Focus Group
Project “YOUth Ambassadors of Non-Formal Learning”
Country: Turkey
Facilitator: Muharrem Enes Övünç – Begüm Seyhan
Organisation: Türkonfed
Date and Location: 20.05.2020,
List of questions for Focus Group
- Do you think for NFE is important age, gender, nationality?
The participants do not think age, gender and race are of great importance. One of the participants; We transfer our information that we have fully earned from the life to each other. We share what we learned from other channels with each other. As such, there is an accumulation that everyone brings with their background. So, these are not important in this model, she said.
Participants are thinking that there is a classification as ages in the formal learning. But in the non-formal learning, people are getting together from different socioeconomic situations, different places, different culture and completely different languages. So these kind of people can take a lesson in the same educational class with all differences.
Such trainings are a great advantage for people to get to know each other, to form groups and to carry out concrete works in a short time.
- What does NFE mean to you? Can you define?
We asked the participants to briefly make the first definitions that came to their mind to get an answer. They said that;
– Lifelong development,
– Having fun and getting to know different people,
– Learning from the experiences of the other person,
– The development of social and individual learning,
– To develop each other by sharing information,
– Learning from online channels.
- Have you ever been a participant in an NFE program? If yes – in which one?
A few participants said they had not participated in the non-formal learning methods program. But most of them said they had participated in such a program before.
However, our participant in such a program expressed their experiences in this way: I have both attended such an education and became an educator in such an education. I was volunteer as a trainer in a program called Dreams Workshop. Here we applied non-formal learning methods. It was the way to discover and learn new things using hand skills. We applied math learning models with this method. We played games, told stories and made mathematics enjoyable by getting support from different materials. Our aim was to try to create different ways of learning. It really worked when we were teaching them about math.
- Do you know something about Youth Law / Strategy / Action Plan, as well as other documents related to youth?
Participants said that they do not know something about these documents. But one of our participants was already doing EVS. He also knew something about youth action plan thanks to his EVS process. After learning this, we asked him to share his experiences on this issue with us. He said that they have been doing activities with children, young people, the elderly and especially those under state protection people for 4 months. But he stated that the process was suspended due to coronavirus. Nevertheless, he shared with us that he was involved in the youth workings in the non-governmental organization he volunteered with but did not have very detailed information other concepts.
- Have you ever participated in the youth decision-making process? If yes, in which one?
In order for the participants to answer more easily, we had to make the question a little clearer before we got the answers from them. In this way it was easier to take an answer from them.
One of our participants, who is a volunteer teacher at the Turkish Education Volunteers Foundation and stated that she now works in the Association for Solidarity with Refugees and Immigrants, said that she supports these even if she is not directly involved in the decision-making process.
However, other participants have never been in such a process before. Nevertheless, the participants who worked or volunteers in NGOs shared what they knew a little about the process. They expressed that every citizen participates in the decision-making process by voting in the simplest way.
- Do you think that more support from the Government is needed to improve the status of young people and in the NFE sphere? If yes, what are the benefits of this, and what are the disadvantages?
Participants believe that governments should give more support because they think that it will be easier for us to meet the requirements of globalization.
One of our participants shared her situation with us as follows: In our student years, a lesson called social participation was added in our university. In order to pass this lesson, every student had to work in NGOs. As this was through imposition, students were generally unable to fully internalize that sense of volunteering. Or they did not run the process exactly like a volunteer. But it was still useful. At least we were all learning new things and comprehending different people’s views of life and contributing to other people. I can say that I have experienced such an example with both its advantages and disadvantages until now.
- Does NFE activities help you for your personal development. If yes, how? If not, why?
All participants answered yes to this question, and several participants’ comments were as follows.
– We can think creatively.
– We can adapt to different cultures.
– We can empathize.
– I think it increases individual development and psychological well-being. Also, it supports being more confident individuals about socialization.
- For you, why is it important to be involved in activities through non-formal education?
The comments of the participants are as follows:
– People who start learning with this technique will improve their self-confidence.
– It will help us adapt to group work in the community.
– It will increase our communication ability and personally improve us.
– The information will remain in mind for much longer and it will be easier to share with our friends.
– It will enable us to work and produce with people of different language, religion, race, age and gender.