Participatory internet radio (RadioActive101) as a social innovation and co-production methodology for engagement and non-formal learning amongst socially excluded young people

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an original interlinking of a conceptual frame and co-production methodology of a participatory internet radio intervention (RadioActive101) that supports engagement and non-formal learning amongst socially excluded young people. This considers the inclusive learning of socially excluded young people as a social innovation that is realised through a participation and co-production methodology that is inspired and informed by Paulo Freire. These are combined to develop an innovative pedagogy that has led to relatively high levels of participation (163 young people facilitated by 29 youth workers) and youth-led co-production (33 radio shows) that supports the reported development of psychosocial dimensions and twenty-first century (21C) and employability skills of young people in London in the UK. This approach and its evaluations suggest that our method (RadioActive101) involves harmonising emancipatory learning through co-production with an instrumental approach to skills development, to support a holistic approach to learning. The foundation and ‘key’ to this holistic learning appears to be the co-development of confidence and communication in ways that lead to the thoughtful and effective use of voice to underpin and support the development of 21C and employability skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Social innovation
• co-production
• participatory radio
• non-formal learning
• twenty-first century skills
• pedagogical issues

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the partners who collaborated on the international RadioActive Europe project – from Portugal (CIMJ), Germany (UKL), the UK (Pontydysgu), Romania (ODIP) and Malta (KIC). Most of all I would like to thank the three main Associate Partner organisations in London and every young person and youth worker who participated, without whom this research would not have been possible, our ‘RadioActivists’ as they were known. I would also like to thank Dr. Dane Mills, a clinical psychologist at Great Ormond Street, in helping me reconcile combining Freirian ideas with the pragmatic concerns of youth organisations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Reported in London Evening Standard, 3 May, 2019 (online).

2 In this Article the author refers to “our” or “we” to denote activities that were the result of collaborative work and co-production (as referred to in the acknowledgements), the term “I” is used to denote parts that are solely the work and thinking of the author.

3 This was presented at an international roundtable discussion of the Canada Policy Initiative in 2010.

4 Although there is a nuanced debate between what is a ‘competency’ and what is a ‘skill’ (Neelen and Kirschner 2016) we deliberately avoid this debate in this article, as the terms are mostly used interchangeably to mean the same or similar concepts. So we use these terms as they have been used by others and interchangeably and stylistically depending on their ‘everyday’ usage.

5 Archive available at: radioactive101.org, select ARCHIVE.

6 The first example of S2 below is also reproduced in Ravenscroft et al. (2018).

Additional information

Funding

The research and development was supported by Nominet Trust in the UK, the Project: ‘RadioActive: Engagement, informal learning and employability of disenfranchised young people through internet radio and social media' and the EC’s Lifelong Learning Program [grant number 531245-LLP1-2012-1-UK-KA3-KA3MP].

Notes on contributors

Andrew Ravenscroft

Andrew Ravenscroft (C.Psychol, AFBPsS, PhD, FRSA) is a Psychologist and Learning Technologist who is a Professor of Education in the Cass School of Education and Communities at the University of East London (UEL), where he is Director of Impact and Innovation and the Director of the International Centre for Public Pedagogy (ICPuP). He has a leading international profile in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and socially responsive interdisciplinary research, with over 160 publications and being a principal or co-investigator on a broad portfolio of projects funded by various national and international agencies that have attracted over £6.4 Million. His expertise includes learning dialogue, critical thinking, design-based research, AI, big data, non-formal learning, complex educational interventions and interdisciplinary research.