My contribution presents my ongoing doctoral thesis, which is part of the R & D project titled Demoskole: Democracy, participation and inclusive education at schools, and it focuses on the analysis of immigrant youth participation inside and outside schools. More specifically, it attempts to answer the following research question: Do experiences of participation of young immigrant contribute to the learning of democratic values?

What I want to understand is the participation of young immigrant in order to investigate to what extent, from their point of view, there is a relationship between their participation experiences and the learning of democracy. Although the analysis of the participation is carried out inside and outside the schools, it is mostly at educational institutions where young people spend much of their lifetime during their academic training (Alegre, 2007). Thus, from our perspective, schools must supervise the learning of democratic practice, and facilitate the learning of values such as dialogue, decision-making, consensus, and respect for differences. As stated by Martínez Bonafé (2003), the construction of a participatory and democratic discourse at school should overcome the contradictions of modern society and avoid the temptation of leaving meaningless the term democracy. It is necessary to learn experiencing democracy, living it (Dewey, 1995).

Regarding the research question outlined above, I consider that two concepts are central for the development of the thesis. On the one hand, participation, and on the other hand, democratic learning.

As Checkoway and Gutiérrez (2009) argued, substantial participation is the one that is able to involve young people in decisions that affect their environment, their life. Other authors such as Geilfus (2009), and Piédrola and Coscolla (2007) or Sellarès (2003) outline similar definitions that share three elements: to be involved in some decision or responsibility; to be part of something, of a collective; and make decisions that are in relation to our environment, to those things we feel connected. In addition, from Demoskole we connect this substantial participation to democratic values.

In regard to the learning of a democratic engagement, it is closely related to the concept of citizenship. García and Lukes (1999) argue that the notion of citizenship is linked to the combination of three elements: having certain rights and the responsibility to fulfil certain obligations; membership in a community in reference to the nationality that share their members; and the chance to contribute to public life community through participation. Of these three elements, as highlighted Bolívar (2007), the most interesting for this thesis is the third related to the possibility of citizens to participate in public life. Cortina (1997) and Bolívar (2007) add that it is an “active exercise more than a static condition” (Bolívar, 2007: 17). Bolívar points out that “educating for citizenship means strengthening the training of self-sufficient people, and also with those civic virtues necessary to assume and embrace the community life. An education based on the exercise of citizenship promotes inside and outside the school activity dialogic processes of shared deliberation, decision-making and independent training of judgement” (2007: 96).

In sum, I am interested in understanding the involvement of young immigrant in relationship with the learning of democratic values, bearing in mind the considerations noted for both concepts.

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