How We Do It

The Partners TfT process is informed by a rich tradition of adult education in the context of community work. This tradition is crystalised in the seminal Hope and Timmel Training for Transformation manuals first published in the 1970s. This work combined Freirean theory with social analysis, radical Christian liberation theology, theories of groups, teams, organisations and movements.

A typical Partners piece of work is characterised by gentle participative and experiential learning, a mix of learning methodologies, and a relevance to the interests and energies of participants. The following frameworks, taken together, will give an idea of the Partners approach.

The bag

the-bag

Partners recognises that participants entering the learning group come as if with a bag already full of their experience, theory and values. Traditional learning tends to stuff more content in on top of this. Our approach is to facilitate people to open the bags, begin to take out the contents and lay them down alongside those of other participants. This allows us as a group to see our patterns of experience, understandings and values. In the light of those patterns, we can see what new material can be usefully added, from the facilitators, books, case studies, or the ingenuity of participants themselves. This is how we understand “experiential learning.”

The three circles

three-circles

Three dimensions of life; the personal (my confidence, my skills, talents, constructions, prejudices, beliefs and values,) the interpersonal (building groups, communications, team work, dialogue, conflict) and the wider society (social structures, culture, politics, policy) are represented as three overlapping circles.

We need to build resources in all three, as they strengthen or weaken each other. For example, crossing the threshold to join a local community group requires a level of confidence. That group itself needs to be functioning well in order to be effective in addressing an injustice that is felt in the community. And a community experiencing generational injustice is likely to result in poor self image and lack of confidence in individuals living in that community. Partners believes in weaving all three dimensions into our community education work.

The group as a learning community

kitchen-group

Partners sees a group of participants as a temporary learning community. We can learn about the development of community by working to develop a sense community in our own group. So by experiencing in the room the creation of a community, we can learn about how to build community “out there”.

The iceberg

iceberg

The image of the iceberg represents the recognition of the visible and hidden dimensions of social justice work. The skills of the community activist, for example may be visible, (organising, listening, analysing, facilitating etc.) But these are held in the water by the theories and understandings the person has; their level of knowledge about why they are doing what they are doing. This in turn is weighted by the core attitudes and values, constructs, experience and instincts of the worker. In our work, we seek to influence all levels. It is not just about passing on skills. These melt away in a crisis if they are not weighted by understanding and attitude. If anything, a shift in perspective and attitude can be much more significant for a participant.

We make the road by Walking

we-make-the-road-by-walking

'We talk about "uncovering" rather than "covering" content. The learning process is a process which cannot be predicted. Partners commitment is to follow the energy, interests and needs of participants, rather than rigidly following prescribed curricula.

Freirean approach

paulo-freire

Freire based his approach to education on the following principles:

Emotion is linked to Motivation. People are motivated to learn and act around issues about which they feel strongly.
Learners are the experts in their own lives. Participants’ experience is a primary source of learning as those who live with social injustice know better than anyone about social injustice.
Pose problems rather than give solutions. The educator’s role is not to hand out ready-made answers, but to facilitate participants to analyse their reality and decide themselves how to respond. The educator does this by posing back to participants the issues they grapple with in a way that facilitates them to constructively engage with those issues.