Modes of Student Participation in a Transnational Peace Education Program in Latin America

Student participation has been extensively studied across educational settings, often in terms of institutional arrangements, levels of decision-making power, or observable indicators such as attendance and task completion. However, less attention has been paid to the criteria through which participants themselves distinguish substantive participation from mere presence and assess its contribution to the educational process. This study analyzed modes of student participation emerging from the systematization of the Jóvenes Voluntari@s Universitari@s por la Paz (JVUP) program, a Transformative Peace Education initiative implemented across six Latin American countries. Using a participatory systematization methodology, data from program records, self-assessment instruments, interviews, and Participatory Meetings for Social Reflexivity and Social Creativity across five cohorts were analyzed. The findings revealed that participants characterized substantive participation through three interrelated dimensions: active engagement, persistence, and commitment to their own learning and development, that of their peers, and the functioning of the educational process. Four empirically grounded modes were identified: synergistic, singular, pseudo-participatory, and inhibiting. A violating mode was included as a theoretical possibility that completes the spectrum and, by contrast, helps define the horizon of transformative participation. Together, these modes encompass eight participation styles differentiated by the intensity and continuity of active engagement and persistence. The study concluded that student participation is a multidimensional, nonlinear configuration shaped by relational agency, affective commitment, and the capacity to address needs synergistically.