Research Circle Events in 2023

Three events took place during 2023, and recordings are available for the following events:

• 26th May 2023 – Pedagogy, Dialogue & Democracy
• 6th October 2023 – Speaking Truth to Power: Putting Popular Education into Practice.

Research Circle events in 2023 followed the theme:

Dialogues for Democracy: Learning Neighbourhoods, Cities and Societies – Building a Dialogical Learning Democracy

Summary of 2023 Events

The 2023 event series built on our earlier work by combining global with local learning dimensions. Our emphasis was on challenging issues of power and control over education and democratic engagement.  We recognise democracy is in crisis. There is a widespread unease pervading communities, politics, economics, and education which is connected to the sustainability of the entire planet.

Many years ago, Raymond Williams described Westminster as an ‘elected court’ – even more true in recent times. Over-centralised states, which may be both authoritarian and paternalistic, tend to problematise communities more than identify them as sources of democratic hope. There is a growing recognition that we must learn our way – collaboratively and democratically – to a better, more hopeful, inclusive and sustainable future. How we do this as part of a shared project is a massive challenge. Ideals, ends and means are all important – we must learn how to nurture real dialogue as part of the process of changing communities. Our 2023 virtual seminar series is designed to addresses these issues.

Our April seminar, Learning neighbourhoods, cities and societies: learning for participation and democracy, examined ‘learning cities’ which can be found across the globe. They aim to revitalise and embed learning in families, the workplace, communities and educational institutions in order to nurture a culture of learning throughout life. They also aspire to support sustainable social, economic and environmental development.

We focused on the UNESCO award-winning Learning City of Cork: based on partnerships between local government, diverse organisations, universities and local people who see adult learning as crucial to any community. Dr Fergal Finnegan (University of Maynooth, Ireland) also dialogued with Professor Emeritus Linden West (Canterbury Christ Church University): a theme arose of the ambiguous role of faith and religion in popular education. In Maynooth some of the origin of community initiatives came from young priests inspired by liberation theology. This had to be set against the hard, controlling influence of some established and hierarchical churches. These ideas were returned to in our engagement with the liberation theology of Paulo Freire.

Our May event, Pedagogy, Dialogue and Democracy focused on the need for Latin American educator Paulo Freire’s critical as well as deeply relational and spiritual pedagogy: Freire would have emphasised keeping whole human beings at the heart of the process. In the language of theologian Martin Buber, who so inspired Freire, where I might meet Thou. We examined pedagogy in social and public spaces to enable young people and adults to become informed and critically engaged citizens to keep justice, equity and social democracy alive – a need which has perhaps never been greater. Linden West and Colin Kirkwood (Psychoanalytic psychotherapist, counsellor and writer) examined how the work of Freire has inspired initiatives, including in inner-city Edinburgh and Staveley in Derbyshire.

The second dialogue in this May event was between Dr Jo Forster and renowned Freirean scholar Professor Antonia Darder, Loyola Marymount University, USA. Antonia is a Puerto Rican and American scholar. Her activism, teaching, and critical scholarship over the last five decades has consistently focused on racism, political economy, and questions of liberation. She has extended Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of love and contributed to furthering our understanding of inequalities in schools and society. Through her decolonizing scholarship on the body, ethics, racism, methodology, and the arts, she has contributed to rethinking questions of empowerment, pedagogy, and liberation from a worldview that centres on oppressed populations. She focuses on reclaiming the relationship between education and democracy, using critical pedagogy.

The final event of 2023 on October 6^th Speaking Truth to Power: Putting Popular Education into Practice saw Sharon Clancy, in conversation with Jan Vincent, Director of Aspire Learning Support and Wellbeing in Durham and Colleen Baker, Aspire Learning Co-ordinator. We discussed the importance of community adult education, the power of place in relation to community building and Jan’s evolving work over many years, as both a learner in community adult education and her role as Director of a Women’s Learning Centre, in response to the challenges of place-based activism. The session will focus on the richness of Jan’s rooted experiences – and how these, in turn, relate to wider themes we examined in April and May.

Jo Forster, in conversation with Niall Cooper, Director of Church Action on Poverty (CAP) presented CAP’s Speaking Truth to Power Programme. It provides learning opportunities to people struggling against poverty to speak up and take action on the root causes of poverty in the UK. In bringing together people with a diverse range of direct personal experiences of poverty to speak truth to power both locally and nationally, participants develop the skills, training and support to speak confidently and powerfully to local and national media, politicians and other power-holders. Learners become effective campaigners and spokespeople in their own right and inspire others to action.