In a functioning, democratic society, everyone has a voice when important decisions are being made. But having your voice heard is hard work – it takes effort. Especially at a time when big corporations are alongside the state and influence what we do and think. And even more so, when you are under 18, a child of refugee parents, and you are not allowed to vote yet.
How can we let children and young people understand how democracy works, and what it means to be a citizen in the Netherlands? And how can maker education contribute to this learning experience? To answer these questions, Waag Futurelab is organising a Critical ChangeLab in Amsterdam in which identity and agency function as main point of departure. It is Waag’s mission to enable as many people as possible to design an open, honest and inclusive future, with the concept of agency at its core - and a fair and accessible democracy is essential to achieve this.
Context and participants
In the first Participatory Action Research (PAR) cycle, we worked with children from the so-called Dutch ‘Weekendschool’ (weekend school). This weekend school provides language education to children that come to the Netherlands as refugees. The group that participated in our Critical ChangeLab consisted of fifteen pupils in the age of 11, 12 and 13. Since the participants came from eleven different countries of origin and have been in the Netherlands for relatively short periods of time, agency is especially important. At a time of polarisation, learning democracy by participation is crucial and urgent. By viewing young refugee children as active citizens, it creates a space for their voices.
Maker education as approach for understanding democratic principles
Waag believes that in order to understand democracy, you have to experience it. Learning by doing. That’s why Waag emphasises learning by experiencing. Besides experiential learning, Waag argues that agency, ownership and active citizenship all start with actual making (with your hands!).
In this very first Critical ChangeLab we asked the participants to design a costume for the group. After creating a mood board that visualised their identity, they were given the challenging task of bringing together the different identities with everyone’s input. They had to create one costume that somehow represented their own group identity. The base for the costume was a blue overall and children had tools to completely customise the model, colours, and shape. They could sew, glue or iron all sorts of things on it. During this whole process there were many decisions to be made. The challenge was to do this is the most equal way, everyone had to have a say in it. This approach ensured that all voices were heard and valued.
No, no, no, no. Not everybody is equal. Nobody is equal. - Maryam (11)
To make the concept of democracy more tangible, we handed them a few key democratic principles: the right to vote (anonymous or not), to choose a representative, to persuade or give someone else the mandate to make a decision for them. All tools were meant to help them with the process of decision making.
Challenges, learnings & feedback
For these children, the creative (and messy) process intrinsic to maker education combined with experiential learning worked well because these children literally do not have a common language to have conversations or discussions. Communication happened through gestures, body language and by creating visuals of what needed to be done.
What does ‘most votes count’ mean for the minority? - Alp (12)
In order to create an actual learning experience, reflection is key. Because we are commonly used to reflecting in language, this made it very difficult to get a handle on the children’s learning process. Given the difficulties for the children to find a common language, facilitators were required to be alert and spot small democratic moments and respond to them immediately.
Making decisions yourself is easy. Making decisions together is hard. - Ansh (12)
Democracy is very difficult, even within a classroom. It requires a lot of effort to move past established role patterns and create a climate where every voice counts. Citizenship cannot be learned from a book. Citizenship involves a huge number of intertwined skills, knowledge and an open learning attitude.
Next steps
In the first PAR Cycle, the main focus was on understanding democracy by experiencing democracy. In addition, by giving them principles and using them, we let them experience what their own role can be in democracy. An interesting next step is that we will work with Dutch high school children (aged ± 16) in PAR Cycle 2. With them, we will have in depth-conversations about democracy in their daily lives and in the future.
Read more about this project on the Critical Change Labs project website.
