Adult education has a very important role in today's ever-changing world. Although in theory and practice of adult education there are several different types, modes and shapes of adult education and learning, some of them are neglected despite their historical importance for this subject. This can be seen in the case of social movements, which are often defined as political formations. Only few authors and individuals are actually aware of the fact that social movements have a great educational potential.
The purpose of this master thesis is to determine the educational potential of three social movements by using comparative analysis. Those movements are (1) the Zapatista movement in Mexico, the 15M movement in Spain (2) and (3) the resistance movement in Slovenia. In the theoretical part we first present the tradition of the radical education, it’s historical development and the two main intellectuals (Gramsci and Freire) because education in social movements is mostly connected to this tradition of adult education. As second, we present development and types of social movements and different perspectives of education in social movements. In the empirical part, with the help of comparative analysis we are trying to determine, what is the educational potential of the latest three social movements. That was done by researching the similarities and differences between their general characteristics, participants, types of education and learning, and use of information technology.
In this thesis we have come to a conclusion that in social movements are currently used different types (e-Education, workshops, forums, mentoring) and contents (political participation, dialogic and collective learning) of education which could be used more by the main actors of social movements for achieving their goals. On the base of our analysis we have proposed five starting points which in our opinion should be kept in mind by the educators of adults (andragogues), who work in social movements. Those five points are: (1) dichotomy between individual work and aspiration for building collective consciousness, (2) the value of the new (alternative) knowledge, (3) power relations and the promotion of dialogue, (4) changes with a short-term effect and radical changes for a long-term change in society; and (5) the use of information technology for spreading (alternative) knowledge and for reaching a wider population of people.
|