82057 - Theory and Methods for Youth Empowerment

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will know the main methods of interventions with groups of adolescents and young people; - will be able to choose and evaluate the applicability of the different methodologies and techniques of intervention; - will be able to develop and evaluate intervention projects to promote young people's empowerment. The course will promote the acquisition of various assessment and intervention methods with young people.

Course contents

The course will take place in the II semester (from end of February to May 2019) and is addressed to students of the I year of the Master Programme. Classes will take place at the Cesena branch of the Department of Psychology.

The aim of the course is to provide theoretical and methodological instruments for working, as psychologists members of interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams, with groups of adolescents and young people, within community contexts, and to develop and assess interventions aimed to promote empowerment and psychosocial well being. The course incorporates contents developed within the Erasmus+ programme “ASSETSCOM” (2016-2018).

To attend the course it is necessary to have basic knowledge on Community psychology, psychology of groups and psychology of adolescence, to be assessed during the first lectures.

Specific themes:

a) theoretical models of “assets-based” interventions with youth, aimed to enhance empowerment and psychosocial well being, and prevent risk and deviance;

b) needs analysis, development and evaluation of interventions aimed to enhance young people empowerment and psychosocial well being. Challenges, resources, best practices.

c) methodologies and techniques used to enhance young people empowerment and psychosocial well being.

The programme includes two modules, dealing with the following topics:

Il programma si articola in due moduli, nei quali saranno affrontati i seguenti contenuti.

Module 2 (40 hr.) (Elvira Cicognani)

Assets-based approaches for community interventions aimed at risk prevention and promotion of empowerment and psychosocial well being among youth.

Participatory approaches in planning and evaluating assets-based interventions for youth: analysis of the context and of needs, analysis of networks and partnerships, professional identities; evaluation of the quality of processes and outcomes of interventions.

Module 1 (20 hr.) (Gabriele Prati)

The module focuses on youth empowerment, from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Different examples of contexts and services will be presented as case studies of empowerment promotion for youth. The module will also address the evaluation of participatory action research with youth.

Readings/Bibliography

 

Module 1

Xavier Úcar Martínez, Manel Jiménez-Morales, Pere Soler Masó & Jaume Trilla Bernet (2017) Exploring the conceptualization and research of empowerment in the field of youth, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 22:4, 405-418, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2016.1209120

Cicognani, E., Albanesi C. (2013). Giovani fuori dal comune? Metodologie e strumenti per la promozione della cittadinanza attiva nei giovani. ARAS: Fano.

Mazzoni D., Cicognani E., Cifatte C.,Albanesi C., Zani B., Floresta L. (2018). Italian Young People Through the Lens of Youth Policies. Socialni Studia, 2, 75-96.

Module 2

Materials and references will be available on the web or will be provided in class.

Blue paper. Intervention in schools (downloadable from www.catcheyou.eu )

•Cicognani, Vecchiettini, Tinelli (in press) An intervention to promote citizenship competences in schools (ECPA proceedings) (provided in class)

•Boyd, N., & Nowell, B. (2017). Testing a theory of sense of community and community responsibility in organizations: An empirical assessment of predictive capacity on employee wellbeing and organizational citizenship. Journal of Community Psychology, 45, 210–229.

•Piano pluriennale per l’adolescenza 2018-2020 (online from tje website of Regione ER)

•Vanni F. (2018). Come out. Intercettare, orientare ed includere adolescenti difficili nel processo di cura (online from website Regione ER)

•Mller, McIntyre, McKenna (2018). Collaborative design of Open Educational Practices: An Assets based approach. Open Praxis https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.2.833

Further materials on the project ASSETSCOM will be provided in class.

 

Further readings:

Banaji, S. and Buckingham, D. (2010) Young people, the Internet, and civic participation: an overview of key findings from the CivicWeb Project. International journal of learning and media, 2 (1). pp. 15-24. ISSN 1943-6068. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/29543

Brewster, A. B., Pisani, P., Ramseyer, M., & Wise, J. (2016). Building a university-community partnership to promote high school graduation and beyond: An innovative undergraduate team approach. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 8(1), 44-58.

Evans S. (2007) Youth Sense of community: voice and power in community context, Journal of Community Psychology, 35, No. 6, 693–709.

Harris, A., Wyn, J. & Younes, S. (2010). Beyond apathetic or activist youth: ‘Ordinary' young people and contemporary forms of participation, Young, 18, 1, 9-32.

Mazzoni D. & Cicognani E. (2009), Partecipazione sociale e benessere in adolescenza. Una rassegna della letteratura, Psicologia Scolastica, 2.

Morsillo J., Prilleltensky I. (2007) Social Action with youth: interventions, evaluation and psychopolitical validity, Journal of Community Psychology, 35, No. 6, 725–740

Tsekoura, M. (2016). Spaces for Youth Participation and Youth Empowerment Case Studies from the UK and Greece. Young, 1103308815618505.

Yanar, Z. M., Fazli, M., Rahman, J., & Farthing, R. (2016). Research Ethics Committees and Participatory Action Research with Young People The Politics of Voice. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 1556264616650114.

Zeldin S., Petrokubi, MacNeil C. (2008) Youth-Adult Partnerships in Decision Making: Disseminating and Implementing an Innovative Idea into Established Organizations and Communities, American Journal of Community Psychology,41, 262–277.

Teaching methods

Lectures

Group discussions

Exercises on methods and techniques presented in class.

Use of online resources (Moodle platform)

Assessment methods

The final exam aims to evaluate the following didactic objectives:

- to know the main theoretical models on which assets-based interventions for promoting for promoting youth empowerment and psychosocial well being are based;

- to know the main methodologies of intervention with groups of adolescents and young people ;

- to be able to develop and evaluate intervention projects for groups of young people based on the knowledge acquired.

The exam for students attending classes (at least 70% of attendance) includes:

1)elaboration of a project work (individually or in pair, legth at least 20-30 pages, double spaced) focused on the case study and evaluation of a project or a service for youths. The project or service to be analyzed, and the methodology and instruments adopted, will be agreed with the teachers during an ad hoc meeting around mid March. The students will take contacts with the youth services, to collect documentary material, to conduct interviews and administer questionnaires to youth workers and young people; the data collected will be analyzed and the results, together with personal reflections by the students, will be included in the final report.

2)discussion of the project work and of the topics discussed in class, which will be incorporated in the project work. Assessment will focus on the students' capacities to analyse critically the context and participants' needs based on the theoretical and methodological inputs provided in class and in the suggested readings, the capacity to describe in a clear and complete way the theoretical background, the methods and results, quality of interpretation of findings, of reflections and proposals of improvement, the compliance with the formal norms and style of writing (e.g. APA norms). The final grade will be based on the completeness of the different criteria of evaluation above mentioned. Honours will be provided to the reports that will satisfy all the criteria, and for which the discussion in the oral exam will be fully satisfactory. 

The exam for students not attending classes regularly will include and oral discussion (approximately 6-8 questions) on the following topics:

1)compulsory readings

2)three readings from the "Further readings" list

The oral exam for students not attending classes regularly will allow to evaluate their level of knowledge and understanding of readings and their capacity to use them for project and intervention preparation

Project work will allow to evaluate to what extent students are able to apply the acquired knowledge in their case study and to use them to redesign intervention and services targeting young people

Office hours

See the website of Elvira Cicognani

See the website of Gabriele Prati