title: The adolescents, life context, and school project: youth voice and civic participation.
abstract: The Adolescents, Life Context, & School project was developed in a suburban, residential area of Padova, Italy, and involved three classes of 12-year-old children. Across three months, children observed, documented, and talked about their own life contexts in order to voice problems to decision makers. Both teachers and council members played key roles in supporting the project and the children's work. Limited quantitative results showed an increase in reported neighborhood civic responsibility compared to a control group of students. Qualitative evaluation results demonstrated strong interest. The involvement by teachers, local government, and students in the project led to real actions and improvements in the neighborhood and school and to the creation of an official youth affairs council. The program provides a model for service-learning and organized student civic engagement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. lorenza.dallago@unipd.it
authors.forename: Lorenza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dallago
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cristini
authors.forename: Douglas D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.forename: Maury
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nation
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santinello
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D003256:Community Participation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011594:Psychometrics; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires