Launch party: the Masked Activists' Ball

Do you fancy yourself as Zorro, Phoolan Devi, Robin Hood, Granuaile, Pancho Villa, Annie Oakley, Captain Jack Sparrow, Angela Davis, Ned Ludd or Subcomandante Marcos?

Is there a guerrilla, guerrilla gardener, Raging Granny, highwayman (or woman), graffiti artist, Woman in Black, Amsterdam squatter, Redstocking, Italian partisan, French 68er, cloaked anarchist or Communard buried deep in your subconscious?

Set them free at the Masked Activists' Ball!

We're launching a serious course for social movement organisers, community educators, NGO workers, grassroots activists, advocates with minority groups, feminists, GLBTQ activists, environmentalists, trade unionists, solidarity activists, development workers, anti-racists, anti-war activists etc etc etc - people who are already doing it and want to do it better, and people who want to start, learning from each other's experience and skills. But we reckon we should have fun along the way...

Masked Activists' Ball:

Seomra Spraoi social centre
10 Belvedere Court, off Gardiner St, Dublin 1 (directions here)
April 15th 2010, 8 till late

DJ: Dr Groove
No cover charge
BYOB

All masks (and costumes) welcome - small prize for the best of the night!

Facebook invite here

Poster download / print off here

What is this course?

How can we bring about social justice and environmental survival in Ireland and beyond? This course will offer some answers to this question with a view to enabling students to think about how to build real alternatives to challenge existing structures of oppression and injustice. It seeks to develop the capacity of ordinary people to change the world through community education, grassroots community activism and social movement campaigning.

One of the main forces behind positive social change in Ireland and globally has always been "people power": those who were not "on the inside", without property, status or power coming together to push for change where it was needed. Community activism, the women's movement, global justice campaigners, self-organising by travellers and new Irish communities, trade unions, GLBTQ campaigning, environmentalism, international solidarity, anti-racism, anti-war activism, survivors of institutional abuse, human rights work, the deaf movement and many other such movements have reshaped our society and put human need on the agenda beside profit and power. Participants have developed important bodies of knowledge about how to do this, which are fundamental resources for anyone trying to make a better world possible.

Who is this course for?

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This course is designed to be suitable both for recent graduates who are interested in social change and emancipation and for mature students with experience in social movements and community activism of various kinds. The course is based around sharing knowledge and experience around the common goal of moving towards equality.

Among the groups whose needs this course is designed for are:

• people in adult learning, community activism, workers in NGOs and state agencies, and advocates with minority groups, looking for a programme that will develop their knowledge base and their competences and wish to study the issues that impinge on their work in a critical, post-graduate environment that spans the concerns of community education and social activism;
• social movement activists and organisers who are taking time to think strategically and develop a broader perspective on their own activism and the possibilities for radical social change;
• students who have completed Continuing Education or university courses in different areas of community action and mature students who seek a post-graduate programme that would further their critical community education and equality studies;
• adult and community educators, who may have completed their Post-graduate Diploma some years ago, or who have the equivalent in experience, who are also looking for further study;
• students in both sociology and politics who are concerned about social and global injustice and keen to draw on their analytical skills to develop a professional life in these areas.  

Each year we have between 6 - 15 students along with our core and visiting staff, who are themselves also practitioners. There is typically a mix of people coming from community activism and adult / community education; people coming from social movements and radical politics; people involved in NGOs etc.; and students committed to working for social change. 

We have attracted some very experienced activists along with relative newcomers; academic high-flyers as well as thoughtful practitioners who are cautious about the idea of academia; people very committed to a particular local area along with organisers from abroad; people who are not quite sure where they fit or who are taking time to rethink their activist practice along with people who identify with a very specific movement.


So how would you know if this course is for you? 

• The course asks you to be reflexive about your own practice, and everyone finds themselves challenged both to articulate what that practice is and to think harder about it in many different ways. So if you have, or would like to have, a sense of yourself as an agent for change over the long haul, you may be in the right place. 
• We are really serious about "learning from each other's struggles", in the sense of respecting, listening to and learning from other people in very different movements and situations. Our classrooms are very diverse in terms of people's background, experiences, politics, and ways of being - which is great for some people and hard for others. If you find the diversity of links and material on this site off-putting, this is probably not the course for you. If you find it reaffirms your own activism, helps you feel less isolated, or opens the possibility of creative networking, perhaps you should consider taking the course.
• The course is not "academic" in the bad sense: it does involve reading, thinking and writing, not always in conventional ways. We are very committed to alternative teaching practice and it is one of the core elements of the course. If you like thinking and learning but have had bad experiences of mainstream education, you could well be in the right place.
• Lastly the course is about helping people who want to make a real change in the world, and we will constantly be encouraging you to think about how to relate the very different range of activities and topics we look at back to your own movements, communities and struggles for change - without assuming that there is only one way of doing that. If this sounds like what you want, welcome aboard!

 

What does this course offer?

Participants will leave the course with a deeper understanding of how the politics of equality and inequality works in a range of substantive areas. They will have developed the skill of practicing "politics from below": active citizenship, civil society, community education and development, social movements and other forms of popular agency. They will have gained skill as a reflexive researcher, developed their writing and presentation skills and completed a practice-based research project.

At the end of the programme:

• you will have been exposed to a critical knowledge base and will have developed critical thinking and reflexive skills in relation to social analysis, self awareness, critical pedagogy and the use of knowledge for social change;
• you will have a broad understanding of the politics of equality and inequality in relation to a range of substantive areas;
• you will have developed a range of practitioner skills in relation to active citizenship, civil society, community education and development, social movements and other forms of popular agency;
• you will have developed their writing and presentation skills;
• you will have developed the skills for reflexive research and will have completed a practice-based project that will apply your learning;
• you will have identified the fields of practice to which you will contribute, or go back (we hope inspired and with a renewed sense of purpose) to your existing practice.

Some students will find employment in existing organisations, as (for example) researchers, policy workers, campaign coordinators or educators within community, social movement, civil society or NGO groups, or within related parts of the welfare state. Others will return, we hope refreshed and inspired, to their own previous work. Others again will create work – paid or unpaid – for themselves in the building of organisations for equality, community development and social change.

Course overview

The goals of this course are:

• To explore advanced theory and practice of community education and critical social and political analysis with particular reference to equality and inequality;
• To understand, engage with and develop communities of praxis (skilled and theoretically aware practice) in a critical and reflexive way. Key to this will be creating communities of learning that co-create knowledge between participants and between participants and staff
• To develop reflexive research skills that will enhance the students’ own practice and to contribute to the communities of praxis in which they work. Here, participants will actively bring case studies in order to gain a theoretical and critical understanding of key issues involved and a conversation space will be created in order to explore the implications of theory and practice.

Three core strands of thinking will be explored in this course –

1. Critical and praxis-oriented forms of thinking: e.g. critical adult and community education; critical media and cultural pedagogy; knowledge for social change; critical social and political theory; community art; politics of knowledge; media literacy...
2. Understanding equality and inequality: e.g. in class, gender, race; political economy; development education; feminism and masculinities; environmental justice; the politics of sustainability; world-systems analysis...
3. Power, politics and praxis: e.g. social movements; community activism; participatory and radical democracy; popular praxis; skills for grassroots organising; history and politics of social change...

The course content is all taught from the standpoint of "praxis": the understanding that theory without practice is meaningless, while practice without theory is likely to fail. The basis of our work is dialogue between reflective practitioners, systematically including both elements.

Courses are taught in lecture and workshop formats delivered by staff as well as in group projects, personal research and seminars facilitated by staff and developed by students. Assessment is by seminar papers, group projects, portfolios, reflexive journals, thesis. In each case these assessments are designed to assess the students' skills at applying their theoretical knowledge in practice and at reflecting critically on their experience.

Course content

This full-time MA programme consists of 90 Post Graduate credits, at Level 9 on the Qualifications Framework. Students will complete the Thesis and Research Module (30 credits), four core modules (10 credit) and select 20 credits from the rest of the programme of elective modules 5 credit each). The programme will offer a choice of 3 elective modules per semester, of which, students will complete 2.

The course involves two days a week on campus (typically Monday and Tuesday) over two twelve-week semesters, along with independent reading and study which you should expect to take another two days equivalent during the rest of the week. Your thesis, which is usually linked to an activist project you are involved in or aiming to develop, typically takes about four months after the end of formal classes.

Core modules:

• Critical pedagogy in adult and community education
• Equality, social justice and sustainable development
• Power, politics and praxis
• Praxis and community participation
• Thesis and research

Elective modules (may not all be offered in any given year):

• The politics of environmental justice
• Critical media and cultural pedagogy
• The market, the state and social movements
• Feminism and masculinities
• Utopian literature and popular empowerment
• Sustainable organising
• Strategies for transformation
• Political economy of development
• Globalisation and its discontents
• The search for good work
• Social movements, old and new
• Critical community development and skills for grassroots organising
• Meaningful work for equality and praxis
• Radical democracy

Research methods options (may not all be offered in any given year):

• Participatory action research in social movement practice
• Life history methods
• Qualitative research
• Comparative research
• Quantitative research / SPSS
• Surveys

Studying with us

The reputations of the Dept of Adult & Community Education and the Dept of Sociology at NUI Maynooth place them at the forefront of the field of critical adult and community education, and critical social and political analysis respectively. The Dept of Sociology has long had research and teaching strengths in areas such as critical social analysis, the study of inequality and social movement studies, and with the addition of its recent Politics degree has added a new focus on the politics of inequality and the practice of active citizenship. The Dept of Adult and Community Education for its part has a long experience in working with practitioners in community organisations, minority groups, NGOs and state agencies for change. The two departments are collaborating on this course to develop thinking about critical pedagogy in community education; power and praxis in social movements and understandings of equality, transformation and sustainability.

Our commitment to the public use of academic knowledge is a long-standing one and we have a wide range of practical experience as well as research-based knowledge. This includes involvement with social movements, community activism and issue-based campaigning; media work and public debate; active involvement in political parties, trade unions and lobbying groups; community education and literacy; development and human rights work. Our student body is very diverse, with a wealth of different experiences and a strong tradition of involvement in community development and social activism.

Both departments have a long history of attracting students who are concerned about social and global justice and keen to draw on their analytical skills to develop a professional life in these areas. This includes a body of mature students who have already had such an engagement and want to develop their practice further. This programme is designed to meet the needs of this diverse cohort of potential or continuing students. This includes those involved in adult learning, community development, social movements, grassroots activism, workers in NGOs and state agencies, and advocates with minority groups.

The course is geared to bringing together the best of practitioner skills in the field with the best of academic research. Our workshops are not traditional classroom experiences but draw on our extensive experience with community, popular and radical educational practice to bring out and work with participants' existing knowledge. We bring our own lived experience into the classroom, and encourage other participants to do the same, creating a conversation between practitioners in which students are not passive learners and teachers are not unquestioned experts.

Staff teaching on the course in 2010 - 2011 include Brid Connolly (ACE), Laurence Cox (Sociology), Tony Cunningham (Sociology), Fergal Finnegan (ACE), Bernie Grummell (ACE) Michael Murray (ACE) and Theresa O'Keeffe (Sociology). Visiting lecturers / presenters have included John Bissett, community activist Jean Bridgeman, independent scholar Laurence Davis, media activist Mimi Doran, Margaret Gillan of Community Media Network, a group from Longford Women's Link and Peter Hussey among others.

Contact us / how to apply / fees and funding

Contact details:

For general information and queries, please contact the Dept. of Adult and Community Education, NUI Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland at adcomed@nuim.ie or (+353-1) 7083937.

Application:

To apply to this course, you need to go through Ireland's online application system for postgraduate courses at www.pac.ie. The PAC code for the MA is MHA64. The deadline for applications is April 30th 2012, but we suggest you register for PAC well in advance so you can see what information they will be looking for (you can find some of that information here). The form asks you for two references. These can of course be the usual academics etc., but for this course they can also be activists who can talk about your practitioner knowledge and skill.

The basic requirement for entry is a BA with a 2:2 result or higher, or the equivalent of a BA, including accreditation of prior learning and prior experiential learning. If you are in doubt about whether you meet this requirement, please email us at the address above.

Along with the usual information for the online form, we will look for a short (one – two pages) statement about any aspects of your experience which you feel are relevant to the course, and what you are hoping the course will be able to offer you that will benefit your practice. The personal statement isn't a test! We want to tailor the course to bring out what students already know and can share with each other, and what their priorities are in terms of learning needs, and we can't do that if we don't know where students are coming from.

We are keen to have a mix of backgrounds and abilities on this course, so please don't assume that this course isn't for you! We very much welcome activists who want to go back to education, as well as students who are keen to get involved in movements, mature students as well as traditional ones, and people with different community or movement points of reference.

Fees and funding

You will probably need to set aside some time to find out about funding possibilities. Ultimately fees are set by government policy on higher education, according to which Irish and other EU students are partly subsidised while those from outside the EU pay what is calculated as the full cost of their education. In practice though a majority of postgraduate students probably receive some funding, whether to cover fees alone, living expenses or partial supports. The system is complicated and takes time to explore: funding can come from various government departments as well as local authorities and in some cases the university. Below are some starting points:

The most widely applicable possibility is what was the Maintenance Grant until the December 2011 budget, which abolished the maintenance (living allowance) element but continues to pay fees. At time of writing it is not yet clear if there will be changes in how to apply for this or how it is paid, but it is important to say that the grant covers a range of different nationalities and statuses. 

Beyond this, there are grants, supports and even occasionally scholarships, for fees and for maintenance, as well as tax relief on fees, student medical entitlements and support for students with disabilities, and the Back to Education scheme which allows you to retain social welfare payments while studying. You can find information about these from Citizens' Information, the HEA's Student Finance site, and the Graduate Studies pages on funding and finances. You can also contact the NUIM Fees and Grants office.

International students will find useful information on funding and many other practical issues at the Irish Council for International Students.

Tuition fees have not yet been set for the academic year 2012 / 2013, but should be in the region of €4850 plus a registration fee of around €2250 for Irish and other EU students; for non-EU students the tuition fee is likely to be in the region of €12,500. For EU students, half of the tuition fee is payable prior to registration and the other half is usually payable before February 1st. For non-EU students resident overseas, the full fee is payable before registration. Up-to-date information is available via Graduate Studies and the Fees and Grants Office.

Finally, you can find practical information for prospective Maynooth students at this page, including access students, mature students, international students, and childcare.

The basic message that we hear from students is that it is not easy but is doable for people from a wide range of different situations and backgrounds.