How to Use - Economics for Emancipation

This curriculum is grounded in a popular education pedagogy and is designed to center the agency of the participants in surfacing and building on their own enquiries and lived experiences.

Popular Education Approach

This curriculum was created using a popular education approach that is accessible to organizers, educators, activists, and community members. If you are a member or leader of a grassroots or movement organization, this curriculum was designed to support your organizing work in your community.

Given that this curriculum was designed for a collective learning process, we recommend that you gather a group of up to 20-25 people to go through the curriculum in group workshop format, with a lead educator/facilitator. The entire course takes 15-20 hours to run. More information about the curriculum components are below.

The design elements that allow for participant agency include an elicitive tool at the beginning of the workshop to bring participant voices into the room, activities and discussions for participants to experience the enquiries at play, mini lessons to inform those enquiries, and discussions and activities for participants to apply any new understanding to their own context as a way to integrate new understandings and build together.

However, individuals or smaller groups can also engage in this curriculum by moving through the videos and interactive workbook.

Curriculum Components

Each module of the curriculum consists of videos, an interactive workbook for individuals and small groups, and materials for educators, organizers, and others looking to facilitate these workshops in their organization or community. The comprehensive versions of the documents are listed below.

Videos

The videos provide key lessons relating to the concepts in each module. In the workshop format, they often follow activities and discussions to help participants and students synthesize what they have learned.

For Large Groups

For facilitation of the curriculum as workshops for groups of 5-25 (recommended)

Facilitator Guide

The facilitator guide should be used by the facilitator to facilitate the curriculum as workshops. It features an introduction to the popular education approach of the curriculum, an orientation to the materials and preparation for facilitators, and tips for online facilitation. Each module for the curriculum includes learning objectives, the agenda outline, and detailed facilitation notes.

Facilitator Slide Deck

The facilitator slide deck includes all lessons and activity instructions, and should be used by the facilitator as presentation / accompaniment material.

Participant Workbook

The participant workbook should be shared with the participants, and only includes the slides that participants need to interact with. It can be used and edited by participants throughout the workshops.

The Big Idea Project

The “Big Idea Project” is a set of guided activities that allows participants to directly apply the lessons from each module to their organizing work and/or projects that work towards social and economic justice. It will be introduced in the first workshop with an example, and will be a thread through the rest of the workshops.

For Individuals

For those going through this curriculum as individuals or in groups below 5 people

Interactive Workbook

This interactive workbook, which includes activities and discussion/reflection prompts, should be used to accompany the videos. Detailed instructions for the activities and flow of the curriculum can be found in the facilitator guide.