Participatory education
Popular economics can have different shades of meaning:
Participatory education refers to a whole-body, whole-person approach to education on any topic one can imagine– from fixing a broken faucet to community organizing. This means we bring our whole selves to the task and learn by doing… For example, we might learn about organizing by going door to door and talking with people.
We might learn about advocacy by going to local government meetings, testifying, talking with local elected officials, or protesting. In an organizing context, this approach often involves problem identification, analysis, and pursuit of solutions through dialogue, self-awareness, and organizing.
FACILITATION TIP:
Participatory education can be a powerful, very effective and memorable approach to learning because it involves multiple dimensions of our selves learning rather than just one. It is best done if there can be some trusted mentors, coaches, elders,
and/or colleagues with whom one can both prep for the experience and then de-brief it, enabling each person and the entire group involved to process the experience and their feelings in order to more deeply learn from it.
Click here for a helpful discussion
Features of Participatory Learning
by by Lisa VeneKlasen with Valerie Miller, World Neighbors, 2002
produced by the Solidarity Center based on material from “A New Weave of Power, People and Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation”