When two researchers meet, they sometimes hit it off straightaway. And when Australian researcher Kitty Te Riele from the University of Victoria met Rie Thomsen, an associate professor at the Department of Education at Aarhus University, they soon discovered that the professional and personal ties between them were strong. They both study education guidance for young people, sharing their experiences across the huge distance that divides them geographically

Just before Easter the Australian researcher has been in Denmark to study the Danish education guidance system for young people. This is a carefully designed, well-structured system that enables counsellors to monitor individual young people, make long-term plans, and follow up on how various activities help to achieve pre-defined goals for learning.

Hands-on learning

In Australia Kitty Te Riele has collected and organised a range of alternative learning activities designed for marginalised young people who are at risk of dropping out of the education system. She does this by identifying alternative learning activities and making information about these activities and initiatives accessible online – thereby making it accessible for all counsellors, young people and their parents.

Here’s an example of a learning activity: a group of young people build a pizza oven when they meet outside school hours on one or two days a week. It’s an alternative, hands-on learning process.

Dr Riele explains that they meet in teams, with the first step involving reading and understanding the instructions. Then they have to do some measurements and design the oven, which requires pure geometry. Then they have to build the oven and send out invitations to their opening ceremony and pizza event, requiring communication skills. So the whole process involves practising a wide range of important skills, even though there isn’t a single classroom or blackboard in sight.

More structured guidance

Riele underlines that even though many of these alternative learning activities are good initiatives, the young people could benefit even more if efforts were better coordinated and if the channels of communication between the organisations dealing with the young people were more efficient.

She says that at the moment things are organised on an ad hoc basis. One learning activity doesn’t necessarily lead to the next, and there is no progression in terms of the challenges being offered. The young people enjoy themselves, but the question is how much it all helps in the long term unless the activities are structured as a single process of learning.

She is determined to change this situation, which is why her research is aimed primarily at responsible politicians at local, regional and national level. Her clear message is that the guidance process must be structured better.

She believes that the education process of each young person should be in the hands of a single individual to ensure the continuity of the learning process. This would also ensure a more holistic view of each young person instead of the fragmentary way these things are organised in Australia today.

Rie Thomsen nods in agreement. She has met the same problems in Denmark, where efforts could also be coordinated better.

She is convinced that guiding young people safely through the education system is a good investment for society. Each young person needs their own counsellor throughout the guidance process, instead of having to approach a wide range of public-sector bodies who don’t communicate with each other, she says. And she underlines that the guidance centres in Denmark vary considerably in terms of their basis and form of organisation. She would like this difference to be examined from the perspective of the young people, with a view to learning more about how they perceive the efforts made on their behalf. 

Danish continuation schools in Australia?

In general terms, Denmark and Australia face a number of identical challenges in this area. But the two countries have completely different education systems and traditions. Kitty Te Riele has been inspired in particular by Danish continuation schools (called efterskoler in Danish), and would like to take the philosophy and structure of these schools back to Australia with her.

She believes that these Danish schools would suit Australia very well. Lots of young people in her homeland live in relative isolation out in the country, and for them remote teaching simply cannot provide the kind of educational and didactic support that they need. This is exactly the kind of support that continuation schools can provide. Continuation schools give them the chance to meet other young people and create a social network, she says.

She has also been inspired by Danish production schools, which are practical places providing an alternative to a more traditional academic education. This is the kind of school that can catch some of the young people who would otherwise drop out of the education system.

Kitty Te Riele has visited large parts of the Danish youth education system, including CPH West, UU Center Syd, UU Copenhagen, Virksomhedsskolen in Aarhus, Frijsenborg Continuation School and VIA University College.

The researchers

Kitty Te Riele is a senior lecturer at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. She studies ways in which education can catch the interest of the most marginalised young people in society. Her research covers youth and education policy with the focus on alternative education options for young people.

Rie Thomsen is an associate professor and research programme director at the Department of Education, Aarhus University. She studies education and career guidance for both young people and adults. In 2013 she was awarded the annual guidance award for her innovative approach to the role of counsellors and her introduction to guidance in communities.

Contact

Rie Thomsen, associate professor at the Department of Education, Aarhus University  
Tel.: +45 2942 6686
E-mail: riet@dpu.dk