2.

In IFM-SEI, we consider that we do more than just non-formal education – we do socialist education. In short, socialist education is the specific approach to non-formal education that IFM-SEI undertakes whereby children and young people are educated on the basis of our values equality, democracy, peace, social justice, self-organizing and solidarity - without educating towards voting for a specific political party. SOCIALISM FOR US IS NOT DEFINED BY POLITICAL PARTIES OR BY SPECIFIC NATIONAL POLITICAL SYSTEMS, BUT RATHER BY THIS SPECIFIC SET OF VALUES.

SOCIALIST EDUCATION IS A THEORY AND PRACTICE IN WHICH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE CAN CRITICALLY ANALYSE EXISTING POWER STRUCTURES ON ALL LEVELS OF SOCIETY AND ARE MOTIVATED AND EMPOWERED TO TAKE ACTION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE. Socialist education is a form of political education where we support children and young people to become critical thinkers, and give them the tools to be active decision-makers in their own lives and communities.

Through socialist education we do not only learn to live in and deal with the current world order, but we also think about how we can construct a better world. In our groups and activities, participants can take part in a counter-world experience with socialist values at the forefront. We aim to create spaces where children and young people do not have to experience the discrimination and exclusion that they face in their everyday lives, but rather an experience based on cooperation, solidarity and equality.

We believe that no education is neutral and all education is underpinned by values, and is influenced by the experiences and background of the educator.

As we live in a capitalist system, most education either directly supports, or does not question the legitimacy of this particular way of organising society. SOCIALIST EDUCATION DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE NEUTRAL AND IS EXPLICITLY VALUE-BASED. SOCIALIST EDUCATION IS THE PROCESS OF EXPLORING, DISCUSSING AND REFLECTING ON THE WORLD IN LINE WITH OUR SOCIALIST VALUES OF SOLIDARITY, EQUALITY, DEMOCRACY, COOPERATION, INTERNATIONALISM, ANTI-CAPITALISM, PEACE, ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND FREEDOM. We believe that a better world is based on these values, therefore we promote them through our educational work.

A Short Look Back Into History

Socialist education is as old as IFM-SEI’s first member organisations. In Denmark, for example, DUI was founded in 1905 to give children and young people the opportunity for independent development in respect for and in collaboration with other people. The founders clearly distanced themselves from the militarism of other youth movements and based DUI’s activities on the core principle of solidarity. In Austria, in 1908, working parents self-organised groups for their children.

During the first World War, the “Kinderfreunde” (child friends) became more and more active and quickly turned into a strong socialist educational movement. Also our Israeli member organisations, the Labour Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair and the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed (Initially called Hanoar HaOved ("Working Youth") and affiliated with the trade union Histadrut) were founded as early as 1913 and 1924 respectively. In Germany, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), trade unions, workers welfare and the Socialist Workers Youth founded the German Kinderfreunde in 1923. Within just 10 years, it grew into an organisation of 100,000 children, 10,000 volunteer helpers and 70,000 parents in 1100 local groups. In the United Kingdom, the Woodcraft Folk was founded in 1925 with a strong anti-capitalist, anti-militaristic focus and ties to the Co-operative Societies and to the labour, pacifist, early feminist and trade union movements.

In all our member organisations, from the early days, the principles were similar:

Children should be educated in the spirit of the workers’ movement.

They should be free from authoritarianism, religion and militarism.

All children should be together in the same groups, no matter their gender.

Their opinions were as valid as those of adults.

Internationalism and peace were key elements.

All activities based on the values of solidarity and cooperation.

While the volunteers in these first organisations implicitly shared the same values, as all came from socialist workers’ movements – it is worth mentioning Otto

Kanitz of the Austrian, and KURT LÖWENSTEIN of the German Kinderfreunde, who, together with the socialist educato ANNA SIEMSEN, developed the educational and political concept of socialist education.

After the First World War, socialist organisations thought that the development of a social-democratic society was the logical next step. It was for this society that they wanted to prepare their children, who would live and work cooperatively and in solidarity with each other, develop international friendships and oppose all wars.

The trademark of IFM-SEI members were the so-called “Children’s Republics”. During large camps, children could learn socialist principles not through teaching, but simply through experiencing them. Children took decisions about camp life in elected camp councils. The adults of the Kinderfreunde movement, such as Kurt Löwenstein, knew that children were able to do so much more than adults commonly thought. They just needed encouragement instead of punishment, support of their self-initiative and of responsibility for the community, and pleasure to do things together in the group between children and adults.

100 YEARS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FALCON MOVEMENT / SOCIALIST EDUCATIONAL INTERNATIONAL

As internationalism was such a key aspect for these first movements, some representatives from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia came together as early as 1922 to found the “International Committee of Socialist Educational Organisations (SEI). By 1927, organisations from Denmark, Latvia, Hungary, Switzerland, France, Poland and Belgium had joined, and an international camp was held – the first international ‘Children’s Republic’ at Seekamp in Germany. In the 1930s more organisations joined the SEI from Norway, UK, Spain, Belgium, America and Sweden, but the organisation practically ceased to exist because of the political suppression of the socialist children’s movements through the Nazis before and during the Second World War.

In 1946, an international camp held in Brighton, UK was instrumental in helping to restore the shattered international links between children and youth organisations dedicated to peace and social justice. An International Falcon Secretariat was set up in Amsterdam in 1947, and at a Congress in Nuremberg in 1953, the INTERNATIONAL FALCON MOVEMENT was officially founded. From the start, the basis of IFM was international co-operation, education for tolerance and respect of human rights, as well as the concept of socialist education.

IFM became more and more international in the 1960s with organisations joining from India and Israel, and the organisation began to work with the Global South and in solidarity with liberation movements across the globe. The first African member organisations Pionniers du Senegal and Pionniers du Mali were founded as soon as the countries liberated themselves from its colonial oppressor France.

IN 1970, SOCIALIST EDUCATION WAS ONCE AGAIN INCLUDED INTO THE ORGANISATION’S NAME. It now was: INTERNATIONAL FALCON MOVEMENT / SOCIALIST EDUCATIONAL INTERNATIONAL (IFM-SEI). This change of name demonstrated the willingness to cooperate with all organisations based on the same principles of socialist education – also those who didn’t have the same background as the traditional European Falcon groups.

(SOURCE: 24 STUNDEN SIND KEIN TAG NR. 31: SOZALISTISCHE ERZIEHUNG. SJD-DIE

FALKEN, 2013; WWW.IFM-SEI.ORG) 13

Understands and upholds core socialist values;

Is not neutral and takes the side of the oppressed;

Understands structural oppressions,is able to identify the mechanisms behind it and works towards change;

Upholds, protects and promotes human rights and is able to recognise violations of human rights;

Understands privileges and reflects on their own biases.

Has knowledge of and ability to implement non-formal education principles;

Actively uses intersectional principles to challenge normative practices;

Recognises the importance of meaningful and impactful child and youth participation;

Nurtures the development of collective identity as a central concept of social movements;

Is an active and empathetic listener;

A critical thinker who is open to question their own behaviours and encourages others to think critically.

Is empowering the participants

Manages to include participants from different backgrounds and with different abilities. Provides a safe space, while preparing children for the outside struggle. Encourages activism.

Creating Spaces For Socialist Education

Socialist education can happen in informal or non-formal ways. INFORMAL SOCIALIST EDUCATION happens in unstructured spaces in our organisations – for example when we sit around a campfire, sing songs and discuss; when we cook and eat together in the group or just spend a relaxed evening together. We – children, young people and adults – simply learn by talking to each other and by showing our values through our attitudes and our behaviour. It is therefore important that the principles outlined in the second part of this toolkit are also applied in such informal spaces, that we really practice what we preach in our organisations as a whole!

NON-FORMAL SOCIALIST EDUCATION follows similar patterns as non-formal education activities provided by any other organisation. When we plan such non-formal educational processes, it is important to think about how we structure them. There is a flow from one step to the next, in which different parts of the EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CYCLE should be addressed. This is the case for all our non-formal educational work – be it during weekly group nights, a weekend workshop or a summer camp.

SYMBOLIC EXPERIENCE

LEARNING THROUGH ABSTRACTIONS

ICONIC EXPERIENCE

LEARNING THROUGH OBSERVATION

DIRECT, PURPOSEFUL EXPERIENCE

LEARNING BY DOING

VERBAL SYMBOLS

VISUAL SYMBOLS

RECORDINGS, RADIO & STILL PICTURES

MOTION PICTURES

ESUCATIONAL TELEVISION

EXHIBITS

STUDY TRIP

DEMOSTRATIONS

DRAMATIZED EXPERIENCES

CONTRIVED EXPERIENCES

DIRECT, PURPOSEFUL EXPERIENCES

This means simply, we learn by making concrete experiences in the world, reflecting on and analysing them, and thinking about various types of knowledge that help us understand them. Learning by doing. Different from others, in socialist education we ask the question of how society can be organised to create human happiness and global equality. We centre our organisational and political values in these processes, seeing them underrepresented in formal education and the public sphere.

The flowchart below can help you plan educational activities such as workshops and seminars. It has different examples of activities, all with the same parts: An introduction/beginning, a middle phase, and an end phase of reflection/evaluation. Think about these phases when planning. You need to set the scene about why a certain topic is important. Then people need to feel a connection to it.

Intro

Framing

- Ice-breaking

- Schedule

- Aims

The Flow Of Educational Processes

Middle Phase

RELATION OF TOPIC TO SELF

- Reasons for engaging

- Why this is important

- How is that affects us

- Connection to organizational values

- Longer into combine it with biographical getting to know each older link it to the subject

TEAMBUILDING

GROUP AIMS IN DISCUSSION

DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

- Different means of going deeper into topic: Films, text, work discussions, lecture simulation activity.

- Work in a small groups, then present results in large group (typically)

- Choose methods based on aims and group: creative, active or playful methods also possible

SIMULATION/EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVITY

- This is also a means of participants relating the topic to themselves

- The aim is to replicate certain dynamics of the issue at hand

DEALING WITH TOPIC

- HOW TO EXPRESS?

PRODUCTION/ACTION PLANNING PHASE

REFLECTION/ EVACUATION/CLOSING

- EVALUATION

- REFLECTION

- SUMMARY

REFLECTION

- Recounting personal experience

- Relating to topic

DE-ROLLING /CLOSING

- PRESENTATION OF RESOULTS

- PLANNING NEXT STEPS

Afterwards there is an opportunity for learning more about it. And finally people should reflect on their knowledge and apply what they learned. This can work in different ways to the classic workshop (rows 1−2), such as the examples of the simulation game (row 3) or the project/action (row 4).

Remember, the best learning spaces are those where people feel comfortable and have fun, but also feel challenged and are able to discuss freely. This is at the core of socialist education as a practice to organise for social change.