Yesterday, the DEFY project held an orientation meeting for the long-term course ‘Shifting Boundaries’, a preparation for the space we are opening in the last days of January.
DEFY is a pilot project developed together with educators and pedagogues, designed for teachers in schools, university lecturers, moderators, facilitators within NGOs, youth workers, activists, and other education professionals in Ireland, Slovenia, Germany, and beyond.
The project builds on the past reflections and range of work of many before us, and offers a space(s) for enquiry and forging a more intimate relationship with the discomfort that the process of recognition and engagement in multiple crises of oppression and collapse brings.
One of these spaces is the upcoming course ‘Shifting Boundaries’, which we are launching (initially in an online format) with a group of 35 trainers.
The duration of the course is between January and September 2025 and it will be held in two chapters:
Chapter 1 = Exploration
Chapter 2: Expansion
At this stage, we see DEFY as a living organism, with this course as one of its key components this year. The course space is offered as a “companion” for participants, aiming to provide additional support and resources to (already overburdened) educators.
Shifting Edges: A Journey for Educators into “difficult-knowledge” and “discomfort”. This community explores questions such as:
- What – in these moments of multiple crises – do we as educators give space to in our practice?
- What do we choose to let into the (learning) spaces we hold? What do we keep out? What enters regardless?
- Is there anything in the spaces of our practice that we feel deserves more space and time?
- Where are the cracks and possibilities for other ways of engaging—perhaps for greater depth?
- How can we bring more creativity into the spaces and make deeper friends with the cracks, the discomfort and what is ‘troubling’?
We are currently answering the above questions by asking: ‘(What all) starts within ourselves and spills over into the spaces of our practice?’
More information and links about the project and the course are available here.
You can also follow the progress of the project on social media (IG; FB).
If you have any further questions, please contact us at: koordinacija@zavod-voluntariat.si in/ali the.defy.collective@gmail.com.
* We are finding that there are challenges in translating into Slovene and German during the pilot project. If you have any other suggestions for translations of the terms used, such as ‘difficult knowledge’, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are open to suggestions and adaptations.
** Partner organisations: Suas/STAND (Ireland), Comhlámh (Ireland), finep (Germany) in Zavod Voluntariat (Slovenia)
*** Co-funded by the European Union (Erasmus+ Program)
