Social change educators challenge social, economic, and political injustices that exist locally and globally. Their students may be people marginalized by these injustices or conversely, people who benefit from unjust systems. Much of the current social change pedagogy derives from the foundational work of Paulo Freire, developed in Brazil in…

All education programmes are designed to make changes. Few are clear on how change is defined, or what specifically needs to be changed. Yet the way that educators interpret this magic word makes all the difference to the content and method of programmes. Customarily, most Chinese workers' education programmes are designed to change workers, in…

The objective of this work is a reflection on the ethics of education on the net as a contribution to the face-to-face interaction in the virtual world. We think the ethics is a result of a process of responsible interchange with others. Two important thinkers of the last few decades, Emmanuel Levinas e Paulo Freire contribute each one with one's…

This is a collective interpretive record of a graduate course in Social Work on participatory action research (PAR) offered during the winter of 2007. It is written by 14 individuals including the instructor. It was inspired by the image of a chickadee bird borrowed from Jonathan Lear's (2006) book "Radical Hope." The chickadee is a…

In the first decade of the 21st century, efforts to create alternatives to neoliberalism emerged in many parts of Latin America. Social movements across the region took to the streets, occupied abandoned factories, and started to create new democratic spaces, solidarity networks, and social economy initiatives. In one country after another,…

This paper is about how the transformatory pedagogical practice of popular/liberatory education can be further articulated within geography. It is based on the experiences of a third-year undergraduate course, "Autonomous Geographies", in which the author developed some of the core values of popular education, namely engaging with…

Comparing popular education in the Philippines and South Korea, it is clear that a number of similarities and differences exist regarding the characteristics, methods, and main fields in which popular education has operated. "Church-related practices," "uniting with CO movements," "an elite-led tendency," and "a…

The escalating crisis in capitalist relations around the world demands a variety of responses that unmask the confusing structures that perpetuate asymmetrical power relations, while reframing what is truly in the interests of the majority of people. Industrial unions in the U.S. have at times aspired to such an advocacy role, but currently offer…

In their article "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson suggest that the educator's role is to offer support to students while creating opportunities for them to critically examine and take responsibility for their own experiences. In this article, the authors explore methods for…

Engaging families in school-related programs, such as family literacy programs, has been promoted as an effective strategy to assist students who might otherwise fail to achieve success in school. The authors in this article report on an action research initiative with an urban Australian government community school in a relatively…

Popular education has three essential, integrated components: praxis, a collective and participatory orientation, and action. Also important are systematization, communication, and attention to participants' everyday needs. (SK)

Seven women involved in adult and popular education explored the collective development of environmental awareness through dialogue and learning activities. Two learning patterns emerged: paying attention and awakening awareness through ritual. (SK)

Relates the story of the creation of a mural at the 2001 International Council for Adult Education World Assembly in Jamaica and what it says about the ideas and ideals of adult educators. (SK)

Australian unions have adopted new organizing methods to rebuild and develop their organizations. This represents a change in direction from the commitment to partnership and tripartite planning that characterized the Accord period under the Labor governments of the 1980s and 1990s to a new focus on capacity building. A serious decline in union…

On a cold and wet Friday night in January of 2006, thirteen undergraduate students gathered together in a small room on campus at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) to found Students Informing Now (S.I.N.). S.I.N. was created to support the AB 504 students, labeled in this country as "illegal aliens." Inspired by Paulo…