Innovative Social Pedagogy

The Innovative Social Pedagogy* to Empower Indigenous Communities, Reduce Gender, and Racial Biases project is funded by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). This project will take place over 3 locations, Montreal, Chicoutimi, and Edmonton and over the span of 3 years. Project Someone (Concordia University, Montreal), the University of Alberta and The Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, along with community partners, will co-create, adapt and evaluate four distinct types of interventions. These are interactive workshops, documentaries and multimedia, online courses, and policy briefs.

*Social pedagogy refers to the inclusive and reflexive co-creation of interventions and strategies to better magnify the voices of marginalized communities that have been undermined due to systemic discrimination that accompany hierarchies of knowledge and power.

Our work is aligned with UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concerning quality education, equality, gender, partnerships and establishment of strong institutions that promote peace and justice.

SDG 4 (quality education): eliminate all discrimination in education;
SDG 5 (gender equality): end discrimination against women and girls; ensure full participation in leadership and decision-making;
SDG 10 (reduced inequality): ensure equal opportunities and end discrimination;
SDG 16 (peace, justice & strong institutions): reduce violence everywhere; promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies; and
SDG 17 (partnerships): target encourage effective partnerships.

Workshops

Over the course of the 3 years, we will co-create 18 interactive workshops which will be sustainably led by local marginalized communities in the 3 locations as well as online. If you are interested in joining a consultation group, or co-designing or participating in a workshop, please contact [email protected]

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)

Each year, we will host one Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). For 2021-2022, the MOOC was “From Hate to Hope,” which ran in French and English from November 1st – December 10th, 2021.During this 10-15 hour online course, participants:

Explore the dynamics of hate including the ways in which people are manipulated to feel and express hate.
Gain strategies for building resilience to hate through dialogue.
Integrate best practices for using social media for advocacy.
Analyze and develop strategies for using social media to build resilience in different sectors.

Click here for more information or contact us at [email protected]

Policy Briefs

We will produce 3 policy briefs (one each year) on resilience, discrimination and related issues. These are developed by analysing online discussions pertinent to the impact of systemic discrimination on Indigenous and marginalized populations. Sources include discourse in public online forums, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and new story comments.

Documentaries

Finally, we will create 3 documentaries focusing on socio-pedagogical and communal practices that build resilience to discrimination. These videos will document the various activities being led by each of the area groups. Audio and audio-video materials will also be co-created by participants during workshop activities.

For more information on our team’s existing video expertise, see the Project Someone Vimeo channel.

Team

Vivek Venkatesh, Élisabeth Kaine, Paul Gareau, Mathieu Cook, Nykkie Lugosi-Schimpf, Veronica Mockler, José Cortés, Safia Boufalaas, Kathryn Urbaniak, Lucy Lu, Diane Querrien, Josie-Ann Bonneau, Shawn Tse, Dalia Elsayed, Stacey Cann, Victoria Stanton, Emanuelle Dufour, Catherine Montmagny-Grenier, Jason Wallin, Wynnpaul Varela, Leslie Touré Kapo, Rawda Harb