The last few weeks have been very busy with two consecutive YAM instructor courses. One in Stockholm, Sweden, and one in Bozeman, Mt, USA. The courses went really well and we are happy to have fifteen new instructors in the USA and twelve in Sweden!
In both courses we had a participants with very different professional backgrounds; this made the discussions dynamic giving many important and distinctive perspectives. Importantly taken together the participants had plenty of experience working with youth in different capacities. We believe that this mix of backgrounds will be very useful when the instructors go into the schools to do YAM with teens.
One topic that often surfaces in our instructor courses relates to cultural adaptation and if YAM needs to be modified depending on the country where it is held. And the very same question is relevant to us when it comes to training YAM instructors across countries. People frequently emphasize cultural differences, but when we compared the experience of training instructors in the USA and Sweden, they weren’t that dissimilar. Of course the individuals present make every course different, but as a whole our experience so far is that training instructors wherever they may be from doesn’t differ very much. This may come as no surprise, but it might tell us something about the “universality” of YAM.
A very real distinction is the environment in which the instructors will put YAM into practice. School systems vary greatly across the world and sometimes within countries, and that is also true for the USA and Sweden. Fortunately YAM is somewhat flexible depending on the context, and we are very confident that the instructors will find the best solution for their local conditions. We are looking forward to hear about their experiences and will keep you posted on the blog.
Guest blogger: Niklas Andersson