1 Introductions
Digital transformation is considered to be one of the key changes taking place in the world today. It influences practically all aspects of society, with digital systems now commonplace in business and administration. Ho - wever, digital change is also clearly visible in our daily lives; as such, it also shapes young people’s realities and impacts on educational processes. Social distancing as well as other measures introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19 can be said to have acted as a catalyst for digital transformation – sudden - ly, digital media were present in virtually all fields of education. Without these tools, education, along with international youth work, would have been practically impossible to offer. That said, the rapid transformation that occurred during the pandemic obscured the fact that the use of digital media in international youth work in fact began long before the pandemic, giving rise to new formats and approaches. These were then applied more frequently during the pandemic, during which it emerged that the changes taking place in the inter - national youth work field require providers to carefully consider how they design their activities to ensure the quality of their work meets the high standards that exist in this field. This is where IJA.digital – Internationale Jugendarbeit. digital comes in. The study was occasioned by the pandemic-induced switch from analogue (offline) to digital (online) projects in international youth work and was designed to systematically evaluate the insights gained during this period so as to identify the success factors at play and in turn, help the international youth work field to develop and evolve. The project was run in cooperation with IJAB – Interna - tional Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germa - ny between May 2021 and December 2022, with fun - ding and support from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) and the specialist and funding agencies for internatio- nal youth work. 1
It was preceded by another, shorter, project that ran between October and December 2020, again with BMFSFJ funding, which included an online symposium for international youth work experts to start identifying opportunities and needs for action in regard to digital transformation in international youth work. The key terms of reference were a set of quality criteria for international youth work (IJAB – Fachstelle für Inter - nationale Jugendarbeit der Bundesrepublik Deutsch - land e. V. 2004) that had been drawn up in 2004 by representatives of German youth organisations and their umbrella associations, with IJAB as coordinator. IJA.digital was designed to reflect on and adapt the objectives and criteria detailed therein. With the support of practitioners, the team researched how and to what extent it is possible to realise new potential through digital and hybrid formats (e.g., in regard to obstacles to access and participation) and what challenges may need to be overcome. This translated into the following key research question: To what extent are the quality criteria for international youth work suitable for ade - quately evaluating the quality of digital youth exchanges, in particular given the new challenges and opportunities resul- ting from the use of digital media? Building on the answers to this question, the research project sought to create an evidence-based framework for developing a digital methodology for the internatio - nal youth work field. The (learning) experience of the participating young people as well as of the experts played a key role in this context. The analysis centred in particular on extra - curricular youth exchanges and workcamps for young people.
1 Franco-German Youth Office (DFJW), German-Polish Youth Office (DPJW), ConAct – Coordination Center for German-Israeli Youth Exchange, Tandem - Czech-German Youth Exchange Coordination Centre, Foundation for German-Russian Youth Exchange, JUGEND für Europa, German- Greek Youth Office (DGJW) and Deutsch-Türkische Jugendbrücke.
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