The paper explores the active learning of the citizenship competency through a youth-led participatory action research in a community deeply affected by processes of emigration in a peripheral area of Romania. The present inquiry starts from the proposal of the European Commission (2018, 2019) to define the citizenship competency as a key competency for lifelong learning. I operationalize this concept by relating it to Paulo Freire’s ([1968] 2018) action-reflection , as well as Dana E. Wright (2015) active learning concepts. I carry out the operationalization of this competency in a learning context characterized by project based learning. The project brought together eleven young people that participated in activities based on photovoice, forum theatre, directed image production and qualitative research methodology. Through these methods, the young people explored migration in their everyday context, and their potential for taking action in relation to the consequences of migration, as well as their own aspirations and representations of a better society. The paper is based on an analysis of the participative activities in which the young people were involved (forum theatre, Boal [1973] 2008 and photovoice, Wang & Burris, 1997), as well as on the results of qualitative research instruments applied to the group of young people (a focus group and a reflection journal administered in the form of an online questionnaire). The inquiry presented is based on two interconnected research questions: (1) How can a youth-led participatory research project contribute to developing the citizenship competency in a group of young people in a community deeply affected by emigration? and (2) How do young people in a community deeply affected by emigration understand migration? The interconnection of the two research questions stems from the relationship between the object of research and that of learning: migration and the citizenship competency that allows for the progressive involvement of young people in action-reflection in their everyday lives in relation to migration. The paper puts forward evidence that project-based learning through a participatory action research project can contribute to developing the citizenship competency. Within the project framework, young people engaged in a process of progressive awareness of migration and its consequences in their everyday lives, as well as of their potential to act and intervene in processes that they understand as harmful. Initially and individually, the young people described the effects of migration on their town as bringing buildings to ruin, as well as the arrival of expensive cars from abroad. At the same time, some of the young people saw the motor behind migration as being problematic values of young people, parents and even grandparents that choose to move abroad, as this appears as an easier road to prosperity than educational mobility or taking on a similar job in the local economy. Through the participative interaction within the project, the young people started reflecting on their own prejudice about migration and people who emigrate and started reflecting on the consequences of migration for the local community in a reflexive and action oriented perspective. Thus in the reflection journal written-up at the end of the project, the young people told of their gained openness to act in concrete everyday life situations to stop discrimination, support someone in a difficult situation, as well as reflect on the implications migration has for their neighbors, families and classmates. 

The paper relies on a mix of youth-led participatory action research (Ozer, 2017, Ozer & Piatt, 2017, Ozer et al, 2013) and qualitative methodology. The two connected approaches used involved a different level of involvement of the young people in the research process (on this point see Ozer et al, 2018 and Ozer & Douglas, 2015). In the participatory action research, the young people became research subjects as they defined the agenda, as well as became actively involved in constructing the research process. This part of the research involved a photo-voice and a forum theatre workshop, as well as interviews regarding migration with members of the local community. The learning process was documented using qualitative instruments (focus group, reflection diary, observation and documentation of the learning process). The qualitative instruments were put in place to understand how active learning of the citizenship competency takes place within the group of young people.

The present paper contributes to the literature on active learning, citizenship competency and migration in left behind communities in the following ways: First of all, it puts forth a practical operationalization of the relatively newly introduced citizenship competency (European Commission, 2018, 2019) that has proven effective in a small scale project based learning participatory action endeavor. Secondly, it contributes to the literature on migration by taking an unusual angle, namely the perspective of young people in a left-behind community – showing that migration can be connected to notions of loss, ruin and hopelessness, as well as to awareness to discrimination and worries about the exploitation of migrant workers abroad. Finally, it shows how forum theatre and photovoice instruments can be used as both learning and research tools with and by young people in a left behind community.

1.Boal, A. ([1973] 2008] Theatre of the Oppressed (trad. E. Fryer), London: Pluto Press. 2.European Commission (2018) Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Key competences for Lifelong Learning available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52018SC0014&from=EN accesat pe 14.06.2020 3.European Commission (2019) Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, dispinibilă aici https://op.europa.eu/ro/publication-detail/-/publication/297a33c8-a1f3-11e9-9d01-01aa75ed71a1/language-en accessed on 23.05.2020. 4.Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury publishing USA. 5.Ozer, E. J. (2017). Youth‐led participatory action research: Overview and potential for enhancing adolescent development. Child Development Perspectives, 11(3), 173-177. 6.Ozer, E. J., & Douglas, L. (2015). Assessing the key processes of youth-led participatory research: Psychometric analysis and application of an observational rating scale. Youth & Society, 47(1), 29-50. 7.Ozer, E. J., & Piatt, A. A. (2017). Adolescent Participation in Research: Innovation, rationale and next steps. Florence, Italy: UNICEF Innocenti Office of Research. 8.Ozer, E. J., Afifi, R., Gibbs, L., & Mathur, R. T. (2018). Youth Engagement and Participation: Field-Building Across Research and Practice. Journal of Adolescent Health, 63(6), 671-672. 9.Ozer, E. J., Newlan, S., Douglas, L., & Hubbard, E. (2013). “Bounded” empowerment: Analyzing tensions in the practice of youth-led participatory research in urban public schools. American Journal of Community Psychology, 52(1-2), 13-26. 10.Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health education & behavior, 24(3), 369-387. 11.Wright, D. E. (2015). Active learning: Social justice education and participatory action research. New York: Routledge.