Tales of the intimate: Exploring young people's accounts of sexual practice

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University.My research investigates young people's stories of sexual practice. I focus on the questions: How do young people construct their sexual practices and their use of `safer' sex and, in particular, how important are `conventional' notions of gender and heterosexuality in these constructions? To answer these questions I collected and transcribed in-depth interviews from 25 young people aged between 16 and 19 from schools and youth groups in a London borough. Using a discourse analytic approach (Edley and Wetherell 1997) I draw my analysis directly from the participants' talk and how they construct a sexual story rather than framing the analysis through assumptions of gender inequality. Previous feminist literature, and in particular that of Holland et al. (1998), suggests that sexual experiences are constructed predominantly through a `traditional' framework of gender. In this literature masculinity is said to be dominant in the heterosexual relationship, whereas femininity is seen as collaborative and submissive. In my thesis I question whether young people construct their intimate experiences through such `conventional' gendered patterns of behaviour and heteronormative values. I suggest an alternative analysis of young people's sex talk through focusing on discursive scripts emerging from the data in three areas: diversity, time/life plan, and trust. I argue that these scripts, for example the time and life plan scripts, are important features of young people's talk about sexual practices and are used as justifications for the use or non-use of 'safer' sex. The participants' talk that I call the 'children-older-with-a-platform' life plan script legitimises the use of condoms and/or pill as a method of protecting their plan. The `children-now' script is a justification for the non-use of 'safer' sex. My research concludes that there are diverse stories of intimate experiences told in certain contexts by young people that have not previously been noted by researchers.Economic and Social Research Counci

The relationship between civic attitudes and voting intention : an analysis of vocational upper secondary schools in England and Singapore

From 2009 to 2011, a team from the Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies carried out a mixedmethods study of young people in England and Singapore. With regard to civic attitudes, the study showed that there was a greater sense of political self-efficacy and collective (school) efficacy in Singapore than in England. In addition, the group in Singapore scored higher on future voting relative to the group in England. Further, while both political self-efficacy and collective (school) efficacy were correlated with future voting in England, only the latter was correlated in the case of Singapore. For some, the results may seem counter-intuitive. The article reflects on these results, particularly those relating to democratic outcomes

2023 REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE REFERENCE FRAMEWORK OF COMPETENCES FOR DEMOCRATIC CULTURE (RFCDC)

This report presents the main findings from the first review of the implementation of the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC). The review process took place between March – December 2023.The main aim of this study was to understand the extent to which the RFCDC has been used in formal education systems of Member States since 2016, including its influence on policies and practices. Moreover, this review was intended as an opportunity for policy learning among Member States. The results have supported the preparation of the Council of Europe Education Strategy 2024-2030 and were fed into the 26th session of the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education of the Council of Europe on 28-29 September 2023. Chapter 1 of the report offers an overview of the conceptual definitions guiding the study and the research design used. Chapter 2 analyses the main findings in the implementation of the RFCDC in the following areas: 1) education policy development; 2) education system; 3) school; 4) addressing current and emerging issues, such violence in schools, violent extremism and radicalisation; climate change; media and informational literacy; ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI); and education in times of crisis; and 5) main opportunities and challenges related to the integration of the RFCDC in education systems. The concluding chapter (chapter 3) presents policy pointers for improvement with regards to the implementation of the RFCDC in key areas of action, and how to support further Member States in undertaking this task.The findings presented below were drawn from the analysis of evidence collected through:• A literature and document review conducted in English and French.• 2 online surveys: one for the Education Policy Advisors Network (EPAN) members (25 responses received), and one for education stakeholders across levels and sectors of education (42 responses received).• Peer learning workshops with the EPAN Network held in May 2023.• Online focus groups (15 participants in 5 online focus groups).• Individual interviews with EPAN Network members (5)  <br/

Retrieving expert opinion on weights for the Active Citizenship Composite Indicator

On February 2007, a detailed survey was conducted with 27 leading experts on Active Citizenship to obtain individual qualitative and quantitative estimates about the importance of the dimensions encompassed in the Active Citizenship Composite Indicators, Hoskins et al. 2006. The questionnaire was designed following the Budget Allocation Scheme and the results of the survey reported here were helpful in computing new weights, as the basis of a new version of the Active Citizenship Composite Indicator based on the elicitation of the expert knowledge. Moreover, results display a much richer diversity of opinion than is apparent in qualitative consensus summaries, such as those of the Active Citizenship Research Network. The new version of the Active Citizenship Composite Indicator provide a new ranking of countries that is not far from the original, confirming the robustness of the ACCI proved in Hoskins et al. 2006.JRC.DG.G.9-Econometrics and applied statistic

Learning to Learn and Civic Competences: Different Currencies or Two Sides of the Same Coin?

In the context of the European Union Framework of Key Competences and the need to develop indicators for European Union member states to measure progress made towards the 'knowledge economy' and 'greater social cohesion' both the competences learning to learn and civic competence have been identified as important, and research projects developed. However, what has yet to be discussed are the links and the overlaps between these two competences. Based on the development of research projects on these two fields, this paper will compare the two sets of competencies. It will describe how the values and dispositions that motivate and inform civic competence and learning to learn are related to each other, both empirically and theoretically. Both these competences are tools for empowering the individual and giving them the motivation, autonomy and responsibility to control their own lives beyond the social circumstances in which they find themselves. In the case of civic competence; the ability to be able to participate in society and voice their concerns, ensure their rights and the rights of others. In the case of learning to learn to be able to participate in work and everyday life by being empowered to learn and update the constantly changing competences required to successfully manage your life plans. The development and measurement of both these competences invoke and require values which promote democracy and human rights.JRC.G.9-Econometrics and statistical support to antifrau

Negotiating uncertain economic times:Youth employment strategies in England

Higher education is commonly understood as the gateway to better, higher-paying jobs. This article draws on longitudinal survey and interview data to explore how different groups of young people, those who left school at 18 and those graduating from higher education, negotiated pathways into employment or otherwise during the recent economic recessionary climate in England. While a mix of employment and unemployment featured in both groups, with temporary and unstable contracts more common than skilled and secure jobs, our evidence reveals that those with degrees were less likely to be in work at the ages of 22 to 23 than those who left school to enter employment at 18. In some contradistinction to popular discourses on the employability benefits of higher education therefore, entering paid work at 18 was a more effective strategy for being in employment five years later than proceeding into higher education

How Effective is Youth Volunteering as an Employment Strategy? A Mixed Methods Study of England

Volunteering is routinely advocated in British policy as a key mechanism for young people to gain employment, but with little evidence of its viability as a strategy. Indeed, the limited research in this area suggests the link is weak and that access to good quality volunteering is differentiated along class lines. This article draws on a mixed methods approach, using survey data from the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Survey and qualitative interviews, to analyse the relationship between youth volunteering and employment. It finds that volunteering is not unequivocally beneficial for employment, particularly if it does not offer career-related experience or is imposed rather than self-initiated. It can even have a negative effect on employment. Furthermore, social class mediates access to volunteering opportunities most likely to convert into employment. We conclude there is little evidence to support policy assumptions that, in the short term, volunteering has a positive relationship to paid employment

Does Formal Education Have an Impact on Active Citizenship Behaviour?

In the European context Active citizenship has been promoted within the education and training Lisbon Strategy as a tool to support the continuation of democracy, human rights and greater social inclusion. In this article we analyse the impact of education on Active Citizenship and contribute to the existing debates relating to education levels and participation. Our results uniformly suggest that there is a significant democratic return associated with formal education. Indeed, using a large sample of individuals from the 2006/2007 European Social Survey, we find that education is positively and significantly correlated with Active Citizenship behaviour. Tertiary education has by far the biggest impact and this impact is the strongest for the domain of Protest. The findings are robust to the introduction of a large set of control variables and to alternative measures of educational attainment.JRC.DG.G.9-Econometrics and applied statistic

Measuring Youth Civic Competence across Europe in 1999 & 2009

Civic competence is seen not only as a tool for empowering the individual to control their own lives beyond the existing social circumstances but can also help to create social capital and thereafter to underpin democracy and social and economic development. The European Commission has listed civic competence as one of the key competences to be developed under the EU Lifelong Learning strategy. This report describes the development of a measurement model along four dimensions of civic competence using the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) to monitor the levels of youth citizenship (young people aged about 14) across Europe. The model combines the traditions in Europe of liberal, civic republican and critical/cosmopolitan concepts of citizenship. Results suggest that Social justice values and Citizenship knowledge and skills of students are facilitated within the Nordic system that combines a stable democracy and economic prosperity with democratically-based education systems in which teachers prioritise the promotion of autonomous critical thinking in citizenship education. In contrast, medium term democracies with civic republican tradition, such as Italy and Greece gain more positive results on Citizenship Values and Participatory attitudes. This is also the case for some recent former communist countries that retain ethnic notions of citizenship. Yet, what emerges from this study is that the Nordic teachers’ priority on developing critical and autonomous citizens may not be sufficient to enhance participatory attitudes or concepts of a good citizen, which may be better supported by the Italian teachers’ priority on civic responsibility.JRC.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic