Abstract

The JERF project is being developed at the Centre for Educational Research and Intervention of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto (CIIE), as part of the work carried out by the Youth, Education and Diversity (JEDi) study group, and stems from a case study (Silva, 2011-2015). Recalling the neglect to which young people and border populations have been consigned, also by the Education Sciences (Silva, 2014), this project seeks to broaden knowledge about young people in border regions, extending the research to a national scale - all the border municipalities of mainland Portugal.
The project assumes that global, national and local dimensions dialogue with each other when we set out to study youth experiences and cultures. Aspects such as the non-linearity of journeys and transitions (Walther, 2006; Pais, 2000), but also recent issues such as the exercise of youth in a post-crisis socio-economic context (Galland, 2010; Jover et al., 2014), different mechanisms and contexts of youth participation, and contextual issues related to the geographical condition of border and remoticity (Carmo, 2011; Silva, 2014), underpin the discussion of the central question.

Methodologically, the JERF project will be organised over 24 months around different moments: document analysis, the application of a questionnaire at national level and multiple case studies, valuing the perceptions and meanings of different educational figures from school groups in border regions and community agents, with a focus on students (9th-12th grade), and, in this sense, focusing ‘more [on] meaning[s] than [on] “facts”’ (Correia, 1998, p. 185). A mixed research methodology will be used (Creswell, 2003), combining quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques for collecting and analysing data (Punch, 2014).
With the main aim of trying to answer the question ‘How do you grow up and become a young person in Portugal's border regions?’, this study focuses on knowing and understanding how young people's socio-educational paths are developed, organised and structured. To this end, and based on previous contributions, an approach that integrates the dimensions of the resilience of young people and their contexts (resilient schools and resilient communities), involvement and belonging is considered pertinent, considering young people as actors in an interacting social context.

 

 

members of this project: 

Sofia M. Silva, Ana Milheiro, Tânia Gouveia

CoPIn

JEDI – Youth, Education, Diversity and Innovation

Funding

Universidade do Porto

Principal Investigator

Sofia Marques da Silva

Team

Partners

CIIE\ Faculdade de Pscicologia e Ciências da Educação