NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1477901
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Aug
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0741-7136
EISSN: EISSN-1552-3047
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Organizers' Dilemmas, Direct Action, and Adult Education: Challenges and Opportunities
Juana Sarmiento-Jaramillo1; Germain Poizat1; Robert Fisher2
Adult Education Quarterly: A Journal of Research and Theory, v75 n3 p230-258 2025
This study provides a detailed account of dilemmas experienced by community organizers arising from the tension between political and educational objectives within the community organizing social action approach. We address the way these dilemmas emerge during nonviolent direct action (NDA), and the associated organizers' valuative processes. Within the course-of-experience framework, we conducted direct field observations, video recordings, and self-confrontation interviews with French organizers promoting housing rights in working-class communities. After outlining six episodes experienced as dilemmatic by these organizers, we offer an in-depth analysis of two enacted prototypical dilemmas. Findings reveal the cruciality of the organizers' emotions during NDAs, and that organizers tend to prioritize short-term political goals over longer-term goals of collective radical education/emancipation processes. We discuss findings through two main drivers for organizers' training: the risk of becoming a winner-almighty organizer instead of promoting actual grassroots participation, and the impact of anger and indignation in ethical reasonings during NDAs.
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: France
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Faculty of Psychology and Sciences Of Education, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; 2School of Social Work, University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, USA