2.1 Factors to consider for your political contact

We have identified the following five factors that will have an impact on the effectiveness of your Dialogue session.

Preparatory workshops

At the heart of our pedagogy is ensuring that learners are suitably informed about political issues and the roles and responsibilities of the person they are meeting with.

We've found that the biggest determination of the positive impact Digital Dialogues have is based on how prepared the learners are to engage. This is why we place such an emphasis on our Explore, Understand, Prepare structure in the programme, which we will break down later in Module 4 - Learning Resources.

Why preparation is important – Rishi Sunak asks young people for questions.

Following our pedagogy ensures learners have the tools they need to make the most of the opportunity that comes with engaging with their representatives. Poor preparation can lead to situations like the one former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced in the video below.

We also value the importance of briefing politicians effectively, so that their answers are snappy and to the point, the result of not doing this is highlighted in this video with former President Barack Obama.

Class size

Over time, teachers have delivered the programme in a variety of ways and with a varied amount of learners. However, we have found that learners are much more likely to build confidence, trust and relationships with politicians when engaging in groups smaller than 40. 

For example, when asked if they agreed with the statement “I trust politicians” after meeting a politician, smaller groups saw a 10% increase whereas learners in groups of 40+ were slightly less likely to agree and saw a 2% decrease. We therefore encourage all teachers delivering the programme to work with smaller amounts of learners per session when possible.

If larger groups are necessary, we suggest structuring the preparation the learners take part in to ensure they feel ownership of the questions that are selected to be asked, even if they won’t get the opportunity to actually ask those questions. You can find further guidance on this in Module 5 - Dialogue Session Formats and Module 7 - Facilitating a Dialogue.

Number of dialogue sessions

For each school we can arrange up to six Dialogue sessions in an academic year, though most schools currently have two or three sessions a year. It is up to you how you use those sessions - you may want a different group of learners to take part in each session, or the same group of learners to have multiple Dialogue sessions. 

We advise that the same group of learners takes part in two Dialogue sessions. Though still interesting for the learners, more than two sessions doesn’t usually have much more of an impact on the learners knowledge or understanding of politics and democracy.

Digital or in person

The majority of the Dialogue sessions we deliver are online via video conferencing. We’ve been delivering Dialogue sessions through digital platforms since 2017 and are experts in facilitating online events. We can arrange in person sessions, but over the years we have identified some key benefits of doing political contact digitally: 

Efficiency - Coordinating the diaries of both schools and politicians can be challenging, so running sessions online is logistically easier, especially for MSs and MPs with constituencies a long way from Cardiff or London. Many councillors work other jobs alongside their council work meaning they can't engage during the school day any other way. 

Facilitation - The Politics Project has facilitated Dialogue sessions since 2015. We are experts on ensuring that Dialogue sessions run smoothly and are engaging for all concerned. Due to capacity issues we are unable to facilitate in person Dialogues, though we can provide guidance. 

Accessible -  Young people often find it less intimidating to ask direct questions and give their opinions when engaging online rather than in-person. Online sessions also allow easy simultaneous translation of Welsh into English, allowing participants who can’t speak Welsh to still answer questions from learners who prefer to speak Welsh.

“The Digital Dialogue sessions with my local schools were really lively and informative... It’s a great way of engaging school pupils in the work of parliament and democracy. Pupils get to see the human face of politicians, and we get to hear the questions and ideas of our youngest citizens.” Huw Irranca-Davies, Member of the Senedd, Labour Party

Politician type

Through our work we collaborate with politicians of all levels - local, devolved and UK national. Different politician roles can lead to different outcomes. See Module 3 - What Do You Want To Achieve for more information.

Often though there’s a preference to work with Members of the Senedd or Members of Parliament  before local councillors, as they are seen as more senior politicians with bigger profiles. However, we find that political contact with local councillors is just as impactful as with national politicians.

In particular, if you’re looking to give your learners an opportunity to make a difference in their local community a local councillor is often the best politician to engage. This is particularly demonstrated through "pledges", which we will discuss later in Module 10 - After Your Dialogue.

Here's a clip from a Dialogue session in England, where Cllr Oliver Newton answered the learner's question "Do you think there's more doors or wheels in the world?" whilst showing the class around the council building.