes the rest of the group think it’s ok to say these things.
- If a young person makes a hateful comment in public, it needs to be responded to in public. This doesn’t mean you have to shut it down, but the rest of the group/class need to know that you understand the harm this does. You can ask them questions about why they said it, and what reactions they were hoping for. Use Socratic questioning.
- Look at your curriculum and what on it and not on it. Just because a classic text has offensive language, you don’t have to use it. That kind of language is hugely painful and hurtful, and for some white young people, they may think it’s acceptable.
- If you aren’t sure how names are pronounced, someone in the school or youth project can quietly ask the students before you all meet as a group and write them phonetically so that they are pronounced correctly. (See Denise Chaila for more on this.)
- Don’t get into the habit of, for example, calling young people African. These are Irish young people and imposing a single identity (without even knowing where someone is from) sends a message they are not fully Irish.
- It’s ok to say Black, Brown, White.. And don’t refer to students and their families as ‘non-nationals’.
- Do you only ask certain young people the question ‘Where are you from?’. You may have no idea whether young people in your class have French, Portuguese, English, American or Scottish parents because you don’t ask. So, either ask all students, or none.
- Get a more evolved idea of Irishness. It’s not a fixed idea. Understand what Irishness is today and it’s not about being White, Heterosexual, Cis and Catholic.
- Big gestures ‘celebrating diversity’ can make young people feel really singled out. Small gestures are often better; take care of the small things and the culture of the space will change
- Do simple things like ask everyone to say their preferred pronouns and use gender neutral language. It becomes normal and not a big deal.
- As a general rule, mind your language (!) [Ideas for what you might need to look out for are interwoven through this module].
- Make sure that young people get a chance to be heard and participate when rules and regulations are being made that affect their lives.
- Bring teachers and youth workers together more to learn about building relationships with young people.
- Young people will appreciate it if you are honest with them in advance and talk with them about how to address difficult issues together.
- Sometimes, you need to be the first person to ‘call something out’ (and call someone in). That will give others the confidence.
- The word ‘extremism’ is a bit taboo!
- Certain kinds of Irishness that seek purity and fixity can be extremist: “In Irish society, it is a very diverse country, but there is the idea – this is the Irish and anything that isn’t traditionally Irish is outside and it’s a private thing, a personal thing, and not the group’s problem. For a country that prides itself on its diversity, there is Irish culture and there is foreign culture, it’s either Irish or not and that is a pretty extreme ideology in comparison to other countries that are diverse as well as Ireland.”
- Ask yourself, are your questions making young people feel uncomfortable about not ‘being the norm’. If they are, then why ask them?
- When you are making sure someone is publicly responsible for something they have said publicly, they may not like it, but you can also follow up afterwards with them and see what is going on. Otherwise the perpetrator will learn nothing and the group will think it’s ok. Sometimes, things get uncomfortable and that’s ok. The person needs to know how uncomfortable others feel too. You don’t have to shout or be mean, though.
- Othering is impossible to fix. The only way to lessen its harm is to shift the centre to be more inclusive. For example, in Ireland, we need to stop only making people whose ancestors have been here for millennia Irish. The term Irish must include anyone who is born here. In short, the CENTRE needs to be more inclusive. People will feel a sense of belonging to wherever they are accepted.
- What is ‘on the table’ or ‘off the table’? Asking whether a human being deserves rights is always of the table.
- Conversations about disenfranchised demographics should only happen if they those groups are present in the discussion and if they are willing to partake.
- Being Defensive and Denial: Being in denial of oppression is in many ways a conscious act.
- If a person is in denial the only action that can be taken is to not give the person a chance to ignore reality. We need to stop acting like it is just because “they don’t know” and that is a sign that we need to baby them. If someone has chosen to oppress another person then we should acknowledge that it was a choice with consequences and it is right to hold them accountable.
- Don’t immediately react by shutting things down when they get controversial. Sometimes you will need to if it’s completely intolerant at least at that moment. If you are a teacher, explore with young people “But then why do you believe in that? And then do you not see this?”
- People need to get to explain their side. The most people talk, the better they are able to change their views or keep them. If you don’t know the opinion, then you can’t open up the conversation that might change it.
- In maths class if we don’t understand something, your teacher wants you to ask the question, even if you’re wrong, say it. You know you’ll get better and then next time hopefully you won’t get the answer wrong. But if you never do that with racism, sexism, or homophobia that will never change.
- Be consistent: if you organise together to talk about how to make things better for one minority group, do the same for other groups too.
- Even if everyone is afraid of talking about issues like racism, don’t let that get in the way. Don’t make it hush-hush. As with other minority groups, create a culture of being respectful and compassionate.
- It’s not good enough to say that we can’t talk about racism, or for parents to resist this because they are worried their children will realise they have been racist.
- Allies are important. It’s hard when you are from a minority group and you want to talk about something that you know some people might find offensive. You need allies with you to support you as you talk about these things.
- It’s so important to make a difference between hate speech and bullying. Not everything can be lumped under ‘bullying’ and it means racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, and so on are not taken seriously for what they are. If someone is racist, that can’t go down just as bullying.
- The Government needs to recognise this with Hate Speech Legislation.
- Think about Socratic Questioning: Sometimes, if you can argue enough, you can get down to core principles and core like teachings. Discussing something in school could go like this “OK, so racism is bad. Why is racism bad? Cos racism makes you feel it’s a certain type of way. Why is it bad? Like letting people feel a certain type of way? And so on until what is the final thing we can take away from the situation?”
- Young people need to have space to hold multiple heritages and identities. Don’t assume that you know what these are in advance of talking with all young people in the group.
- Help young people to understand online spaces and look at issues like fake news, disinformation, how algorithms work and so on.
