Conference Presentations (Abstracts, Posters) by Olga Glumac
Primary schools are the first window to a wider society. Learning through and for citizenship pra... more Primary schools are the first window to a wider society. Learning through and for citizenship practice, informal education may be about strategic preparation of each youngster/student for one's lifelong learning and the process of self-empowerment which will enable and encourage individual “learning to be, learning to act and learning to learn on its own and in collaboration with others” (Delors, 1998). Active learning is interdependent with active citizenship, encouraged by active participation, self-empowerment process and practice of power of each youngster that is engaged in primary education. Thus,as citizenship, learning can also be perceived as a desired learning outcome (a product) and as a conducted practice (a process). This paper aims to answer how can citizenship in the school context be stimulated by increasing youngsters'ability to co-create learning. Codesign in citizenship is a term formed to recognise and encourage the expansion of civic participation through co-creation processes that create conditions for collaboration and learning environments to occur, not neglecting the responsibility of a codesigner as the facilitator. It reinforces the idea that (co)design is a political practice and of interest for every citizen that is eager to use it as a democratic tool.To understand how the learning processes can be organised by application of the co-creation process, it was more than relevant to understand not only the nature of learning but also an individual’s conditions to construct a mindset in which one could observe oneself as the active learner. The outcomes arrived from research through codesign have contributed to shaping the framework. The "Learning framework in active citizenship: active learner as an active citizen” (Glumac, 2017) which can be applied when co-creating educational activities with, for and by youth — recognised in their role as experts of their own experiences.
This PhD research project tackles youngsters’ role as citizens, by recognising them as experts of... more This PhD research project tackles youngsters’ role as citizens, by recognising them as experts of their own life experiences, capable of giving unique contributions and views on addressing certain issues related to their local and learning needs. The youngsters engaged in this process belong to the local community of Miragaia in Porto, coming from an elementary school with an age bracket between 12 and 16 years old.
Through a participatory action approach, the aim is to encourage youngsters’ self-empowerment through codesign practices. This is established by co-sharing and co-deciding conditions for the learning environment, co-creating the learning tools and discussing the learning process, through which young people can reflect upon their identities as learners within the school context and life-long trajectories.
Since schools are the first window and practice of belonging to a wider society, there is a certain parallel drawn between active learning and active citizenship having in mind that students have the right and the duty in learning to learn by actively engaging in a democratic process within the school life and its local communities.
The researcher reflects upon school’s constraints and conditions to learn by deconstructing the possibilities for youngsters’ meaningful participation inside and outside of the classroom, endeavouring the pluralistic approach to a more participatory education.
In 2014, a long-term project in Miragaia school has been initiated as a case study of codesigning participatory practices with, for and by youth. In the first stage "warmUP", an ethnographic and participatory observation was conducted through voluntary weekly sessions that tackled the wellbeing of youth in the school context, their motivational drivers and awareness towards learning and participating in loco. The gathered results demonstrated the intergenerational gap in communication and understanding of certain terminology related to citizenship topic.
In the second phase, "buildUP", students continued participation in the weekly sessions in which they were invited to take ownership and co-manage implementation of initiatives of their own interest, such as the Christmas party and the tournament in football. After the winter break, Miragaia students created a community of practice with design students from the Árvore school located in the same area. Together they co-created a learning tool - visual dictionary "Ilustracionário, à minha maneira 1.0" - by reflecting upon their own levels of understanding of 23 concepts that associate with the topics of youth policy and civic participation and representing them visually through illustrations.
"play" is the last phase which was implemented in the classroom and the students were invited to reflect upon their motivation to learn, learning practice and their competencies of co-creating learning tools that can be used inside/outside of the classrooms.
The principles of codesigning learning processes are based on individual needs and nonhierarchical, voluntary, learner-centred, collaborative, transparent, experiential, experimental and flexible approaches.
The data gathered through weekly sessions in the last three academic years is analysed and contributes to shaping a learning framework in active citizenship, as a recommendation of applying to codesign in facilitating learning with, for and by youth.
Keywords: youngsters, codesign, citizenship, learning, framework
This was the PhD project presentation at the event organised by the entity that supported PhD res... more This was the PhD project presentation at the event organised by the entity that supported PhD research — Foundation for Science and Technology, in a collaboration with Ciência Viva - National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture.
The Global Youth Wellbeing Index (Goldin 2014) outlines that youngsters are about to develop thei... more The Global Youth Wellbeing Index (Goldin 2014) outlines that youngsters are about to develop their voices independently from their families and their community, when in transition from childhood to adulthood. Today young people are faced with many challenges that influence their wellbeing (self-esteem, self-development). More than 2.9 billion of people in the world are under the age of 25. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate their voices in a discourse of how to design strategies of global development. To make them “feel that they are a genuine part of the process, young people must have their needs specifically acknowledged,” (“Development Progress” 2015). Education plays a critical role in youth wellbeing and has an impact on employment, health and civic participation (Goldin 2014). School is a very important context for learning and experiencing citizenship and it should provide any youngster with learning and practice of different dimensions of transversal Citizenship Education (Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science 2012). This paper describes and critically shows an ongoing design action research located in Porto (Portugal) that investigates how design supports the empowerment in meaningful participation of Portuguese youngsters (age 12-15). Design is perceived as a means for creating new methods and methodologies that could be applied in inclusive learning within the existing educational public system. Creating situations where young people with different backgrounds can come and share designing and co-ownership experience allows stimulation of their initiatives and “learning by doing” (Kolb 1984). Youngsters in Porto are currently learning how to pioneer the co-development of creative social initiatives.
Papers by Olga Glumac
Primary schools are the first window to a wider society. Learning through and for citizenship pra... more Primary schools are the first window to a wider society. Learning through and for citizenship practice, informal education may be about strategic preparation of each youngster/student for one's lifelong learning and the process of self-empowerment which will enable and encourage individual “learning to be, learning to act and learning to learn on its own and in collaboration with others” (Delors, 1998). Active learning is interdependent with active citizenship, encouraged by active participation, self-empowerment process and practice of power of each youngster that is engaged in primary education. Thus,as citizenship, learning can also be perceived as a desired learning outcome (a product) and as a conducted practice (a process). This paper aims to answer how can citizenship in the school context be stimulated by increasing youngsters'ability to co-create learning. Codesign in citizenship is a term formed to recognise and encourage the expansion of civic participation through co-creation processes that create conditions for collaboration and learning environments to occur, not neglecting the responsibility of a codesigner as the facilitator. It reinforces the idea that (co)design is a political practice and of interest for every citizen that is eager to use it as a democratic tool.To understand how the learning processes can be organised by application of the co-creation process, it was more than relevant to understand not only the nature of learning but also an individual’s conditions to construct a mindset in which one could observe oneself as the active learner. The outcomes arrived from research through codesign have contributed to shaping the framework. The "Learning framework in active citizenship: active learner as an active citizen” (Glumac, 2017) which can be applied when co-creating educational activities with, for and by youth — recognised in their role as experts of their own experiences.
This paper describes and critically reflects upon case study within an ongoing action research lo... more This paper describes and critically reflects upon case study within an ongoing action research located in Porto (Portugal) that investigates how the empowerment of Portuguese youth can be established through co-design. This long-term study is designed and implemented in Porto‟s public school through weekly sessions where students-participants give their contributions to the topics and ideas of activities to be conducted. The number of participants varies and is based on voluntary involvement of students from 12 to 16 years that are interested in improving the environment for their daily conviviality and learning within school area. Youngsters are in charge for co-design of local initiatives and responsible for their collective learning on how to reach highest levels of participation. Therefore, design is being perceived as a mean for creating new methods that could be applied in inclusive learning. Creating situations where young people can come and share designing and co-ownership ...
5 / Learning Framework in Active Citizenship: Active Learner is an Active Citizen that can be app... more 5 / Learning Framework in Active Citizenship: Active Learner is an Active Citizen that can be applied as a strategic and analytical tool that explains and recommends certain order of actions (methodological approach) to take into consideration when planning intergenerational collaborative projects with and for youngsters in basic and secondary education. / Lab of Collaborative Youth that is an informal platform that serves to gather all local partners and organise youth-driven educational codesign programmes and research through design. The provided contributions aim to raise awareness and continue an interdisciplinary discussion on the topic of active youth citizenship and strategic planning when it comes to designing intergenerational projects.
Springer Series in Design and Innovation
Perspectives on Design II
UD14 - 1o Encontro Ibérico de Doutoramentos em Design / 3o Encontro Nacional de Doutoramentos em Design. Livro de atas., 2015
No 6 (2015): Nordes 2015: Design Ecologies, ISSN 1604-9705. Stockholm, 2015
This paper describes and critically reflects upon case study within an ongoing action research lo... more This paper describes and critically reflects upon case study within an ongoing action research located in Porto (Portugal) that investigates how the empowerment of Portuguese youth can be established through co-design. This long-term study is designed and implemented in Porto‟s public school through weekly sessions where students-participants give their contributions to the topics and ideas of activities to be conducted. The number of participants varies and is based on voluntary involvement of students from 12 to 16 years that are interested in improving the environment for their daily conviviality and learning within school area. Youngsters are in charge for co-design of local initiatives and responsible for their collective learning on how to reach highest levels of participation. Therefore, design is being perceived as a mean for creating new methods that could be applied in inclusive learning. Creating situations where young people can come and share designing and co-ownership experience allows stimulation of their initiatives and “learning by doing” (Kolb 1984).
Books by Olga Glumac
Rojek-Adamek, P., & Gawron, G. (2016). Drafts From Sociology of Design. Introduction to Discussion., 2016
This paper aims at answering how the concept of Lab for Collaborative Youth can be established th... more This paper aims at answering how the concept of Lab for Collaborative Youth can be established through a sustainable community of practice (Wenger 1998) to serve as a safe environment for individual and collective learning where young people actively participate in decision-making processes. Moreover, the inquiry is approached through a practice of codesign which investigates how to co-create more inclusive learning processes and services with, for and by youngsters in their local context. The first set of the ideas came from existing concepts of living labs, design labs, co-labs, neighborhood labs and also enabling platforms – networks of human and non-human stakeholders who play a meaningful role in co-creation (Dolwick 2009) and in design-afer-design (Ehn 2008) allowing to have a flexible system in which its users can always adjust, even if it was already formed and it is in use.
Further on, this paper also presents and discuss the origin of an idea to construct a lab model that actually derives from a participatory action research, the experience and outcomes of a collaborative learning project between two schools from the same location in Porto, Portugal: the Artistic and Vocational School Árvore (Árvore) and the public Elementary School of the Second and Third cycle of Miragaia (EB Miragaia).
Thesis Chapters by Olga Glumac
PhD Thesis, 2018
This PhD thesis Lab of Collaborative Youth: shaping a learning framework in active citizenship ai... more This PhD thesis Lab of Collaborative Youth: shaping a learning framework in active citizenship aims to answer how does learning through codesign foster youngsters’ active citizenship in the school context. It is founded on a case study developed in Miragaia, Porto’s historical neighbourhood in Portugal, in which the school of 2nd and 3rd cycle of basic education is located, and the project is implemented in a collaboration with youngsters of age bracket from 12 to 16 years old. The starting concern is that youngsters are neither a human capital, that should be used only as a resource, or citizens-in-making, that need to be taught how to act and to be. They are to be recognised as citizens who have their needs, aspirations and incentives. In Portugal, each youngster is to attend basic and secondary education for 12 years or until it reaches the age of majority. In this period, youngsters are going through the process of self-discovery and transition from family life to independent life, while the formal education should foster their self-awareness and strengthen their self-efficacy so that they could achieve the self-actualisation and self-determination they need to strategically choose their next steps. The lack of mutual empowerment and equitable partnership between adults and youngsters is to blame the experiences showed that youngsters are only informed and occasionally consulted. Thus, youngsters are not encouraged to take their own initiatives and act on resolution of the actual challenges, and co-creation of their educational activities. In this PhD thesis, two competences are interlinked and highlighted to foster such an individual transformation: learning to learn (preparation for the lifelong learning) and social and civic competence. In the learning environments within school grounds these transversal competences are usually not stressed enough and methodologically approached by the school’s educational community. Through a programmatic research over the period of three academic years, two educational codesign programmes were implemented in Miragaia school: Recreio dos Pioneiros (2014 - 2015) and Ilustracionário, à minha maneira (2015). The aim was to establish conditions for youngsters’ citizenship practice within school, and the experience to co-create their learning processes as active citizens. There are three main outcomes that derive directly from the empirical work: / Codesign in Active Citizenship as a set of praxis principles when working with, for and by youth. / Learning Framework in Active Citizenship: Active Learner is an Active Citizen that can be applied as a strategic and analytical tool that explains and recommends certain order of actions (methodological approach) to take into consideration when planning intergenerational collaborative projects with and for youngsters in basic and secondary education. / Lab of Collaborative Youth that is an informal platform that serves to gather all local partners and organise youth-driven educational codesign programmes and research through design. The provided contributions aim to raise awareness and continue an interdisciplinary discussion on the topic of active youth citizenship and strategic planning when it comes to designing intergenerational projects.
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Conference Presentations (Abstracts, Posters) by Olga Glumac
Through a participatory action approach, the aim is to encourage youngsters’ self-empowerment through codesign practices. This is established by co-sharing and co-deciding conditions for the learning environment, co-creating the learning tools and discussing the learning process, through which young people can reflect upon their identities as learners within the school context and life-long trajectories. Since schools are the first window and practice of belonging to a wider society, there is a certain parallel drawn between active learning and active citizenship having in mind that students have the right and the duty in learning to learn by actively engaging in a democratic process within the school life and its local communities.
The researcher reflects upon school’s constraints and conditions to learn by deconstructing the possibilities for youngsters’ meaningful participation inside and outside of the classroom, endeavouring the pluralistic approach to a more participatory education.
In 2014, a long-term project in Miragaia school has been initiated as a case study of codesigning participatory practices with, for and by youth. In the first stage "warmUP", an ethnographic and participatory observation was conducted through voluntary weekly sessions that tackled the wellbeing of youth in the school context, their motivational drivers and awareness towards learning and participating in loco. The gathered results demonstrated the intergenerational gap in communication and understanding of certain terminology related to citizenship topic.
In the second phase, "buildUP", students continued participation in the weekly sessions in which they were invited to take ownership and co-manage implementation of initiatives of their own interest, such as the Christmas party and the tournament in football. After the winter break, Miragaia students created a community of practice with design students from the Árvore school located in the same area. Together they co-created a learning tool - visual dictionary "Ilustracionário, à minha maneira 1.0" - by reflecting upon their own levels of understanding of 23 concepts that associate with the topics of youth policy and civic participation and representing them visually through illustrations.
"play" is the last phase which was implemented in the classroom and the students were invited to reflect upon their motivation to learn, learning practice and their competencies of co-creating learning tools that can be used inside/outside of the classrooms.
The principles of codesigning learning processes are based on individual needs and nonhierarchical, voluntary, learner-centred, collaborative, transparent, experiential, experimental and flexible approaches. The data gathered through weekly sessions in the last three academic years is analysed and contributes to shaping a learning framework in active citizenship, as a recommendation of applying to codesign in facilitating learning with, for and by youth.
Keywords: youngsters, codesign, citizenship, learning, framework
Papers by Olga Glumac
Books by Olga Glumac
Further on, this paper also presents and discuss the origin of an idea to construct a lab model that actually derives from a participatory action research, the experience and outcomes of a collaborative learning project between two schools from the same location in Porto, Portugal: the Artistic and Vocational School Árvore (Árvore) and the public Elementary School of the Second and Third cycle of Miragaia (EB Miragaia).
Thesis Chapters by Olga Glumac
Through a participatory action approach, the aim is to encourage youngsters’ self-empowerment through codesign practices. This is established by co-sharing and co-deciding conditions for the learning environment, co-creating the learning tools and discussing the learning process, through which young people can reflect upon their identities as learners within the school context and life-long trajectories. Since schools are the first window and practice of belonging to a wider society, there is a certain parallel drawn between active learning and active citizenship having in mind that students have the right and the duty in learning to learn by actively engaging in a democratic process within the school life and its local communities.
The researcher reflects upon school’s constraints and conditions to learn by deconstructing the possibilities for youngsters’ meaningful participation inside and outside of the classroom, endeavouring the pluralistic approach to a more participatory education.
In 2014, a long-term project in Miragaia school has been initiated as a case study of codesigning participatory practices with, for and by youth. In the first stage "warmUP", an ethnographic and participatory observation was conducted through voluntary weekly sessions that tackled the wellbeing of youth in the school context, their motivational drivers and awareness towards learning and participating in loco. The gathered results demonstrated the intergenerational gap in communication and understanding of certain terminology related to citizenship topic.
In the second phase, "buildUP", students continued participation in the weekly sessions in which they were invited to take ownership and co-manage implementation of initiatives of their own interest, such as the Christmas party and the tournament in football. After the winter break, Miragaia students created a community of practice with design students from the Árvore school located in the same area. Together they co-created a learning tool - visual dictionary "Ilustracionário, à minha maneira 1.0" - by reflecting upon their own levels of understanding of 23 concepts that associate with the topics of youth policy and civic participation and representing them visually through illustrations.
"play" is the last phase which was implemented in the classroom and the students were invited to reflect upon their motivation to learn, learning practice and their competencies of co-creating learning tools that can be used inside/outside of the classrooms.
The principles of codesigning learning processes are based on individual needs and nonhierarchical, voluntary, learner-centred, collaborative, transparent, experiential, experimental and flexible approaches. The data gathered through weekly sessions in the last three academic years is analysed and contributes to shaping a learning framework in active citizenship, as a recommendation of applying to codesign in facilitating learning with, for and by youth.
Keywords: youngsters, codesign, citizenship, learning, framework
Further on, this paper also presents and discuss the origin of an idea to construct a lab model that actually derives from a participatory action research, the experience and outcomes of a collaborative learning project between two schools from the same location in Porto, Portugal: the Artistic and Vocational School Árvore (Árvore) and the public Elementary School of the Second and Third cycle of Miragaia (EB Miragaia).