Ashish Kothari

Subject:	Re: [PeDAGoG] Reactivating PeDAGoG - Online Discussion on 6th June, 2 PM GMT
Date:	Wed, 2 Jun 2021 16:28:08 +0530
From:	Upamanyu Das <upamanyu.das5@gmail.com>
Reply-To:	PeDAGoG: Post-Development Academic-Activist Global Group <gta-pedagog@lists.ourproject.org>
To:	gta-pedagog@lists.ourproject.org

Dear PeDAGoG colleagues,

For the upcoming online meeting on 6th June 2 PM GMT, we have crowd-sourced ideas for specific themes that we can work on. This will be done using moderated breakout rooms that can have a sharp focus on getting the group to think of short term deliverables. A few PeDAGoG colleagues have volunteered to help moderate these sessions! :)

Please do go through the thematic points, and let us know if there are any additional points you would like to add. Depending on the overall turnout, we can divide/club together certain themes.

Here are themes that we can work upon in this meeting:

1. Pedagogic and knowledge sharing to build and strengthen the repository of materials

This is a broad theme and I can be subdivided into (say) :

1 a) Dynamic and updated reading list on key aspects to be created and maintained on a server.

1 b) Curating and maintaining a database of existing course documents related to PeDaGoG teaching- in and outside of university teaching (even visually on a world map to see where all are we teaching/researching/etc in varied ways would be exciting!)

1 c) Building a repository of classroom resources apart from academic readings such as films/ songs/ poetry/ visuals

2. Research collaborations including action research

3. Co-organization of events (webinar series, online lectures, conference, etc.)

4. Advocacy for PeDaGoG: Exploring the social media platform / writing a news piece about the diverse actors here (drumming some excitement about this group)

5. COLLECTIVE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE PEDAGOG NETWORK (This ideally should be our first focused output in a very short time. We need to set up a statement that new members can refer to)

See you all there!

Best,

Upamanyu

On Thu, 27 May 2021 at 10:43, Ashish Kothari <ashishkothari@riseup.net> wrote:

V. good idea. I am marking also Julia and Angging, the others to respond to the earlier mail, in csae they have ideas for themes. We could also look at the minutes of the previous meeting, where some follow up actions were decdied on, if we want to pick any of them up again ... I am copying Julia's notes from that meeting below. Also adding Vasna here who was helping coordinate that meeting.

One immediate task is to reconstruct the repository of courses/materials/approaches that several members had contributed, and which we lost due to a fire in the server building that hosts the GTA website ... I am copying in Franco to ask if we were able to recover that. Else, we can rebuild it.

Pallavi, can you make a proposal for these thematic groups that we can send out on the list in advance?

thanks

ashish

(mail from Julia, 8 July 2020)

Dear friends, Many thanks to all who could make it and join. It was a joy getting to know you more directly and starting to draft collaborative action!

To keep everyone in the loop, we are sharing the discussion results.
Please everyone - also and especially if you couldn’t be in the session - be invited to add your thoughts and ideas and build on it collectively. https://board.net/p/PeDAGoG_Networking
One important outcome of conversations is, that it would be fruitful to gather round in “working groups” around different topics and actions. We have started collecting some, but obviously the list is non-conclusive and can continuously be elaborated. Everyone is invited to add their names to the list of volunteers!

Three points on interaction we would like to highlight in particular:

People are welcome to invite others within their networks to join PEDAGOG - and maybe include a link for the mail address to subscribe

If people would prefer to remain anonymous on the public spaces, they can email Brandon to express their interest in particular groups and he can connect them.

The lesson from today is that everyone is welcome to initiate an activity, a meeting or a discussion in the network so please feel free to go ahead and suggest things!

Some immediate points on the next steps:

STRUCTURE AND ORGANISING

Organising the communication and sharing in the PEDAGOG space so that material is accessible and not overwhelming the list

social-media presence?

Series of events where we share the approaches we are taking - webinar series from PEDAGOG?

Think about what gaps (geographical, thematic) exist and could be filled (e.g., currently lack of members from Africa)?

Creating a map of our expertise - create a visual tool with themes that concern this group - overlapping circles?

Can some of us find institutional backing, funds?

PEDAGOGIC AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING ACTIVITIES:

Potential to develop sub-groups on the following as a start:

Feminism and political ecology

Teaching exchange through zoom co-teaching

Collaborative journal article writing

Collaboration on Masters education and exchange and summer schools

Youth activist-research outside of mainstream academic structures

COLLECTIVE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE PEDAGOG NETWORK

Ethics and values of PeDAGoG

We need a statement on these for the kinds of transformations we want in society, the kind of academics/learning/teaching we feel is 'right', and the ethics for our own internal functioning of PeDAGoG as a network

Suggestion: Small group of volunteers to start a draft

Three levels that might be important:
1. Ethics of the transformations we want in society - direction of the transformaiton
2. Ethics of our own teaching and learning spaces
3. Ethics of the PEDAGOG network itself - open, inclusive, non-hierarchical
Keep in touch!
Solidarity, Vasna, Brandon, Ashish, Julia