In November and December 2022, the pilot of the platform EuComMeet took place. 20 students from two secondary schools Secondary School No. XIII named after Aleksander Fredro from Wrocław and CLV Secondary School with Bilingual Departments named after the Heroines of the Warsaw Uprising from Warsaw participated in the project. The University of Warsaw Team invited 12 out of them to give their feedback on the experience via In-Depth Interviews.
The Team decided not only to gather their opinion on the platform itself, but also to test with them deliberation, briefing materials and moderation norms in relation to their experience. The following questions were asked: What are the attitudes of the participants towards deliberating about the climate? & What opportunities and barriers do the students diagnose in the context of deliberating about the Polish education system? The second question will contribute to the PhD thesis of Junior Researcher Shin Mazur from University of Warsaw.
So far, even though students sincerely examined the areas of improvement for both the platform and the project, in majority they expressed their satisfaction of engaging in the project. They saw it mostly as a great opportunity to meet with different perspectives, gain knowledge and express their own views. For some of the participants it was the first time to take part in any kind of debate and they described the overall atmosphere as pleasant, inspiring and – sometimes surprisingly – full of mutual respect. In next week the rest of the IDIs will be conducted to check if these observations are common for all the students.
Shin Mazur (University of Warsaw)