Contribution short abstract:

This presentation will explore the pedagogic principles, tools and methods to establish a co-designed educational space with RAS youth and masters students and how to ‘unwrite’ traditional classrooms in favour of transformational spaces.

Contribution long abstract:

Paulo Freire suggests that education can become “the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world” (1970). As educators and anthropologists led by the transformative paradigm (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2018) and Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), establishing a methodology and protocol in which education opportunities for RAS are rooted in decolonisation (Turkan & Engman, 2024), ‘solidarity’ and co-design has proved a powerful solution to the transformative needs of today’s Northern Irish (NI) society. In addition to gaps in education experienced along journeys, RAS young people in NI face systemic barriers to accessing equitable education opportunities beyond 16 years of age (Rosato, 2023). Through a participatory advisory group (PAG) and accredited course hosted by QUB Open Learning(OL) in 2024, RAS youth acquired academic and researching skills to voice their own needs and that of other vulnerable populations in NI. The results of the co-designed survey for RAS youth and initial recommendations of the PAG (Mattingly & YP Research Group, 2024) have influenced the development of a pilot initiative aimed at addressing these education needs. This presentation will explore the pedagogic principles, tools and methods to establish a co-designed educational space with RAS youth and masters students and how to ‘unwrite’ traditional classrooms in favour of transformational spaces.