The following methodological booklet offers further information about the workshops held in Barcelona, Budapest, Manchester and Perugia, where we worked in collaboration with young people who either left their schools prematurely or were at the risk of doing so. The booklet is composed of the following chapters:
What we did: short description of each workshop
In this section we share basic information about the workshops, such as who were the participants, how long were the sessions, what were the workshop outlines.
What we learnt: Why stay in school when you can leave it?
This chapter explores what we learnt from the participants about early school leaving and its causes. Interestingly, this investigation helped us to identify some general issues of modern Western school system, which go beyond the challenges that particular students have to face, and which could help us rethink school in ways that could benefit all students and teachers.
How we worked: the processes of the workshops
This chapter explores the key components of the Forum Theater and Community reporting methodologies, which could become useful additions to school life, helping the development of the individual or the community, making school more livable, appealing, student- and even teacher-friendly. We also tackle the possible synergies between the two methodologies – which was an important goal of our project.
Recommendations
Our final chapter draws the conclusions of the joint work, and summarizes what we can propose to rethink school in a way that students would not want to leave it. We look at the range of competences that school could focus on (for students or teachers) and we explore the pedagogies that could help to make learning a source of pleasure, introducing a bit more creativity, autonomy and community.
