01-01-2022
30-06-2024
The needs assessments pointed to several challenges related to the power dynamics that adult educators face in their work. Some of these challenges are related to individual hierarchy: educators have been criticised for being too vertical, others for leaving all guidance out of their hands, which shows that it is not easy to find the right balance to conform to changing expectations. The challenges linked to group hierarchisation are even more complex: educators unintentionally offend members of minority groups by not combating manifestations of racist attitudes in the classroom, by not correctly integrating a post-colonialist or anti-racist perspective into their training, or by proposing the division between men and women (excluding a non-binary person), etc. On the other hand, they are sometimes criticised for paying too much attention to oppression. For many of them, it is visibly difficult to keep up with changing representations and expectations in the fight against exclusion. (See the attached needs assessment for examples of concrete incidents).
Objectives
Our primary objectives centre on the competences of adult educators to overcome the challenges related to power and hierarchy. Our concrete objectives are to stimulate a better awareness of the challenges of power and hierarchy in education; to raise awareness of the learning pathways needed to overcome the challenges of power and hierarchy in education; to sensitise educators to the need to consider issues of structural discrimination; to develop educators' knowledge of different identity-based exclusions, power dynamics, the contemporary context and debates to trigger changes in attitude towards members of minorities, implying less rejection and more empathy; provide new techniques to create an open, safe and courageous learning space; develop a better ability to act against manifestations of oppression; facilitate the adaptation of a maieutic approach to deal with manifestations of racism, discrimination or resistance; offer strategies to integrate a political dimension into the learning experience, taking into account power relations; increase motivation to integrate a critical intercultural approach into their pedagogical mission, motivating learners to act in favour of more equality.
Activities
As a first activity with the target group, we will collect 40 critical incidents from adult educators and learners that highlight how issues related to power dynamics and hierarchy can create tensions and conflicts in educational activities. Based on their analysis, we will obtain an analysis that will help us to define more precisely the knowledge, attitudes and competences needed in adult education to overcome power-related challenges. To respond to the need for knowledge on identity-based exclusions, we will compile a collection of texts on different forms of exclusion (i.e. gender, race, social class, religion, culture), their roots and their contemporary challenges, as well as the debates surrounding them. Members of majority society sometimes react to members of minorities with rejection and disinterest. These attitudes can have different roots: they can be the consequence of the need to rationally justify their relative privileges, they can derive from long-standing prejudices against these groups that even contribute to maintaining the pattern of discrimination, and they can also result from the attribution of intentional or personal reasons to behaviours that are based on situational constraints.
To contribute to a change in attitude, we will draw up a guide to developing empathy based on an awareness of structural violence. The guide will be shared with partners during joint staff training and tested with educators through a one-day pilot session. We will also work on the skills needed to address issues of power and hierarchy, which we have divided into two stages. A first part consists of providing concrete methods and techniques for creating an inclusive climate for students from all groups (creating a safe space for everyone, ensuring that the perspectives of structural oppressions are taken into account, etc.). To this end, we will create a toolkit compiling concrete techniques. 12 hours of pilot sessions and two days of joint staff training will help us test and adjust the products according to the educators' needs and preferences. A second component consists of enabling educators to put these methods into practice.
As power dynamics are directly linked to feelings of dignity, rejection and oppression, they are a very sensitive area, which often makes it difficult to apply the conceptual knowledge acquired. This is why we want to design theatre-based training, where educators can practice their skills in the safety of the theatre, but already immersed in group dynamics and power dynamics. The training will include the development of sensitivity to power dynamics, the ability to adopt a maieutic attitude to confront manifestations of oppression. Three days of pilot sessions and three days of joint staff training will help us keep the products close to educators' needs and preferences. A second component consists of enabling educators to incorporate these methods into action.
Our final phase of work takes us one step further: educators' mission in favour of equality doesn't have to be limited to preventing the negative consequences of power relations in the classroom; if they want to, they can do more. Our final aim is to show you how, by creating a guide to integrating a critical intercultural approach into the learning process. We will propose a guide based on Freire's approach, which we will co-construct with the adult educators to ensure that it is properly adapted to their working culture.
https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2021-1-FR01-KA220-ADU-000026716
Comissão Europeia, Erasmus+ (Partnerships for cooperation and exchanges of practices / Cooperation partnership in adult education)
2021-1-FR01-KA220-ADU-000026716
European identity, citizenship and values ; Preventing racism and discrimination ; Pedagogy and didactics
Elan Interculturel (França)
Artemisszio Alapitvany (Hungria)
Collectiu Eco-Actiu (Espanha)
Giolli – Societa Cooperativa Sociale – Centro Permanente di Ricerca e Sperimentazione Teatrale sui Metodi Boal e Freire (Itália)
Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Educativas da Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto, com Instituto Paulo Freire de Portugal (Portugal)