Wierenga’s Star
Wierenga’s star fits well with PYDA because it comes from a respectful relationship with young people. Young people were co-researchers and co-designers of the model. This model places young people’s interest in participation at the centre of the model’s practice. However, it also offers a critique that many other models and approaches to youth participation are adult-centric.
Wierenga’s star places meaning, control, and connectedness as central elements that youth participation opportunities must explore. The model acknowledges the need for youth participation practice to transform the relationships of the young people involved to ensure the three central elements are met. This includes reworking adult structures and processes to more effectively work alongside young people. The toolkit goes on to provide practice examples, ideas and reflective tools for working through the model to help transform practice.
In the report, Wierenga [46] and the youth researchers discuss the ideas of citizenship and youth development and debunk both of these as concepts that can limit young people’s participation through adult perceptions of their capability. They prefer to focus on strengths-based, recognising that young people already have something to offer society, and already have a sense of agency. Education is useful to build skills further, but it does not need to be according to adult agendas nor fit within existing structures. The participation process needs to be collaborative and recognise there is mutual learning to be had [46].
Wierenga’s star acknowledges that young people want to have direct action and influence in the decisions that affect them. It can be hard for young people to track their influence, and the story of their involvement in shaping decision making is too easily lost in restructures, policy development cycles and political agendas. Wierenga [46] challenges us to address these issues in our practice and keep young people at the centre of the process [47].
References
[46] Wierenga, A. (2003). Sharing a New Story: Young People in Decision-Making. Foundation for Young Australians. Retrieved from http://web.education.unimelb.edu.au/yrc/linked_documents/ WP23.pdf
[47] Finlay-Robinson, Dunlop & Baxter (2019) Whai Wāhitanga: Youth Participation in Aotearoa – Before 2000 and Beyond. In, Kaiparahuarahi: Exploring Mana Taiohi: our national youth development principles for a new season Vol. 1, No.2, pp.31–55. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UdX3oBPtI5tNws JV7fMv5Mk49CsTPmYg/view
Additional resources