ON EDUCATORS' METHODOLOGICAL STRATEGIES TO CONTRIBUTE TO YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

If we start from the idea that educators are important agents in the youth empowerment process, this study aims to analyse the vision of education professionals on the use of certain methodologies and strategies which are useful and effective in the processes of youth empowerment. A quantitative analysis is carried out by means of a self-administered questionnaire, answered by a validated sample of 696 educators from five communities in Spain. This analysis makes it possible to describe and analyse educators' methodological strategies in their contribution to youth empowerment processes and to determine how the use of these strategies relates to personal factors such as the size of the territory where they work, professional experience, specific youth training or the area of intervention in which they are located. All of the professionals agree on the importance of using active and participatory methodologies to promote and empower young people and declare that they are applied in a generalised way along with accompanying young people during the educational process. After this initial overview, the research allows us to identify important differences between the application of these methodologies in the rural and urban context (where they are applied more intensively) or depending on whether the educator has obtained specific training in youth; however, other personal variables such as professional experience or the age of the educator are not so explanatory in this analysis. Finally, the fields of professional practice allow us to associate certain methodological profiles.