This section provides ways in which the information necessary to discover educational needs can be collected. These include:
- understanding target groups
- conducting surveys
- finding existing information
- learning from interlocutors and intermediaries
Citizens and voters have many needs that, in an election, translate into themes, issues, concepts, concerns or problems, and that contestants in the election will respond to through their campaign materials. Educators, on the other hand, are interested in only those needs that have the possibility of being met through learning or other educational interventions.
There may well be some needs that can only be satisfied by changes in power relations or the electoral environment. An example of this would be the voters' need for safety at the voting station. Educators may be able to explain the arrangements being made, but only the arrangements themselves will meet the need.
In the above example, educators from a human rights organisation may indeed choose to conduct programmes that go beyond explanation of the arrangements being made to steps that voters can take to better ensure their own safety. Establishing a set of needs, however, will not reduce the strategic and ideological choices that educators must make in determining appropriate programme goals or outcomes.
Nevertheless, it is essential to move beyond a simple description of voter background or an understanding of the political issues of the day, and toward the identification and understanding of a full list of needs to be met by one or more voter education programme. This can be done through the establishment of target groups or learner constituencies. And, while educators will want to prepare programmes that are inclusive, there will be certain cases when the very constituency for whom the programme is prepared have needs that require particular approaches and messages. Many of the programme elements that are described in this topic area have general relevance, but for certain groups there are additional considerations.
A separate section of the topic area (see Educational Objectives) reviews the manner in which such a list of needs can be transmuted into an appropriate set of learning or educational objectives.
