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The Agreed Underlying
Principles of an International Study Circle
In 1996, affiliates of Euro-WEA and IFWEA began to debate and sketch out what an International Study Circles programme might look like. The starting point was to build international courses of workers’ education, delivered simultaneously at a local level by national affiliates, interconnected through the Internet. A number of underlying principles were agreed:
- Any international course should be commonly owned by the organisations taking part. In other words, that the proposed learning outcomes, the target participants, materials, and methodology should be determined democratically and be of equal relevance, irrespective of the countries or communities involved.
- The learning methods at a local level should be based on group discussion, democratic debate, and the ‘negotiated curriculum’. The participants should have the right, and should be encouraged, to discuss and determine the direction of the course, through negotiation with local course leaders and (in the international context) with other participating organisations.
- Each International Study Circle course should ensure high-quality evaluation, based on self-evaluation of local participants against course objectives.
- All IFWEA affiliates should to be given the equal opportunity to nominate themselves to participate in International Study Circle course.
- Due to practicalities of cost, international communication between participating groups and common course materials should be in a single language, with local translation to/from participants’ languages where necessary.
- If necessary, financial and practical assistance should be extended to those affiliates who otherwise would not be able to find the resources to participate.
- The technologies to be used should be adequate to enable the effective distribution and exchange of education materials and debate, but should ensure the maximum possibility of participation for organisations working in a poor technical or financial environment.
- Although the use of computer technology is essential for the globalisation of the local experience, it should not intrude on the learning process. Participants face one another, not computer screens.
- For the duration of a course, the discussions should be ‘closed’ to participating groups only, to maintain the integrity of the democratic process. On completion of the course, all material should be published on the Internet for free access.
The National Union of Government and Federated Workers is involved in the planning of the International Study Circle on Migrants Workers in the Global Economy