Activists as teachers: A case study of nonformal educators and their roles in a social action organization

The premise of a democracy is that citizens collectively can solve problems for the benefit of a common good. Officially, responsibility for encouraging citizen action--citizenship education--has been delegated to the public schools. As the core of our formal education system, schools have been observed and evaluated by myriad committees and researchers. Far less attention has been given to the role of nonformal educational organizations in the political education of citizens.; The purpose in this case study was to broaden the inquiry into, and understanding of, the role of nonformal educators in the political education of citizens. This was an inquiry into the perceptions and behaviors of five activist/teachers employed by the Cascadia Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice (a pseudonym), a local, autonomous affiliate of a national organization. At the time of the fieldwork, the Center, a social action organization located in a mid-size city in the Pacific Northwest, had operated as a non-profit educational organization for seventeen years.; This long term, naturalistic study (which draws upon ethnographic fieldwork techniques) was an inquiry into adult political learning processes in a community setting. Two central questions guided this research: "How did the Center staff members (nonformal educators) attempt to persuade others to accept and/or promote political action consistent with their interpretation of democratic living?" and "What processes did staff members undergo as they confirmed or revised their political world views?"; The actions of staff members are interpreted from the perspective that they shared elements of a broader "teacher culture," including a belief system as well as standards for analyzing occurrences, taking action and making judgments. Staff members are also interpreted as influencing and being influenced by a political microculture, which they referred to as "the movement." This study describes in case study detail how nonformal education played a role in the political education of individuals in one community in the United States. This study also suggests that the formulation and reformulation of political culture is an interactive and evolving process that occurs within a social setting.