German-US-American Youth Exchanges – USA-Special 2022
Logistical challenges At a practical level, there are objective hurdles to over- come in implementing US-German exchange: e.g, the distance and expense of travel, time zones, and lack of existing, robust institutional support and funding opportunities. Given these challenges, we need to think about transatlantic international exchange in a new way. Since March 2020, the field of international youth work has had to scout out new models and approaches to its work. Perhaps, rather than trying to make our tra- ditional conception of international youth work fit into the US-German context, we can use this opportunity as a way of re-thinking international youth work formats to identify and test more sustainable, cost-effective, and increasingly digitally-connected approaches in the trans- atlantic arena. Looking ahead Historically, and still today, a “negative” transatlan- tic knowledge transfer has taken place, where white supremacist and right-extremist ideas have been traded, both openly and discretely. As one TECE Fellow remarked during a morning reflection round, we desperately need a counteracting knowledge transfer in the field of civic learning and youth work to help combat these transat- lantic threats. There is much to learn, from varied topical focuses and structures, different societal self-concep - tions, ideas about the role of the state and images of the “good citizen”, that has reaffirmed my belief in the deep need for continued dialogue. US-German exchange in the field of youth civic learning provides us that oppor - tunity.
Simply learning vocabulary and definitions is not
language allows us to com- municate. In addition, it requires opening up ded- icated space for dialogical exchange and experiential processes. Despite having dedicated time in online sessions with TECE Fellows to an exploration of terminol- ogy, it was evident how certain concepts became clearer during our in-per-
enough to transcend the thought patterns and preconceptions that exist based on what our language allows us to communicate.
son meeting. One could see, for example, how the con- cept of non-formal education (NFE) became more famil- iar for US-based participants, who slowly were able to understand and ultimately challenge certain long-held beliefs and raise questions that opened important con- versations for the whole group about the value and practice of NFE. Moreover, it was clear how important a trusting and patient environment is in regard to more sensitive or emotionally-charged topics such as identi- ty, where people enter the conversation with different knowledge backgrounds and varying comfort with lan- guage around the issue. An exchange format should make intentional efforts to center language as a way to help us understand how language constrains our understanding and helps us expand our way of thinking, or it risks leading to unclear conversations and confusion over how to work across contexts.
Katja Greeson is a project officer at the Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten e. V. (Association of German Educational Organi zations) and leads the Transatlantic Exchange of Civic Educators (TECE) project. Originally from North Carolina, Katja worked in political youth organizing and campaigning in the US before focusing on civic education and youth work in a transatlantic context. She is a political science major with master's degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.
Web: tece-usde.org
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