“Let us start here, with what we sense and feel in the learning spaces we hold.”.
DEFY is an experiment created with and for educators exploring feelings by evoking feelings and inquiring into discomfort by inviting it in.
It engages with these how we might – as educators:
- increase our capacity to deal with ‘difficult knowledge’;
- “stay with the “difficulties” and;
- be able to hold and hold space for others – especially the young people we work with – to do likewise?
DEFY’s starting point is in the here and now, among peers and within ourselves (Shorr likes to use the term ‘foundational discourse’).
DEFY creates and organises spaces for educators and asks …
- What do we, as educators, create space for in our practice?
- What have we chosen to allow to descend into ourselves?
- What are we holding back? What enters anyway?
- What is it that we feel doesn’t get space or time?
- Where are the cracks and possibilities for other ways of engaging, for greater depth?
- With time for reflection and contemplation, are we aware of how and why we might more creatively and deeply address these cracks, all the discomfort attached to them and that which is troubling? Does it start within ourselves and move into our practice?
- Who and how …
PROJECT PURPOSE: To provide a space for educators:
- to establish a more intimate relationship with the discomfort of acknowledging crises of oppression and collapse;
- to go deeper, to look into the shadows and co-responsibility in violence;
- to feel these issues and pay attention to how our minds, hearts and bodies respond to them.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
- To develop resources that will help youth educators deepen/reframe their work in Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and provide a space to explore and confront ‘difficult knowledge’, affective participation, resilience building and collective responses;
- Train educators to act as resource disseminators in different youth education settings, creating the conditions for new ways of responding to issues of ecological sustainability;
- Reach a variety of new audiences, including educators and young people with no previous experience of GCE, with appropriate learning materials.
TARGET GROUPS OF THE PROJECT: teachers, lecturers, educators, facilitators, youth workers, activists, pedagogues, etc. educators working with young people (in any learning environment) on topics related to social and ecological justice and young people interested in topics related to social and ecological justice.
PROJECT PERIOD: 2023 – 2026 (36 months)
EXPECTED PROJECT RESULT(S):
- A research report covering current and emerging approaches and issues for educators engaged in active citizenship education on climate change with young people (eZine).
- A training of trainers manual (companion) for educators with GCE experience to strengthen reflective practice and build capacity for transformative GCE in youth settings, piloted with partner staff and disseminated through national showcase events.
- A pan-European train-the-trainer programme, consisting of online and face-to-face transnational training and live events in each partner country. Youth trainers will be able to put their knowledge from the modules into practice and join peer-to-peer peer support in ‘action experiments’ with their own groups of young people.
- The material, national training workshops and an online pan-European dissemination event, is aimed at a wider audience of youth workers and educators who may not have had previous exposure to GCE but are looking for ways to support positive youth engagement in the environment and sustainable development. The material will bring together and disseminate lessons learned from previous phases of the project and will encourage a wide and diverse range of youth workers to integrate GCE approaches into their youth work practice in their work on the climate crisis and related crises.
PARTNER ORGANISATIONS: Suas/STAND (Irska), Comhlámh (Irska), finep (Nemčija) in Zavod Voluntariat (Slovenija)
(CO)FUNDING: European Union (Erasmus+ Programme)
AMOUNT OF (GRANTED) FUNDING: 250.000,00 EUR
A set of links to key documents and project channels can be found here.
If you are interested in learning more about the project itself and would like to be part of our shared story (in any form), please contact us at: the.defy.collective@gmail.com and/or info.voluntariat@gmail.com.
