1.INTRODUCTION

Who We Are

The INTERNATIONAL FALCON MOVEMENT / SOCIALIST EDUCATIONAL INTERNATIONAL (IFM-SEI) is an international educational movement working to empower children and young people to take an active role in changing society for the better andfight for their rights. We are an umbrella organisation for almost fifty child and youth-led movements all over the world, educating on the basis of our values of equality, democracy, peace, co-operation and friendship.

The UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD is a key document for IFM-SEI. Through our member organisations and our international movement, we aim to ensure that children and young people are well informed about their rights and are empowered to ensure they are respected. To reach this goal, we organise a variety of activities including seminars, training courses, international camps and conferences. Our work is based on peer education; we believe that young people have as much to teach as they have to learn.

BY CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE, FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPle

Children and young people are involved in all levels of decision-making in our movement, from their local groups to the world congress. It is our firm belief that children are competent at making decisions and have strong opinions on global issues as well as local matters directly affecting them. They only need genuine empowerment so that their voices will be heard in society.

In IFM-SEI, one of our mottos is ‘EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE’ - a change towards more equality, justice, democracy, friendship and peace. We firmly believe that education is the most powerful tool to change the world. It is through education that children and young people can analyse society, understand power structures and human behaviour, can develop their own ideas about how to change the world, and be empowered to take action and actually change it.

For us, NO EDUCATION IS NEUTRAL. As a movement we are clear about the aim and the values and principles of our movement. SOCIALIST VALUES AND PRINCIPLES OF SOLIDARITY, EQUALITY, DEMOCRACY, COOPERATION, INTERNATIONALISM, ANTI-CAPITALISM, PEACE, ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND FREEDOM underpin all our work, from local groups to the world movement. However, despite this being something that is historically connected to IFM-SEI as a whole and our member organisations, they are not always understood and applied in the same way. The socialist basis of our educational work remains too often implicit. Moreover, because of a stigma in society, many are almost afraid to call our approach to non-formal education what it is – socialist.

With the work leading towards this toolkit, and the Socialist Education Toolkit itself, we want TO DEVELOP A COMMON UNDERSTANDING OF OUR INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT’S SPECIFIC APPROACH TO NON-FORMAL EDUCATION. This toolkit aims to help new (and more experienced) group leaders within IFM-SEI member organi- sations and beyond to understand our values and our methodology, and should equip them with knowledge and skills, tips and tricks on how best to support children and youth groups on their way towards a more equal, just and sustainable world,

The Socialist Education Toolkit (SET) has been developed by the SET taskforce, composed of young educators from IFM-SEI member organisations in Europe and the Middle East. It is based on the input of a wider group of IFM-SEI members who came together for a seminar “Education for Social Change” in the Salvador-Allende Haus in Germany in spring 2022, and on the IFM-SEI resolution on socialist education adopted by the whole global membership at the 2022 IFM-SEI Congress. The toolkit aims to lay the groundwork for socialist education in IFM-SEI. It will be a blueprint towards developing a common understanding of the values and competencies of socialist education/educators and used by socialist educators across IFM-SEI to make their work more socialist.

How To Use This Toolkit

This toolkit is aimed at group leaders (or helpers, as they are called in many IFM-SEI organisations) who wish to learn more about the foundations and the meaning of socialist education and would like to learn how to apply a socialist education approach in their activities with children and young people – be it in group work, on camps or in the decision-making spaces of children and youth organisations. Group leaders can go through the toolkit on their own, or – and we highly recommend this – go through it as a group with other leaders, for example during training of trainers activities or inductions for new leaders in IFM-SEI member organisations. In a group, you can try out proposed activities, discuss how you understand socialist principles, and reflect together on how they are applied in your organisation and in your groups.

After an introductory part, the toolkit will look at socialist education in practice. Based on a “Resolution on Socialist Education” adopted by the IFM-SEI Congress – our highest global decision-making body – in April 2022, it will lead the reader through the different principles of socialist education and provide activities and examples on how to put these principles into practice. It will also share challenges that our group leaders encounter when applying the principles.