MA in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism

A masterclass in changing the world

Are you

- active in social movement struggles but need space to stand back, reflect, recharge?
- involved in community and voluntary activism but feel trapped by the structures?
- politically minded but don’t know how to turn that into an effective and radical practice?
- clear that social change is central to you but unsure how to build a life around it?
- interested in spending a year with your peers and experienced practitioners?

Around the world today, movements and communities are making history – or trying to. The need for change is huge and the outcome is still all to play for. We see apparently-unstoppable movements squashed and apparently-hopeless ideas winning against all the odds. What makes the difference, and how can our movements find a way forward and even change the world?

The MA in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism (CEESA) at NUI Maynooth responds to the crisis by helping us learn from each other’s struggles in dialogue between different movements, different communities, different generations. The course is not tied to any single movement and participants come from many different communities and countries. Some are experienced activists who want to go back to education; others are less experienced people who are keen to get involved in movements. This mixture of ages, backgrounds, experiences and questions is an integral part of what makes the course so rewarding. Together we are building a diverse network of movement activists, radical educators and campaigners for equality and creating new alliances for change.

The course team are experienced practitioners and engaged scholars working on equality, radical education and movement struggles. The course combines social analysis, bottom-up organising methods and political strategy with a wide range of pedagogies and a focus on knowledge for change, taking a practical but radical look at the problems facing movements today. Our small-group classes run on Mondays and Tuesdays to facilitate participants, over two 12-week terms followed by work on a project aimed at developing your own movement practice.

Often we are told that we have to choose between our politics and “real life”. This course shows how to integrate the two with confidence, practicality, solidarity, emotional resilience, seeing the bigger picture, taking time out to reflect and supporting each other for the long haul. Participants go back to their own movements refreshed, set up new projects, find work in movement organisations, go on to further education - and bring back what they have learned to their own struggles.

For more details: ceesa-ma.blogspot.com and www.nuim.ie/study-maynooth/postgraduate-studies
Contact: adcomed@nuim.ie

Closing date for applications: May 30, 2014