EPALE - Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe

Short Bio

I am 48 years old and a teacher of political education in a small educational collective belonging to the Association Solar e.V. in Berlin, Germany. I have been working in this field for more than 20 years. My main topics are global learning, anti-racist and discrimination-sensitive education, as well as sustainability. I enjoy working in non-hierarchical collectives and want to make the world a better place for everyone.

My EPALE

The EPALE platform also offers good opportunities to share and discuss experiences with a wider public.

My Story

When the topic of migration was dominating European headlines in 2015 and European societies were becoming increasingly polarised concerning the opening or closing of borders, between showing solidarity or hate and violence towards refugees and other migrants, it became clear that an educational response to this situation was urgently needed. We intensified our work against stereotypes, the derogation of migrants, and discrimination. Propaganda and hate speech increasingly poisoned social media channels, and new right-wing and populist movements like the protest group Pegida and the AFD party in Germany benefited from this trend in society. However, our educational provision was primarily reaching those who were already critical of these developments in society. We began to investigate our own internalised racist stereotypes and images of “the Other” in order to find new starting points for our work. We realised that both our collective and large parts of the non-formal youth and adult education landscape are very homogeneous and that their structures exclude migrants. This was the starting point for changes in both us as educators and in the structure of our collective. We involved migrants in new projects and began a process of mutual empowerment and power-sharing. This means we all learned from each other’s experiences and helped each other acquire competencies. We also did more to dismantle structural barriers to refugees and people with a migration background.

Similarly, in the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project In the footsteps of a migrant, launched in 2017, we wanted to integrate migrant perspectives to the greatest degree possible and involve migrants on as many levels as possible. And, for the most part, we succeeded in achieving this goal for our collective in terms of both the process and the end result. All interested parties can judge for themselves, as the methods-toolkit Minosia Labyrinth is available for free in various versions online.

We now want the experiences gained and the method itself to inform the new project If I were in your shoes, which focuses on sharing best practice examples. The project’s aim is to jointly discover, test, and evaluate educational methods which use role playing and simulation to tackle issues surrounding discrimination, migration, and civic education. The aim is also to discuss areas of potential improvement and digital use, to test specific applications in the five partner organisations from four European countries and, if deemed suitable, to integrate them.

The downside of travels?

After the coronavirus pandemic necessitated a pause of more than a year in our face-to-face activities, I would like to have more personal contact with people in the coming months. However, the pandemic also clearly showed our team just how important the digital suitability of methods will be in the future. Not least because of climate change.
With the imminent resuming of project-related travel in Europe we again find ourselves in conflict with our aim of a consistent commitment to climate protection. Frequent flying is not sustainable and is a privilege of the rich industrial nations at the cost of, above all, the world’s most vulnerable people. We therefore want to avoid flying as much as possible. Obviously, we cannot dictate what our partners should do. Many continue to prefer the fast and easy option of travel by plane. If this continues to be the case, it will be almost impossible for us to run face-to-face international project events with a clear conscience.

Did you get inspired by this story? Let us know below in the comments and get the chance to win an EPALE unique gift!

5 users per month (May-November 2021) from those commenting a 2021 Community Story will be picked at random and will receive a gift. Comments must be relevant and related to the topic to be eligible.