Step 1
Discover your wish to know
Understand
The first step to a monitoring process is trying to reach the expectations, interests, curiosities, and needs that each young person has. Starting from the very origin of the word (see call to refl-action 2), the wish or desire deals with two complementary but different aspects:
- The sense of lack (from ‘de-sidus’, literally ‘lack of stars’), of something missing that needs to be fulfilled or changed;
- The passion for something (‘Wunsch’ or ‘wish’, which means a ‘vow’ to do something), which pushes first toward understanding what that ‘something’ is and giving it a name and some defined borders and then, to reaching it.
Hence, knowledge and curiosity about the public good which lies at the very heart of monitoring – can be an ‘object of desire’. It triggers a wish to know.
Experience
Every training path that leads to integrity and anti-corruption should start by educating young people about their desires and hence, by listening to them. It will enable the youth to get fully involved and take ownership of the process.
From a pedagogical point of view, working on desire during an anti-corruption training means taking two steps:
- Know how to listen to young people’s desires: Take time to explore their emotions, expectations and hidden questions.
- Dissect, organise, and connect these desires so that they move from an individual to a collective dimension: Identifying desires with similar characteristics allows youth to evolve on the path towards a political dimension in which they determine the concrete objects of the monitoring they want to perform. Guide the group in this process, understanding that most of the time individual desires and needs are related to broader social dynamics, and this second dimension will be the focus of this educational work.
We suggest you address these points through a non-formal, non-frontal approach, such as through the activities we provide below.
