[PeDAGoG] A Proposal (Generating a reading list collaboratively on 'Alternative Pedagogies')

Thu Apr 7 11:02:56 CEST 2022

Dear lovely people of PeDAGoG, EDUCERE, GTA, Eco-varsities and more!

(If I miss any network or name - I request Urvi- the new coordinator of
PeDAGoG) to add and forward...)

Kindly see the email below.

Christine Dann reached out to us after the 1st webinar and suggested an
interesting idea : Generating a  resource list on  'alternative pedagogies'
.together.

If any one here is interested to contribute to this idea, please  get in
touch with Christine Dann directly (email below).

Best,
Pallavi
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Christine Dann <christine at horomaka.org>
Date: Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [PeDAGoG] Webinar recording of LIving Utopias webinar
To: Pallavi Varma Patil <pallavi.vp at apu.edu.in>

Kia ora Pallavi,

I watched/listened to the webinar last night and went to bed thinking about
it. When I woke up the words "It is about autonomous learning for
autonomous living" were in my head.
(Whereas the standard 'education' system is about Other-directed learning
for Other-directed purposes - like a bullshit job, or being a good
consumer, etc.)

A lot of the discussion in the webinar was around this issue of autonomy,
as in "how autonomous (free, innovative) can teachers employed by academic
institutions be?" and "how autonomous are the students when it comes to
living what they have learned - putting ideas into activist practice?"

Most of my 50 year 'career' to date has been as a researcher, writer and
political organiser, but I have also taught at secondary, tertiary and
adult eduction levels, including subjects and courses as varied as an
Honours class in Feminist Issues in Education, a night class in cottage
gardening, a second year university level course on wellbeing, and a third
year course on environmental policy. I also studied education to level 3 at
university (1971-73) and did two honours papers in Philosophy of Education
(different universities).

I haven't introduced myself to the PeDaGoG group as I am no longer actively
engaged in any forms of teaching. But I have been thinking about
'alternative' education for a long time, and still have an interest in it.
In terms of what I might be able to contribute to the resources which you
and Sujit are compiling,  I thought that a reading list (with web links
where relevant) to the main advocates for alternative pedagogies from the
1970s to today might be useful. I could start a draft for sharing with
everyone, and they could add whoever they think is also important.

I have no experience with children under 12, so what I can contribute is
mostly about older students. Hopefully there will be members of PeDaGoG who
are knowledgeable about doing things differently with small children - like
the young man on the webinar who spoke about engaging children in livestock
care by starting with teaching them to vaccinate chickens.

For doing things differently with older students, George Lakey's 2010
book *Facilitating
Group Learning: Strategies for Success with Adult Learners* is essential.
There is more about this approach here - https://www.trainingforchange.org/
Lakey and the other trainers for change put a lot of emphasis on forming
the group and stabilising it, so that everyone feels included, before they
move on to whatever the actual content of the course or workshop is
supposed to be. This might be important for having more long-term success
with your residential courses. It is hard for people to have commitment to
a project or cause and working on it with each other unless this goal is
valued and reinforced as much or more than any facts or tools they may
acquire from a class.

I hope this is helpful.

nga mihi nui (warm greetings)

Christine

On 5/04/22 03:06, Pallavi Varma Patil wrote:

Dear all,

   1. Please find here
   <https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/webinars:2022:learning:01>
   the recording of the April 1, 2022 webinar that was held in collaboration
   with PeDAGoG, EDUCERE, and GTA ( The Global Tapestry of Alternatives).
   2. The webinar was designed to share the educational initiative from
   India, Living Utopias, and it resulted in a very interesting discussion
   about the future of such initiatives, its pedagogies, and potential scope.
   A very special thank you to those who could make it and for holding the
   space for some very useful and lively discussions.To those who wanted to
   make it but couldn't, we missed you.
   3. We are hoping that the ball will keep rolling now and look forward to
   the next such learning space online. We dropped enough hints for Dan Baron
   (From EDUCERE) to take our offer and hope that we can next travel (online)
   from India to the Amazon!
   4. Here
   <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sY1zrrRvYYh0l-6qCmRjQJwKun4BJMOH7jRJ7XK2huI/edit#gid=1612978896>
   is the sign up sheet for not just Dan but others too if you are interested
   to offer a short talk on your initiative or course.
   5. The format we tried out for the 1st such 'Alternative Education'
   webinar was 15 minutes of talk and 45 minutes of discussion. We can
   certainly try out other formats to make the online space more free flowing
   and all trials towards this are welcome!

Best wishes,
Group 2 Working Group members (PeDAGoG)
(Mohan, Irene, and Pallavi)
-- 
https://naitaleem.wordpress.com/

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-- 
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