September 2021, Lisbon
The third event of the IFLRY work plan took place in Lisbon, Portugal on the 30th of September until the 3th of October. Participants from The Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, Hungary, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Spain gathered in the ‘Tivoli Oriente Lisboa’ Hotel. The topic of the international seminar was; ‘BootCamp Political Education: Leading By Teaching.’ During the seminar we handed the participants a wide variety of skills on how to conduct effective Non-Formal Education (NFE) seminars and how to act as professional facilitator, leading the educational process in a way that suits youth. Combining the theoretical perspective of leading / leadership and the practical perspective of putting newly adapted skills in successful teaching, participants were able at the end of the seminar to identify the challenges of leadership and are able to act within the atmosphere of non formal education and are able to pass their knowledge on to their peers in their own organizations and countries.
The seminar consisted of skills labs on individual learning journeys and the difference between trainer, moderator & lecturer, theoretical lectures on leadership and what it takes to be a leader, methodology speed-runs on successfully conducting a Non-Formal education event, an expert session with 4 experts from Jordan, Germany, Ukraine and The Netherlands on Non-Formal Education and their experience in event management, and concluded by a session in which participants designed a starter kit for young political leaders and
Even though there were challenges regarding covid-19 that complicated the selection of participants last minute – the participants showed vivid engagement with the topics and showed serious improvement regarding event management and understanding the concept of Non-Formal Education and leadership. Combined with an experienced team of trainers the overall result was one to be proud of.
Trajectory towards the event, when we selected pax, trainers and held our meetings is a bit unclear to me
BootCamp Political Education: Leading By Teaching
IFLRY CIS CoE EYF Event, 30 Sep – 4 October 2021, Lisbon, Portugal
| 30-Sep | 1 Oct | 2 Oct | 3 Oct | |
| 7.30 – 9.00 | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | |
| 9.00 – 10.30 | Arrival of Participants | 🦸♀️ What Does it Take to Be a Leader? 🦸♀️ Are Trainers Leaders? | 🗣️ Dealing With Disagreement 🗣️:The Challenges of Political Education | BootCamp Finale: Developing the Starter Pack for the Political Leaders |
| 10.30 – 11.00 | Coffee Break | Coffee Break | Coffee Break | |
| 11.00 – 12.30 | 🤔 What Now: 🤔Trainer? Lecturer?Moderator? Facilitator? | 🚀 All You Need to Know: 🚀Methodology Speed-Run #1 | Follow-Up Planning +Conclusion and Evaluation___ Closing Ceremony | |
| 12.30 – 14.30 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | |
| 14.30 – 16.00 | 💁 It All Starts w/ Yourself: 💁Understanding Yourself…and the Group | 🚀 All You Need to Know: 🚀Methodology Speed-Run #2 | Departure of Participants | |
| 16.00 – 16.30 | Coffee Break (Registration) | Coffee Break | Coffee Break | |
| 16.30 – 18.30 | Opening & Introduction Business. IFLRY. EYF. COE. CIS | 🧳 Your Biggest Responsibility: 🧳Designing a Learning Journey | 🏆 AMA with Legends and GOATs of the Game 🏆 | |
| 18:30-19:00 | Home Groups | Home Groups | ||
| 19.30 – 20.30 | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner in Town | |
| 21.00 – 00.00 | Cultural Evening | Free Evening | Free evening |
The Seminar took part, as usual, in three main stages, the preparation stage preparation started several weeks before the seminar, where the team started conducting online meetings and prepared the flow of the seminar in a way that adapts to the applications we received during the seminar. Several meetings took place and various online platforms were used to facilitate the preparation phase of the seminar.
The Second stage was on the ground were we started the session on Thursday were we introduced the partners of this Workplan through interactive methodologies, we also dedicated a big part of the introductory session for team building exercises, especially for this seminar because this gave them an insight of NFE methodologies used within IFLRY.
The Second day started by a discussion on the meaning of being a leader, and how each individual and any member of an organization can be a leader in their position, being the factors of change in their organizations. We then moved on to identifying the different political education roles they can play, in order for the participants to understand the different leadership roles that are asked from them in different contexts. Reflecting on that and as an example for the participants to understand, we discussed with the participants the different personalities they have and how to harness this variety in recruiting team members for political education activities, we also discussed different personalities and emotional status of participants and how it can be dealt with to ensure the best learning outcome of political education seminars.
During the third day we discussed different techniques of conflict resolutions that can be used to moderate conflicts during their seminars. The Skills lab then started with 4 different stations, on Leading innovation and change, The Thinking Environment, the basics of project management (course director course), and the different exercises and tools that can be used for team building and energizing the group.
On the last day, participants were gathered in a world cafe style where they shared their learnings of the seminars in order to develop a starter kit that they can use and distribute to their peers who are conducting political education activities.
In the last stage, we conducted ongoing follow-up after the seminar with the participants to finalize their starter kits, and to connect them with their peers from other seminars of the Work Plan.
The third event of this work plan contributed significantly to reshaping the image of a political educator and the leadership role of a political education in promoting change and progress. Participants through the seminar understood the importance of political education and the power that comes with it, which we also tackled through a session that differentiated between the roles of political educator and how and when they can share their own opinions and values and when to be more neutral and facilitate the conversation for others to share theirs.
The seminar also resulted in a starter kit that we will distribute to other participants, our membership and the Pool of Trainers of IFLRY, covering a very important aspect and complimenting the other political leadership aspects of the seminar. The starter kit that is being finalized from this seminar is an important tool to achieving the goals of the work plan. Participants gathered in two groups, the first group focused on reshaping what it means to be a leaders in political education, and the second group focused more on the training methodologies and skills needed to lead a political education event
A particular interest of the participants was on learning more about the role of a course director and “what needs to be done when” in a seminar, therefore we prepared a list that is specific for our work that helps future course directors from the seminar to guide activities of IFLRY in the future.
The Team was chosen based on the expertise needed in this seminar, especially that it is a condensed “Training of Trainers” to some extent, therefore the team was lead by Sven Gerst, on of IFLRY most experienced trainers who conducts seminar as his major profession now, we also recruited Abdallah Abdoh, IFLRY Pool of Trainers manager and Bram Roodhart iflry Vice president responsible for political education, Aliona Dobrydan one of IFLRY’s new and very active trainers and Hussam Erhayel IFLRY executive Director who, apart from the organizational support, provided insights on the project management aspects to the participants.The trainers were from Jordan, Netherlands, Germany and Ukraine to ensure a diverse expertise.
Participants were chosen based on an application process, they were from Ukraine, Jordan, Azerbaijan, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Hungary and Belarus, one participant canceled last minute from Finland due to health issues. The participants’ selection faced several challenges which ranged from varying regulations to enter Portugal, including covid vaccination rules, delays in issuing visas and difficulties in finding flights. The varied covid situation in different countries also didn’t help us in the planning, many participants who showed interest first and were accepted, had to cancel because of one of the above mentioned reasons, we nonetheless were able to recruit new relevant and interested participants on time.