Commissioned research
Research commissioned & funded by FYA
Sharing a New Story: Young People in Decision-Making
Commissioned by FYA and conducted by the Australian Youth Research Centre, this report focuses on young people in decision-making. Through the voices of young people, it explores:
- What young people in decision-making is and why it is important;
- What is currently happening in the area;
- The challenges and issues for young people in decision-making roles;
- What helps and what gets in the way.
It offers a reflective toolkit, which has been developed for working alongside young people in decision-making roles.
Read the full report here
Amplifying the Voices of Young Refugees
In 2008-09, The Foundation for Young Australians supported the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) to undertake a national youth consultation project to develop a targeted and informed strategy for the ongoing engagement of young refugee and humanitarian entrants in advocating to have their needs and concerns addressed, and their ideas recognised, at a national level. The project enabled RCOA to further identify and build relationships with refugee youth organisations and networks; engage refugee young people and key national networks advocating on refugee youth issues in generating ideas about how refugee young people can have their voices best heard at a national level; and, identify key issues that young people want addressed at a national level.
Findings included:
- 43 young people from refugee backgrounds consulted in Sydney, Melbourne, Shepparton, Canberra and Perth.
- Young people from refugee backgrounds nominated RCOA’s establishment of a youth reference group as the best strategy for ensuring future youth engagement on national refugee issues.
- Young people from refugee backgrounds identified education and training, housing and homelessness, employment and money problems, family issues and the accessibility of services as their biggest concerns.
Read the full report here
How Young People Are Faring (HYPAF)
Aim:
To analyse the transition of young Australians from school to further study and work.
Findings:
• Seven in ten 15-19 year olds are engaged in full time education
• Proportion of 15-19 year olds not engaged in full time education or work has declined to 13.3% (from over 16% in the early 1990s)
• Social background and location exert strong influence on likelihood of engagement in full time education or work
• Year 12 is crucial to chance of undertaking further study or employment
Read the 2008 report here
Read the 2009 report here
What Works
Coming Soon
Aim:
To document best practice in engaging young people in youth-led organisations
Findings:
• Tokenistic involvement is ineffective
• Young people require meaning, control and connectedness
• Real evidence of change necessary for morale
• Adult facilitators should guide without dominating
• Successful partnerships with youth organisations are built on the provision of local responses to local needs
The What Works series has been commissioned by The Foundation for Young Australians with a dual purpose: to celebrate the work of youth-led organisations around the nation, and in doing so, to investigate exactly what works in their successful administration. The series allows for equally frank discussion around what doesn’t work and offers guidance based upon the experiences of researchers, youth workers, teachers, community workers, local council members and the young people they work with.
This series is comprised of three reports: Partnerships in the Youth Sector, Young People Active in Communities and Inclusive Approaches with Young People. Together, they profile a total of 36 youth-led organisations working in community partnerships nationwide to tackle problems ranging from disengagement from school, cross-cultural conflict, substance abuse, social exclusion, boredom and vandalism through to migrant settlement, racism and Australia’s response to climate change. Already, their impact has been monumental and their stories serve to inspire as well as to inform.
The Impact of Racism upon the Health and Wellbeing of Young Australians
Released 19 November, 2009
Aim:
To examine the experiences of racism for young people of Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds
Findings:
• 823 students surveyed across Australia
• 70% experience some form of racism
Read the full report here
Read the At A Glance report here
Youth Attitudes to Racism
Released 20 November, 2009
Aim:
To examine the attitudes and experiences of racism for young people aged 18-24
Findings:
• 1277 surveyed across Australia
• 84.4% agree that there is racial prejudice in Australia
• 12.2% agree to being prejudiced against other cultures
Read the report here
Young People Imagining a New Democracy: Literature Review
Philippa Collin (August 2008)
Young People Imagining a New Democracy: Young People’s Voices (Focus Groups Report)
Dr Mike Horsley and Dr Debra Costley (October 2008)
Putting the politics back into Politics: Young people and democracy in Australia (Discussion Paper)
Dr James Arvanitakis and Siobhan Marren (January 2009)
Whitlam Institute, University of Western Sydney, Foundation for Young Australians (Aug 08-Jan 09)
Three investigative reports have culminated in a series of findings regarding the connection between young people, politics and the notion of democracy. These findings challenge a widely-held assumption that young Australians are politically apathetic. Rather, young people have a real desire to be involved in political decision-making but find the formal political process exclusive, and consider most attempts to engage them in that process tokenistic and condescending. Indeed, many young people are highly politically engaged, but in ways that are not always recognised and that tend to operate at a local community level or via non-government organisations.
The report distinguishes between Politics with a capital ‘P’ as a formal system, and politics in the lower case as political awareness incorporating social movements and community activity. Interviews with young people contained in this report indicate that they consider the Australian democratic system to function reasonably well, but there was a consistently expressed distrust of politicians, sense of being dismissed as ‘citizens-to-be’, and frustration with aspects of the political system that were perceived to be outdated (particularly following recent discussion around Australia’s Indigenous history and the need for Constitutional reform).
Recommendations from the combined reports include: the greater utilisation of Information Communications Technology (ICT) to keep young people politically engaged; a conscientious display of the democratic operation at the school level (via student committees, open forums etc) and the implementation of a stand-alone civics education subject across all schools; acknowledgement of the political activity of young people in its various forms; and the commissioning of a nationwide research program to further investigate the democratic engagement of young Australians.
Equity, Excellence and Effectiveness: Moving Forward on Schooling Arrangements in Australia
(A discussion paper from Education Foundation Australia’s Case for Change Working Party)
Education Foundation (November 2006)
This paper is a precursor to the New Federalism study and advances the argument that a combination of social geography and student selectivity in schools has created a vast chasm between high and low achieving students in Australia, with weaker students from lower socio-economic backgrounds concentrated in poorer performing schools and facing limited opportunities in further education and employment.
A movement by parents with the financial means to enrol their children in schools with proven records of strong academic performance has led to something of an exodus from the state system, resulting in a distinctly unbalanced student population, but the problem goes beyond the public-private divide. Inequalities exist not only between but within sectors. Hierarchies operate among Catholic schools, government schools and independent schools alike. While there is a perception that standards are higher in non-government than in government schools, student results actually correlate more strongly with socio-economic background and geographical location (particularly distance from major cities).
This paper calls for a redefinition of public schools based on public education standards rather than ownership. A redefinition, in other words, that can include faith-based or privately managed schools along with state-owned schools but that requires general democratic and pedagogical principles to be agreed upon and adhered to. Once this kind of cooperative arrangement is in place, state governments will be better placed to allocate funding in areas of greatest need and to move toward a more equitable public education system.
Contact FYA Research at lucas.walsh@fya.org.au
