In two weeks, we’ll be offering our second online course of the year, Popular Education Methods and Practices, as part of our newest initiative, the TESA Academy. In addition to this course, we’re also offering three others: Worker Co-ops 101, Introduction to Cooperatives, and Creating a Cooperative Food Economy. We plan to expand our course offerings, and the frequency of the courses, as the year progresses.
So, what is Popular Education Methods and Practices all about? We designed the course to allow you to discover the basics of popular, democratic, and participatory forms of education in classes facilitated by practitioners in the these pedagogical methods—us. We want to take our classroom experiences and bring them to the digital space, making them accessible to those of you who don’t live in our area.
Like any good popular education course, the course will be driven by those of you who sign up and your goals for the course. As such, at the beginning of this course, you’ll set a goal for developing an educational resource (workshop, handbook, etc.) you’d like to create or improve. Over the 10-hour course, you’ll learn by doing—you’ll engage with techniques and the pedagogical philosophy, craft your own pop-ed resource, collaborate and learn from fellow participants, and finish the course with a resource that you can put to use in your own community, workplace, organizing, or learning space.
In addition to being a hands-on and customizable, this course will also provide a chance for workplace or organizational representatives to learn new skills you can bring back and use to enrich and enhance the work you are already doing. We already have signs-ups from workers at Western Mass Jobs with Justice and Funds for Democratic Communities.
Interested in the course? Talk with your organization about subsidizing your tuition. After all, this is professional development and what you learn will benefit your workplace.
All of our supporters—whether those who buy our products or download our free resources—have been the drivers of all of our work, including these online courses. We’re excited to work with more of you in the digital classroom!
Whether you are coming as individual or an organizational representative, this course provides you with the opportunity to create something original, participatory, and relevant to your needs. What’s more, you’ll not only have an engaging and interactive resource, but you’ll start cultivating the skills to deliver and teach with your educational resource.
