Transforming Communities through Academic Activism: An Emancipatory, Praxis-led Approach

Authors

  • Isobel Hawthorne-Steele University of Ulster
  • Rosemary Moreland Ulster University
  • Eilish Rooney University of Ulster

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v9i2.1152

Keywords:

transformational education, emancipatory praxis, critical reflection, community-academy engagement

Abstract

This article tracks the engagement of university faculty in academic and community activism during thirty years in conflict-affected Northern Ireland. Over time, the team of three academics who wrote the article developed programs to help tackle educational disadvantage in a deeply divided society riven with violent conflict. Our pedagogical approach was driven by social justice principles in practice. In the process, students became what Ledwith & Springett (2010) describe as participative activists in the academy and in their own communities. The aim of this collective activism was to foster transformative change in a society that is now in transition from conflict. Key examples of critical practice are described. We use a case study approach to describe challenges faced by faculty and participants. We argue that academic activism and community partnership can play a positive role in community transformation in the most difficult circumstances.

Author Biographies

Isobel Hawthorne-Steele, University of Ulster

Rev. Dr Isobel Hawthorne-Steele, Lecturer & UK PSF Lead, School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies, Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster.

Isobel is Programme Director of Community Development and lectures in Community Development and Youth Work at undergraduate and post Grad/Masters level. She has 27 yrs years experience of teaching in both formal and informal education settings. Her radical activism in community and academic spaces is driven by transformatory models of learning. She was responsible for leading the team through the recent successful process of dual professional endorsement UK Educational Standards Board, and the All Ireland Standards Board, of which she is an executive member. She has embedded the National Occupational Standards within both Youth Work and community development courses. She is currently the lead person in a cross faculty and external agency collaborative partnership, rolling out courses for community leaders such ‘sport in the community’. She also works within community across Ireland as consultant advising on community vision strategies and delivering training, and conducting community research and audits. Her community activist work led to being awarded the Guilbenkien Gold Award for community services and First Place in the International Rail Awards for an intergenerational community project she founded in 2008. Her research interests focus on using critical reflection and awareness as a means to helping learners recognise threshold concepts that are epistemological barriers. 

 

Rosemary Moreland, Ulster University

Dr. Rosemary Moreland Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies, Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster.

Rosemary is Faculty Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator and lectures in Community Development, in the School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies, Faculty of Social Studies at the University of Ulster. She has 20 years’ experience in the field of community development and community education. Her radical academic praxis has involved devising an Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) Pathway onto the BSc (Hons) Community Development, to enable experienced community and voluntary activists with few or no qualifications to gain access to this third level qualification. The team were awarded a Distinguished Teaching Fellowship at the University, for this work. Further works has involved developing short courses in the community and with disadvantaged young people, to raise aspirations, build confidence and skills, to access third level education. Dr Moreland has excellent and wide-ranging relationships with the community and voluntary sector throughout Northern Ireland and beyond. She contributed significantly to the development of the UK National Occupational Standards in Community Development Work and the All-Ireland Community Development Work Standards. Dr Moreland sits on the Editorial Board of the Working for Change: The Irish Journal of Community Work and The Adult Learner: The Irish Journal of Adult and Community Education.

 

Eilish Rooney, University of Ulster

Eilish Rooney Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies, Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster

Eilish is a feminist academic and community activist in the School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies, University of Ulster. She publishes on women and gender in conflict-affected societies. Contributions include Feminist Theory and the Community Development Journal. She contributed a section on contemporary Northern Irish women’s writing to the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Vol. V: Irish Women's Writing & Traditions and co-authored a seminal study of women’s participation in political parties and local groups ‘Women, Community and Politics in Northern Ireland’. Current work is on intersectionality theory in transitional justice. She manages the Grassroots Transitional Justice programme, which is a community-academy partnership between TJI and the Bridge of Hope.

 

 

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Cartoon of scholar-activist jousting with injustice on horseback.

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Published

2016-03-19

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2015): Scholar-Activist Terrain in Canada and Ireland II

Section

Thematic Articles

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