IDEA LEARNING SERIES 2010- REPORT

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REPORT

CAMPAIGNING AND DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION NOVEMBER 2010

CONTENTS

CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................... 1

PART ONE ................................................................................................................................................ 3

PART TWO ............................................................................................................................................... 6

PART THREE ........................................................................................................................................... 14

PART FOUR ............................................................................................................................................ 15

IDEA would like to acknowledge the support of Irish Aid in its work.

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INTRODUCTION

The Irish Development Education Association (IDEA) is an association of organisations and individuals involved in the provision, promotion or advancement of development education throughout the island of Ireland. For IDEA, development education (DE) is an educational response and process aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the shared development of our world. By engaging people critically in and with our increasingly interdependent world, development education aims to challenge global inequalities, and works towards creating a more just and sustainable future for our planet.

Our members come from different regions of the island of Ireland, they work in different sectors of society and have different views and opinions on how to engage the Irish public in development education. What they all share is the vision that their work will contribute to transforming the social, cultural, economic and political structures of the world and the fabric of our society in order to create a more just and equal future for all. IDEA’s aim is to support this diversity. One of our strategic aims is to build capacity in the DE sector. We do this through our annual “Learning Series”, a series of training, discussion and learning events held every 6- 8 weeks. The themes of these events are based on the stated needs of members. (For more on our learning events please see our website.)

When IDEA held its annual conference in 2010 one of the pieces of feedback was that members needed open spaces for discussion about issues of importance to the development education sector. Previous to this, the relationship between campaigning on global issues and development education was highlighted by members in our 2009 needs analysis research as a key issue. In response to this IDEA in September 2010 planned a 3-step offer to members. Firstly we ran a skills-based training on campaigning methods in Dublin and Galway on the 11th and 12th of November, in association with Trapese Popular Education Collective. Secondly, we hosted a World Café Discussion on the 18th of November in Dublin. This event was free and open to everyone to attend. Our aim was to bring campaigners and educators of all kinds together for an honest and stimulating conversation. The discussion led to action points for IDEA to take forward in its representation and policy work.

This report describes the training events, the discussion day and describes what IDEA intends to do next.

If you would like to be involved in action on this issue, or more generally in IDEA, please contact Eimear- eimear@ideaonline.ie – to find out about IDEA Working Groups and how members can be actively involved in the work of the Association. We would like to thank all those who took part in these events in particular; Alice Cutler from Trapese Popular Education Collective, who facilitated the training events, Fleachta Phelan and Ali Leahy from Comhlámh, Nessa Ni Chasaide from Debt and Development Coalition, John Smith from Trócaire and Stefan Kerl from Sudwind in Austria who advised on and contributed to the discussion event.

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PART ONE

Training Events

11th and 12th November, The Greenhouse, Dublin 2 and Galway One World Centre, Galway City.

On the 11th and 12th of November IDEA ran 2 half-day skills-based training events. The aim of the training was to give participants confidence and skills to introduce campaigning methods into their DE practice. It was also an aim to raise some questions for participants about what was the link between DE and campaigning/ other actions. The facilitator was Alice Cutler from Trapese Popular Education Collective (www.trapese.org) based in Bristol. Trapese are a group of educators and activists who began using popular education methods as a way to mobilise members of the public in advance of the Gleneagles G8 Summit in 2005. Since then they have further developed their educational methods and principles. Alice planned a very practical, interactive training to engage participants in hands-on way but also enable them to reflect on and question their own ideas about campaigning and activism. The key question we addressed in both days was “How do we empowers learners to move from awareness toa ction without determining for them what that action is?”

The day began with an exploration of the principles of popular education. Participants discussed these principles in relation to their understanding of DE. Alice discussed how popular education has been a key part of social movements in the past, especially in Latin American countries. She then introduced the Spiral Model of education/ action/ reflection, developed by the Doris Marshall Institute in Toronto. This model is based on the Freirean idea of action/ reflection and proposes a relationship between learning and action. (See below and weblinks for more).

During both days we had a “Bicycle Rack” to post critical questions that arose from the activities. These were fed into the discussion day the following week.

Left L-R: Azucena Bermudez (LASC) Evanna Craig (Concern) Jenna Coriddi (Centre for Global Education, Belfast)

Right L-R: Alice Cutler, Jose Antonio Gutierrez (LASC) Joanne Malone (SUAS) Ali Leahy (Comhlámh) and Hedda Dick (ECO UNESCO)

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The group then moved on to consider when they themselves make the leap to action. This was facilitated with a simple but really effective think-and-listen exercise. Afterwards participants explored some tools for developing campaign ideas. Smaller groups of 3 facilitated exercises with the whole group. Afterwards, participants reflected on how they would use these tools in their own practice. The activities and background information is all available in Trapese’s book: DIY: A Handbook for Changing Our World. This is available from their website and also to purchase from IDEA.

Feedback from participants:

Maximum enjoyment. Taking a step of action is the most important part of learning.

I enjoyed it a lot. Really enjoyed learning about all the campaigning methods and I’ll definitely use some of them.

Left: L-R: Sharon Murphy (GOWC) Jonas Hurte Michael, Denise Griffin and Grace Kennedy (Amnesty).

Right L-R: Suzanne McKane (Galway Refugee Support Group) and Yona Gwembe (Galway Refugee Support Group)

From: Doris Marshall Institute of Education and Action, Toronto. Image Source: www.thechangeagency.org

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I enjoyed the day. I primarily enjoyed learning about popular education as a concept that I wasn’t familiar with.

Enjoyed the day a lot- thank you. Reinforced the importance of beginning from people’s experience.

Felt I had an introduction already beforehand- now confirmed what I knew, made me surer of doing it.

Yes, it helped. I feel my campaigning is not very effective so this training enables me to do better, hence more confident.

Looking forward also to the discussion later this week. Some of the problems with moving from learning to action are organisational, so need to be addressed at a higher level, ie strategic, operational planning, when is Dev ed or campaigning the appropriate tool...

Feel that I am still not much closer to finding the link from awareness to action and how to encourage it (even in myself!)

I like it because its fresh, innovative, inclusive, highlights importance of ordinary people (public = people)

A Toolkit workshop could make clearer

Thanks for a really stimulating day. make it longer next time!

This training should come up again, thanks

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PART TWO WORLD CAFE DISCUSSION

18th November 2010, The Greenhouse, Dublin 2.

MENU

Input from Stefan Kerl

Stefan Kerl, head of campaigns in the Austrian NGO Sudwind shared the experience of the Austrian development education platform on the same issue. Partly necessitated by funding realities, the Austrian platform went through a process of clearly defining both DE and campaigning. He offered a clear understanding of each for participants to agree/ disagree with.

time activity 1:45pm Welcome and Introduction 1:50pm Input from Stefan Kerl, Suedwind, Austria. 2:20pm Provocations from 3 speakers

Nessa Ni Chasaide (Debt and Development Coalition) Fleachta Phelan (Comhlámh) John Smith (Trócaire)

2:35pm Introduction of the key questions 2:45pm Round 1

Q: What, in your experience, are the challenges of linking campaigning and education on global issues?

3:10pm Round 2 Participants share their discussions from Round 1 Q: How would a clear distinction between DE and C overcome these challenges?

3:35pm Round 3 (Harvest Round) Q: What actions could be taken to create an enabling environment for campaigning and de to have a more effective (long-term) relationship?

4:00pm Feedback from each table 4:30pm Close

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Excerpts from Stefan Kerl’s Presentation

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Provocations

This was followed by 3 short provocations from John Smith (Trócaire), Fleachta Phelan (Comhlámh) and Nessa Ní Chasaide (Debt and Development Coalition).

Discussion The World Café Discussion began with the question:

What, in your experience, are the challenges of linking campaigning and education on global issues?

Outcomes of this discussion included:

“If you want to kill a revolution make them write applications.(Or give them cheese)”

“Funding divides us, channels us...”

“How do you define action or change? on what timescale?”

“Professionalisation of activism. Or segmentation. Professions prevent us from building social movements.”

“We know they are linked- but the average taxpayer doesn’t”

“Campaigning needs to be more of and from the people.”

“In an ideal world we would be funded for campaigning as well as dev ed- depending on appropriateness.”

“The 2 should be linked- separate but linked.”

“The challenge is not linking them.”

“Action can be more than campaigning- Lack of clarity around what is action and what is campaigning.”

“Suite of options- is DE directive or open?”

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“Teaching IS an action... Teachers are activists”

“What to do after awareness? Appropriate action?”

“Should Campaigning and Education be like stepping into 2 different hats?”

“Types of action around reflection, analysis, awareness-raising.”

“Need to take Irish Aid notion out of our discussions.”

“Having to separate them reduces the effectiveness of our work.”

“Action is good! Therefore campaigning is better than DE but MPH (?)”

“Active campaigning needs to be a core element of all DE.”

“Funding environment/ Irish Aid agenda- reluctance to have criticism come back to government.”

“Ethics/ power relations NB Set up.”

“Compatibility? Complexity -> simplicity.”

The Second Round question was:

How would a clear distinction between DE and C overcome these challenges?

“Keep edge in campaigning”

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“Access some funding? (maybe none)”

“Should there be a distinction? Reinterpret own policy to include campaigning.”

“Yes, there should be a distinction. Links. Q’s of tactics- old/ current/ new”

“It wouldn’t?”

“Need cross-fertilisation.”

“Good for funding and presenting yourself to the public – respectability”

“People can be clear what part of the continuum they’re working on/ their approach while remaining aware of the others.”

“DE must include power. anger, action or its not DE.”

“Useful to have a conceptual distinction.”

“Are we giving into pressure by doing this?”

“Education is action”

“Shouldn’t be narrow definition or dictated by Irish Aid.”

“Would a distinctions help? Maybe not.”

“They always need to work together. Separating them is the problem”

“(Will it) compartmentalise activism?”

“In Amnesty, education and campaigns are mutually supportive.”

“In Loreto school network, (we feel) there should be a distinction- the issues are complex.”

“Education can be more radical than campaigning.”

“Education work can inform and shape campaign work.”

“Lack of information around campaigns- also other groups and campaigns working against each other- leads to propaganda.”

“Certain campaign issues can prevent you from available of opportunities to educate.”

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The Third Round was a Harvest round. Participants were asked to develop their ideas into action points for:

a) Themselves in their own practice

• Try to be brave and outspoken on this topic • Articulate principles and values common to DE and C

• Bring more of an action perspective into the understanding of Dev Ed in my org. • Acknowledging value of both approaches- respect and understanding

• Support the initiatives/ campaigns of other organisations • Get beyond the jargon- focus on what we want to do not what the definition “tells”

us to do.

• Respect and understanding between campaigners and educators • Recognise the value of both approaches

• (State) shared principles/ values • Resource-sharing and support

• Make the organisational changes that we need to happen! • Rethink how we’ve organised dev ed and campaigning. Broaden space for education

and action.

• Work action into the core of all dev ed programmes. • Respond to needs for action as starting points for Dev Ed

• As teachers we should be “student-focused” to allow more input (less teacher-talk) with regard to possible action/outcomes.

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b) Organisations

• Create spaces for discussion and learning (between teams and individuals) • (introduce) southern perspectives/ working with other org’s working with

Southern Org’s • Leave spave for volunteer-led campaigns

• Find alternative sources of funding

• Use campaigns to engage adults in Ed of self and others • Work on collaborative projects with other more and less political groups-

solidarity • NGOs working together

• Funding should not be a straitjacket- try to find other ways around it.

• Don’t make conceptual distinction between Action and Dev Ed into an occupational one.

• Speak to other org’s under pressure re their DE activities, towards common front

c) IDEA

• Bring us beyond debate to a common position for sector. • Articulate theory of campaigning as education

• Gather practice/ experience/ case studies of campaigns as educational processes. • Value for Money- show funders that campaigners are cheaper and more effective at

getting multipliers

• Lobby and build links with organisations that use a HR/ Community Dev’t approach • Help sector move beyond the Irish Aid definition of Dev Ed to defend the importance

of ACTION. • Develop codes of practice for NGOs working in schools WRT campaigns and

campaigning groups.

• Encourage solidarity between groups/ organisations. Challenge negative perceptions.

• Spaces for discussion and learning (between org’s) • Position reflective of sector – advocate

• Identify new donors (diversify funding base) supporting collaboration.

• Support collaboration between organisations. • Advocate a position reflective of sector.

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PART THREE Follow Up

IDEA will respond to the suggestions put forward in three ways.

1. Immediate Follow-up (Short-term) To facilitate a meeting and discussion space for organisations that have indicated a need to share their experience on a more detailed level. The aim of the first meeting is to set up a task group that will work closely with IDEA on future steps.

2. Position Paper (medium term) IDEA will produce a discussion paper on this issue after further consultation with the task group. This discussion paper will be a first step in producing a position paper on this issue that will then allow IDEA to engage in a policy dialogue with Irish Aid, ensuring policy is informed by the needs and positions of the sector. The position paper is planned to be ready for final consultation by the end of January 2011.

3. Policy Dialogue (long-term) ...with Irish Aid IDEA seeks to engage in an on-going policy dialogue on this matter with Irish Aid. The task group will help to get the right balance in representing the views of the sector. ...within the sector IDEA will seek to facilitate closer collaboration and a better dialogue about this issue in the sector, taking up some of the recommendations made during the third round of the cafe discussion namely:

• Gather practice/ experience/ case studies of campaigns as educational processes.

• Lobby and build links with organisations that use a HR/ Community Dev’t approach • Help sector move beyond the Irish Aid definition of Dev Ed to defend the importance

of ACTION. • Develop codes of practice for NGOs working in schools WRT campaigns and

campaigning groups.

• Spaces for discussion and learning (between org’s) • Position reflective of sector – advocate

• Identify new donors (diversify funding base) supporting collaboration. • Support collaboration between organisations.

If you would like to be involved in these actions, or more generally in IDEA, please contact Eimear- eimear@ideaonline.ie – to find out about IDEA Working Groups and how members can be actively involved in the work of the Association.

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PART FOUR APPENDICES

1. WEBLINKS

Popular Education www.trapese.org http://www.thechangeagency.org/ Debt and Development Coalition http://www.debtireland.org/ Comhlámh http://www.comhlamh.org/ Trócaire http://www.trocaire.org/ Sudwind http://www.suedwind-agentur.at/start.asp?ID=15013&b=466 Policy and Practice Issue focused on Campaigning www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue8 INDEX Issue on Campaigning and DE: www.comhlamh.org/assets/pdf/85_issue09_web.pdf IDEA www.ideaonline.ie

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2. PRINCIPLES OF POPULAR EDUCATION

1. A commitment to transformation and freedom - At the heart of popular education is a desire not just to understand the world, but to empower people so they can change it. 2. Learning our own histories not his-story - Although there is always at least two sides to every story, the vast majority of official history is exactly that his-story, written by the literate educated few, mainly men, not by peasants, workers, fighters, or women. We are taught about leaders of world wars and histories of great scientists, but not much about the silent millions who struggled daily for justice. These are the ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things who are the invisible makers of history. 3. Starting from daily realities - Looking at how problems and issues affect people in their daily lives 4.Learning together as equals and showing solidarity - Popular education aims to break down the relationship between teachers/ students and educators and participants. 5.Getting out of the classroom - Learning can take place everywhere and anywhere 6.Inspiring social change - enabling particpants to feel connected to wider issues and to be take action on the issues that concern them.

(Source: www.trapese.org )

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3. European Development Education and Awareness Raising Study (Nov 2010)- Distinction between Campaigning and DE

Source: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/aidco/images/3/32/Final_Report_Annex_A.pdf p. 119.

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4. ATTENDEES OF THE TRAINING EVENTS

NAME ORGANISATION

1 Jenna Coriddi Centre for Global Education

2 Evanna Craig Concern

3 Jerrieann O’Sullivan ECO-UNSCO

4 Hedda Dick ECO-UNESCO

5 Gilbert Storrs Freelance

6 Joanne Malone SUAS

7 Ali Leahy Comhlámh

8 José Antonio Gutierrez LASC

9 Shane Curry LASC

10 Azucena Bermudez LASC

11 Yona Gwembe Galway Refugee Support Group

12 Denise Griffin Freelance

13 Suzanne McKane Galway Refugee Support Group

14 Trisha Buddin Galway One World Centre

15 Heike Vornhagen Galway One World Centre

16 Sharon Murphy Galway One World Centre

17 Vicky Donnelly Galway One World Centre

18 Samuel Odukoya

19 Yonsa Habtemichael

20 Grace Kennedy Amnesty

21 Geraldine McDermott Freelance

22 Servy Marine Amnesty

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5. ATTENDEES OF THE WORLD CAFÉ DISCUSSION EVENT

NAME ORGANISATION

1 Michael Denny Loreto Education Centre

2 Freda Hughes Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

3 Robin Hanan Independent consultant

4 Joanne Malone SUAS

5 Azucena Bermudez LASC

6 Susan Hensel AFRI

7 Anne Molloy AFRI

8 Ciara Dempsey Independent

9 Shane O’Curry LASC

10 Eamonn Casey Dóchas

11 Jerrieann O’Sullivan Independent

12 Miren Maialen Samper Independent

13 John Smith Trócaire

14 Nessa Ni Chasaide Debt and Development Coalition Ireland

15 Adrienne Boyle Age Action Ireland

16 Thomas Emplesmr Comhlámh

17 José Antonio Gutierrez LASC

18 Fleachta Phelan Comhlámh

19 Ali Leahy Comhlámh

20 Conall O’Caoimh Value Added Africa

21 Stefan Kerl Sudwind