MA in Community Education, Equality and Social
Activism
Another
world is possible: learning from each other's struggles
NUI Maynooth Depts of Sociology and Adult & Community Education
How can we bring about social justice and environmental survival in Ireland and beyond?
From the Land League to
women’s liberation and from the Dublin Lockout to community activism, the
struggle for equality and social change has been driven by social movements
from below. Today, ecological campaigners have put climate change on the
agenda, global justice activists have highlighted the crisis of neo-liberal
capitalism and popular movements have changed the world, from Latin America to the Arab world and from South Africa to Eastern
Europe.
As austerity politics bites,
cuts target the poorest communities and neo-liberal “business as usual” tries
to roll over democracy and popular organisations, social movements are
having to rethink their strategies and communities are taking a hard look at their own understandings of how social change can come about. What can we learn from each other’s struggles for equality and
justice - and what do we already
know about how to change the world?
This course brings together
students who want to learn how to make equality and social justice into
realities, with more experienced activists in community education and social
movements looking for space to reflect on their own work, and a team of staff
who are experienced teachers and researchers, community educators and social
movement practitioners - to form a community of practitioners learning from
each other’s experiences and struggles to create new kinds of “really useful knowledge”
and develop alternatives.
This course enables
students to think about how to build real alternatives to challenge existing
structures of oppression and injustice. It is about developing our
capacity to change the world through community education, grassroots community
activism and social movement campaigning. In the face of powerful voices
telling us that “there is no alternative” but to trust in their expertise and
solutions, this course starts from the view that “another world is already
under construction”.
The main force
behind positive social change in Ireland and globally has always been
"people power": those who were not "on the inside", without
property, status or power coming together to push for change where it was
needed. Community activism, the women's movement, global justice campaigners,
self-organising by travellers and new Irish communities, trade unions, GLBTQ
campaigning, environmentalism, international solidarity, anti-racism, anti-war
activism, survivors of institutional abuse, human rights work, the deaf
movement and many other such movements have reshaped our society and put human
need on the agenda beside profit and power. This process has not ended.
Movement participants
have developed important bodies of knowledge about how to do this, which are
fundamental starting-points for trying to make a better world possible. Radical
adult and community educators help develop knowledge and learning that are
critical and questioning, that are aware of taken-for-granted assumptions, that
are systemic, political and social, that ask difficult questions, that are
against technical and one-dimensional thinking alone. In the age of Occupy and
Shell to Sea, anti-austerity struggles and radical media, global justice and communities in crisis, what can we learn from each other’s struggles?
What students say about the course:
“In a world where
injustice is the norm, there is a sense that there is a whole world of people
out there fighting alongside you and that at last, change
just might be possible.”
“There are misunderstandings about the word activism… If you are
challenging the system and the way it is, then you are an activist, you are not
passively existing in the world, you are taking action…”
“The knowledge and experience of activists are valued.”
“A chance to get really detailed feedback on the way you’re thinking
about how to change things.”
“It’s a course for practitioners.”
The Departments
of Sociology and Adult & Community Education collaborate on this MA to
develop thinking about critical pedagogy in community education; power and
praxis in social movements; and understandings of equality, transformation and
sustainability. Our commitment to the public use of academic knowledge is a
long-standing one and we have a wide range of practical experience as well as
research-based knowledge. This includes involvement with social movements,
community activism and issue-based campaigning; media work and public debate;
active involvement in political parties, trade unions and lobbying groups;
community education and literacy; development and human rights work. Maynooth is also Ireland's leading centre for research on social movements and one of the few venues in Europe with so much expertise in the area. Our
student body is very diverse, with a wealth of different experiences and a
strong tradition of involvement in community development and social activism.
The course
explores three core strands: Critical
and praxis-oriented forms of thinking (e.g. in community education, social
theory, media literacy, participatory action research…); Equality and Social Justice (e.g. in feminist praxis, social class, race, political economy, social change...); and Power,
politics and praxis (e.g. in social movements, community activism,
grassroots organising, environmental justice…) The course content is
all taught from the standpoint of "praxis": the understanding that
theory without practice is meaningless, while practice without theory is likely
to fail. The basis of our work is dialogue between reflective practitioners,
systematically including both these aspects.
What students say about the practical benefits:
“Helps to makes links with
fellow activists working in different movements.”
“A chance to challenge and enhance your practice.”
“Puts names on things that you have done and helps to frame your ideas.”
“An opportunity to work collectively.”
“Make friends, networks, comrades.”
“An opportunity to challenge academic norms.”
“A chance to be more objective about your practice.”
Course participants
Both Departments
have a long history of attracting students who are concerned about social and
global justice and keen to draw on their analytical skills to develop a
professional life in these areas, including mature students who have already
had such an engagement and want to develop their practice further. This
programme is aimed at the needs of this very diverse group. This includes
those involved in social movements, community development, adult learning, grassroots
activism, workers in NGOs and statutory agencies, and minority rights organisers.
The course is
geared to bringing together the best of practitioner skills in the field with
the best of academic research. Our workshops are not traditional classroom
experiences but draw on our community, popular and radical educational practice
to bring out and work with participants' existing knowledge. We bring our own
lived experience into the classroom, and encourage other participants to do the
same, creating a conversation between practitioners in which students are not
passive learners and teachers are not unquestioned experts. We also bring in a
wide range of outside mentors.
The course is
aimed at people who already have either basic knowledge of social analysis or
experience of social movement organising (or both!) It helps you round out your
own skills and understanding across the theory / practice barrier and across
different movements, times and contexts. This bigger picture, developing
yourself as a reflexive practitioner with a strategic perspective, will enable
you to contribute powerfully to social movements, community education projects
and activist organisations - or to create new ones.
The programme
attracts a wide range of students, with very diverse backgrounds, movements and
levels of experience. Participants so far have included working-class community
organisers and radical ecologists, radical educators and service user
campaigners, feminists and rural community activists, GLBTQ rights campaigners
and trade unionists, adult educators and radical artists, migrant rights organisers and media activists, young graduates and experienced
political organisers.
Students’ experience of the
course:
“It’s fun and challenging, constantly changing.”
“Moves beyond/transcends your own organisation or movement. That can
help to change your practice as well.”
“Can be fun and interactive and our input feels valued.”
“Challenges your views and perspectives.”
“The lecturers are open to being challenged and to change academic
practices.”
“We were very lucky in our class group
dynamic and a willingness for each person to reveal who they really are.”
“The lecturers are deadly too!”
Programme
The course
involves two days a week on campus (typically Monday and Tuesday) over two
twelve-week semesters, along with independent reading and study which you
should expect to take another two days equivalent during the rest of the week.
Your thesis, which is usually linked to a movement project you are involved in
or developing, typically takes three - four months after the end of classes. The
programme includes core modules in “Community of praxis”;
“Power and politics”; “Radical education and critical pedagogy”,
“Equality and social justice” and "Feminist theory and practice". Along with these students choose one
elective module a term, such as “The market, the state and social movements”,
“Critical media and cultural pedagogy in communities", “Participatory action research in
social movement practice”, “Political economy”, “Environmental justice” or
“Sustainable communities”.
We
run special sessions
on topics like “Sustainable organising”; “Critical media literacy” and “Digital media production” and invite a wide
range of movement speakers to discuss their work. Field trips to date
have
visited community projects and direct action campaigns, local oral
history
projects and social centres. Major events have included our “Masked Activists’ Ball” launch,
our “Beyond the crisis” seminar with John Holloway, a conference “New agendas in socialmovement studies” and a workshop "How can women resist austerity?" with Selma James. Finally, participants take research modules and complete a
thesis project. This is geared towards developing your practice in a particular
area, helping to contribute to a particular movement, and is often produced in
a format which will be accessible and useful to other people in that movement.
Participants
will leave the course with a deeper understanding of how the politics of
equality and inequality works in a range of substantive areas. They will have
developed the skill of practicing "politics from below": active
citizenship, civil society, community education and development, social
movements and other forms of popular agency. They will have gained skill as a
reflexive researcher, developed their writing and presentation skills and
completed a practice-based research project. This is embedded within a wider
learning community where participants are supported to stay connected after
graduation and the course itself builds links with a range of different social
movement projects.
Reflections from past students:
“There’s a lot of self-evaluation and self-reflection.”
“Really clear your timetable, take the
opportunity to step back from your work.”
“I didn’t realise how much reflection is on the course.”
Contact and admissions
The course
website is http://ceesa-ma.blogspot.com.
Application is via the HEA’s online PAC system, at http://www.pac.ie.
The course code is MHA64; the deadline for applications is Friday May 30th 2014.
The minimum requirement is a primary degree (BA etc.) in social science,
humanities or adult education at 2:2 level, or the equivalent. For any queries,
please contact the Dept. of Adult and Community Education, NUI Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland at adcomed@nuim.ie or (+353-1) 708 3784. Our website includes information on fees,
grants and scholarships for 2014 - 15.
Admission is by
interview with staff members, and offers of interview are made on the basis of
the online application. Your personal statement is particularly important in
this, because this is a practitioner course which is geared towards supporting
you in developing your own practice.
You do not have
to have a particular level of experience in order to be accepted on the course.
We accept students at all levels, from school-leavers who had just completed an
undergraduate degree to mature students who have been active in movements for
decades, and this classroom diversity is part of the richness of the course.
Participants learn greatly from each other’s life experiences and organising
knowledge, intellectual perspectives and political traditions. The personal
statement helps us to gauge how each participant might gain from the course.
A student says:
“The main thing I enjoyed
from the course was not what we learnt but how we learned it. For me the mix of
people in the class was electric and we all learned so much from each
other. In a way I didn’t feel like I was
going into ‘college’. This was greatly encouraged from the lecturers who by the
way are experts in their fields and are always at hand for guidance, advice and
criticism. In a way I even feel awkward
calling them lecturers as the whole learning process for me was so far removed
from what most are used to in a college setting.
As regards the material, like
all reflection and philosophising, one day you could be disillusioned with
everything, doubting and questioning everything you ever stood for while the
next day you want to take on the world, but what kept it together was the
energy and camaraderie and that we were all in it together. I hope courses like this and more importantly
the whole critical way of learning together is mirrored in other colleges and
institutions. And for those like ourselves who are serious and committed about
what we do, there is no time like the present to do this course. I already feel
the knowledge I gained and more importantly the network of people I have met
will be vital to any campaign or project I will be involved with in the
future.”
