Learning for social change: exploring concepts, methods and practice

This document is an outcome of a dialogue on facilitating learning for social change (FLASC) which took place through e-fora and an international workshop in the Spring of 2006. The editors argue that the FLASC dialogue was needed because the notion that the knowledge and models required for professionalism and problem-solving are held in the hands of a few individual or organisational experts is in ever greater doubt. Instead, we are challenged to create more effective learning environments in which all who engage may develop capacities to access, create and share knowledge, and to engage critically with that which is already known and recorded.

In order to facilitate learning for positive social change, there is a need to maintain an ongoing and active dialogue with a wide range of activists and organisations. This could be achieved this by:

• sharing and learning from real-life examples of individual change agents and organisations that have achieved a working synergy between social and personal transformation
• exploring the potential of existing institutions and even new institutions to support the facilitation of learning for social change
• developing a range of practical methods and approaches that can be used to enable learning and unlearning for positive social change, including meeting the multi-faceted learning needs of individuals working as change agents, and learning how to support social change beyond the organisation
• inquiring cooperatively into the theories of knowledge, worldviews and assumptions that underlie these methods