My name is Mariko Watanabe. I am Program Officer of Japan Pacific Resource Network (JPRN), a nonprofit organization in Oakland. We facilitate exchanges of information and people between Japan and the United States in the nonprofit sector through networking, research and joint endeavors. One of our programs is to provide people from Japan with volunteer experiences in nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. (more…)
May 27, 2009
May 15, 2009
Adventure trips Slovakia
Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is the political, economic and cultural development and is located on the river Danube (Dunaj in Slovak) offers to the tourist adventure trips Slovakia. Known for centuries in the German-speaking world as Pressburg, and the Hungarians as Pozsony, this was the Hungarian capital from the Battle of Mohac (1526) until the Turks were expelled from the Hungarian plains. Until 1918, the city was Hungarian, German and (more…)
April 23, 2009
Selected Bibliography
These texts are selected to provide a basic understandingand overview about the theory and practice of science education and participatory research. We selected texts that we believed would be easy to locate atmost university libraries or online, and tried to balance “classics” withmore recent texts.
Obviously, this list is not exhaustive, and is intended to provide a brief introduction to the topics of popular education and participatory research. We are open to your suggestions too! Please send your ideas for additions/deletions to cpepr@uclink.berkeley.edu.
Our Goals
The Center for Popular Education and Participatory Research (CPEPR, prounounced “sea-pepper”), is a student-initiated center created in January 2000 in the University of California Berkeley Graduate Education of Science . CPEPR’s mission is to promote and support popular education and participatory research in order to strengthen the participation of everyday people–especially the poor, youth, immigrants, and people of color–in efforts for social justice.
CPEPR has three primary goals: (more…)
What is Participatory Research?
Participatory Research is not simply a more participatory method, but an alternative paradigm of research. It can be understood as the mode of knowledge production associated with popular education, theorized and practiced from the perspective that, just as there is no neutral education, there is no neutral research.
Like popular education, participatory research starts from the assumption that knowledge is socially constructed. Participatory research draws upon this expertise by engaging community members in the collective analysis of social problems in an effort to understand and address them.
What is Popular Education?
The principles and philosophy of popular education are often associated with the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, but the practice of popular education predates Freire. The historical roots of popular education can be found in several areas of the world, including the folk school movement in Scandinavia and the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee.
While there is no single definition of popular education, CPEPR characterizes popular education according to three central themes. First, popular education is community education, aimed at empowering communities through cooperative study and action. Secondly, popular education is political education, with the goal of collective social change toward a more equitable and democratic society. Finally, popular education is people’s education, traditionally aimed at those communities who are excluded or marginalized by dominant society.
Teachers 4 Social Justice 2003-2004 Study Groups
T4SJ Study Groups provide an opportunity for teachers to:
- build community,
- reflect on and refine teaching practice, and
- develop leadership skills and projects.
The Study Group curriculum is built around investigation of a specific topic through research and technical experience. A typical Study Group session could include a guest speaker, reading material, community building, and reflection. The Study Groups will:
- meet one time per month, from October 2003 until May 2004;
- be limited to 10-12 individuals;
- meet in San Francisco and the East Bay;
- be 3 hours in length, dinner provided!
The study groups (including 1st meeting dates) that will be run this semester are:
(more…)
Crossroads: Critical Issues in Community-Based Research Partnerships
The Institute for Community Research (ICR) in Hartford, CT is sponsoring “Crossroads: Critical Issues in Community-Based Research Partnerships”, a national conference that will critically explore issues related to community-based research partnerships, methodology, and methods of dissemination. The conference will take place June 10-13, 2004 in Hartford, CT.
Crossroads: Critical Issues in Community-Based Research Partnerships” will bring together community-based research practitioners, activists, artists, advocates and funders to look critically at the field of community-based collaborative research (CBCR). The conference will focus on the processes, designs, challenges and successes of building research partnerships, developing effective CBCR methods and models, and integrating research results and action.
Through a series of interactive and experiential workshops, panel discussions, poster sessions, networking, exhibits, performances and spontaneously generated discussions, conference participants will be able to reflect upon and share their work with others. The conference will confront the difficulties of research partnerships as they attempt to cross class, ethnic, racial and disciplinary boundaries. Presentations and workshops will cross-cut fields, including health and mental health, education, environment, community development, racial/ethnic and cultural relations and cultural development.
For more information go to: http://www.incommunityresearch.org/news/crossroads.htm, email: crossroads@icrweb.org or call 860-278-2044.
Social Change Workshop
The workshop offers opportunities for those new to community and popular education to meet experienced community and popular educators and to attend trainings in preparation for possible summer internships at popular education project sites internationally. For more experienced educators and organizers, the workshop will offer space for dialogue, network-building, training, and strategizing around complex issues related to community-based education, movement-building, and resource development.
By bringing together educators, activists, students, and project organizers working in communities both in the U.S. and internationally, we hope to create an ongoing opportunity for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and resources around community-based efforts in education and social action.
If you’re interested in learning more about these topics and you would like to become part of a transnational network of folks committed to education and social change, join us in April! For more information and registration, please visit our website at www.seedlink.org.
Rolling Think Tank Sessions
In April CPEPR and Suzanne Pharr, former director of the Highlander Center in New Market, TN hosted a series of “think tank” sessions with local educators, students and organizers. These “think tanks” were designed to explore the impacts of the right wing movement on educators’ and organizers’ work and to explore possible new avenues for movement building and social change.
The discussions covered a wide range of themes that are currently impacting educators and organizers and sought to think through on the ground avenues for moving beyond the places where we are “stuck.” Some of the topics covered included:
- Moving beyond the 501C3 Model—looking at the role of teachers, community members, and parents as organizers.
- Community Building and Organizing—Incorporating families and community in organizing work.
- Service Provision—thinking through the increasing role of schools and organizations as service providers not just educators and organizers.
- No Child Left Behind—the impact of this legislation and other moves towards standardization on teacher retention and engagement, student critical thinking, and schools as a site of political engagement.
- Civic Engagement and Youth—how to recover a role in building a political movement for young people disenfranchised after the 2000 elections.