A recurring challenge when implementing union training is the short time needed to get to know the group before the activity and the short time required for evaluation. In an ideal scenario, the trainer should know the training group beforehand to observe its dynamics, characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. For various reasons, however, this is not possible. For reasons of saving time and money, training programs are sometimes very intensive, where, however, activity chases the other. The trainer’s ability to participate in the lecture, meeting, and discussion preceding the training is often hampered. Therefore, as a trainer, I use innovation and remote tools to obtain information about the participants and their knowledge of the trained subject matter. By using the same method, I can send materials for further self-education and receive feedback on the training I have conducted.

In Poland, in particular, a hybrid form of training for union members is rare. Despite the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of remote tools has unfortunately not been permanently integrated into the process of union education. Trade unionists became familiar with online meetings, but rather in the form of lectures and Q&As, not training. However, they have attained the technical skills to participate in online discussions on common platforms like Zoom or MS Teams, which is not too stressful for them. In this regard, the mixed form of training is highly innovative. This is because it allows for adding an online component before and after the face-to-face training with which our members are familiar and comfortable. Judging from the reactions of some of our members, such a form of training is also kind of exciting for them. The innovation described is also associated with several challenges and weaknesses, which I will explain further in my activity. Therefore, the tools I use in the Polish realities of educating trade union members are pioneering. It is an attempt to westernize training methods, as “blended” training is widely used in the countries of so-called “Old Europe.”

I will describe my innovative remote methods used for the following training:

• „How do we face and deal with radical populism?” training for the Central Young Teachers’ Club of ZNP, Warsaw, April 12, 2024
• „Train of remembrance” training for members of the European Transport Workers’ Federation on a train from Prague to Oświęcim (Auschwitz), May 10, 2024
  

Gathering information about the participants and their experience

Before the training for the Central Young Teacher’s Club of the ZNP, I did not have full knowledge of the level at which the people I would be training were teaching and their experience with radical and authoritarian populism. I sent my questionnaire to the email addresses of the participants, which included the following questions:

• What classes do you teach?
• At what educational level do you teach?
• How long have you been in the teaching profession?
• Have you encountered radical attitudes from your students in your classes?
• Have you encountered extreme populist attitudes in your work environment?
• Which Polish political parties do you associate with radical populism?
• Which European political groups do you associate with radical populism?
• Which politicians from Europe or the World do you associate with radical populism?

The question about associations with Polish political parties and groups in the European Parliament was set in the context of the ongoing European election campaign. Thanks to these questions, the trainees could also be indirectly guided to the subtopic of the training, which is the teacher’s reaction to radical political content appearing during classroom activities.

Homework before the training and a topic briefing

As was the case during the training for young Polish teachers on countering radical populism and the training for trade unionists from the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), I did not know the trainees. Another challenge was that the trainees represented an industry with whom I don’t cooperate often. In addition, the members of the Holocaust memorialization training came from different countries in Europe, where the memory of the Holocaust is preserved in equally different ways. Also, the approach on the importance of tackling this topic of the various trade unions the participants come from varies very much, from high (as in the case of, for example, Germany) to less high. It is for this reason essential to invite the participants to a more profound reflection before the training. The blended method of training provides a perfect opportunity for that. Therefore, I prepared a message to the trainees sent by the coordinator of the entire project, in which I asked each person taking part in the training to print out a photo of a Righteous Among the Nations of their choice from their country and to learn about their history of helping Jews during the Nazi German occupation. I decided to choose this, assuming that every country is familiar with the Righteous Among the Nations and can easily gain information about such a person. This assignment later helped me during the training itself on the memory train from Prague in the Czech Republic to Auschwitz. One of the jobs in the groups was to glue the likenesses of the Righteous Among the Nations on the window of the train’s compartment and talk with other participants in the exercise about the heroic experience of helping European Jews by the chosen hero. Given the emotional (intended) dimension of the train ride to Auschwitz, a common field for discussion, as are the particular heroes of the various countries, may have provided the participants a place/feeling of security. I was not wrong with this assumption, as it turned out. 

During a preparatory meeting with the ETF, I learned that our journey to Poland would begin from the historic Prague Central Station, which, even before the start of World War II, witnessed an essential event in the rescue of Jewish children fleeing the Nazi threat in Czechoslovakia in 1939. In 2024, a film telling this story entered theaters, in which the role of Nicholas Winton, one of the principal architects of helping the children of Czechoslovakian and German Jews, was played by Anthony Hopkins. My innovation during this training was to ask to watch the trailer of the film „One Life,” which synthesized the history of British aid to Jews before the start of World War II and the crimes of the Holocaust.

Knowing also the destination point of our trip and assuming that many of the people taking part in the training had not been to the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau before, I decided to make one more homework suggestion. During the 75th commemoration of the liberation of this camp, its former inmate, Marian Turski, gave a historic speech in which he pointed out that „Auschwitz did not suddenly fall from the sky, Auschwitz stomped, treaded with small steps, came closer until what happened here happened.” The speech is extraordinarily universal and refers to a particular recurring structure of evil that underpinned the unforgivable crimes of the Third Reich. By recommending that trainees read Marian Turski’s speech, I aimed to make a substantive buckle with the other „home lessons” and some substantive preparation of trainees on the „train of remembrance.”

Providing materials for self-education and further reflection

Unlike the university classes I conduct, trade union training courses are shorter in duration and more practical. Therefore, when making a brief substantive introduction, I exclusively signal to the trainees that I will send them selected items from the subject literature in the post-training message. Training of trade union members on forms of countering radical populism should be grounded in the latest research from researchers and think tanks. In connection with the post-training for CKMN ZNP members, in a message, I recommended the following reading:

1) „Good Change in the City. Neo-authoritarianism in Polish politics from the perspective of a small town”

2) „Understanding right-wing populism and what to do about it”

3) „Authoritarian populism in the 21st century. A critical reconstruction”

The listed publications are written in accessible language and analyze interesting and actual case studies, which can help teachers in their daily teaching work. The materials are published in open access, so trained ZNP members have unrestricted access, which may help prepare for classes.

Slightly different materials for self-study and further reflection were recommended to ETF training participants. The purpose of the training was to familiarize members of European transport unions with the history of Holocaust victims and the forces and phenomena that led to the crime. An additional aspect of my training was to point out that countering and responding to all manifestations of xenophobia, racism, and nationalism is the responsibility of all those who were born after World War II. Because the training took place less than a month before the elections to the European Parliament, where the extreme populist right traditionally achieves good results in the message after the training, I included the following video.

This short material combines the aspect of the crime of the Holocaust stemming from the scion of right-wing ideology that was Nazism and the need for a political and, at the same time, individual response. In connection with the fact that the author of the appeal is Rainer Höss, grandson of the Nazi commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp Rudolf Höss, the strength of the message is multiplied and was, in my opinion, a valuable closing of the entire training.

In my message to those participating in the ETF training, I also recommended videos and podcasts prepared by Centropa, an organization with which I have collaborated on other activities to save the memory of European Jews. Both during the class on the train from Prague to Auschwitz and in the remote debriefing, I emphasized that the Nazis’ forgetting and erasure of Jewish history and heritage was one of their main goals. Recalling who the murdered were, what they did for a living, what their professions were, and where they came from – all this is a further struggle to ensure that we never forget that horrific crime.

A key aspect of any training is its evaluation. In this way, the trainer can receive important feedback on his idea of the training itself, the methods used, the materials used. This is a learning tool for the trainer, as it allows us to learn about our strengths and weaknesses. Thanks to the information from the trainees, we are able to see what can be done differently or better in future editions of our training.

Unfortunately, after the trainings I conduct, there is often not enough time to do an on-site evaluation. Due to the fact that training programs are extremely intensive (sometimes even overloaded) I conduct evaluations using the Microsoft Forms platform. I send a link to the form via email to the training participants.

• Have the training objective(s) been clearly formulated?
• Have the training objectives been met?
• Were the training methods appropriate to achieve the objectives?
• Were the training methods active enough?
• Was the training perceived as fluid, as seamless learning takes place?
• Was the content good enough to achieve the objectives?
• Were the pedagogical resources (documents, links, visuals, video etc.) useful to participants’ learning process?
• Was the trainer effective in regard to the training objectives? (Give a general appreciation)

Below are sample evaluation results of a training course for members of the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF).

An important aspect of my pedagogical innovation is the possibility of short individual and remote meetings with those participating in the training. In this way, I can check at an appropriate interval the extent to which the knowledge gained during the training for trade union members has proven valuable and useful. Video evaluation also allows me to understand better the challenges or systemic obstacles faced by, for example, young teachers who plan to sensitize their school management, other teachers, their students, and their parents to the challenges of radical populism. Through these video meetings in the form of mini-training, I gain precious information as a training trainer, which also allows me to self-evaluate my classes.

Sample screenshots of video consultations with ZNP’s Central Young Teachers’ Club members conducted after the training „How do we face and deal with radical populism?”

As a trainer, I consider the form of e-consultation and information acquisition to be key to better preparing for training. In this way, I am overcoming the difficulties of not knowing the trainees before the event and the objective problems of staying in touch with them. This is true of Polish and European trade unionists attending my courses and workshops. The hybrid form of training provides new opportunities for trainers. Since we don’t always have the chance to get to know the training group beforehand, the option to send a welcome message, interactive metrics, or a homework assignment in advance gives, in a sense, the opportunity to start the training even before it physically begins. The same goes for sending additional materials or an evaluation survey after the meeting in the room. This allows for the opportunity to make the most of the time to work with the group and talk, discuss, and share best practices. The hybrid, blended form of training should be used more often in all forms of training. Of course, meeting on Zoom does not fully reflect the comfort of a face-to-face meeting, but it does help break the ice. Video conferencing programs can work in groups, conducting informal education exercises similar to those we perform in the real world with the people we train. I can envision remote formats being added to „traditional” union training, from short group exercises to watching videos related to the training topics to meeting together after the training (e.g., a month after the end) to build further group dynamics over time.

The innovative pedagogical tool I am using also faces some challenges. The first is the low number of completed evaluation surveys. Some of the people who did not respond to my questions about the training I conducted told me afterward that upon their return, they got caught up in the whirlwind of work and household responsibilities, which effectively prevented them from sending in their feedback. Some people also said that only after a couple of weeks did they find time to check the sent materials for further self-study. I suspect that with the popularization of the residential form (onsite and remote) of union training, there will be greater responsiveness on the part of those being trained. Feedback from a more significant number of participants would provide an opportunity for better reflection on the training, answering questions about the appropriate methods, and critical analysis of the activity. The lack of a high response rate can have a demotivating effect on the trainer, as one feels that the work and effort put into planning and conducting the training is not appreciated by those being trained. In this regard, it would also be worthwhile to emphasize in the training invitation that it is a good union custom to answer the evaluation questionnaire, which should be simple and take little time for the trainees to complete.

Additional help in popularizing hybrid forms of training would be the standardization of the tools used and the platforms of European trade unions. An even better use of the analyzed innovation would be creating a unified European platform to enable a more professional and systematized contact with participants and implementing training evaluation. The organized labor world, in this regard, could draw attention to the solutions commonly used by the business world. A dedicated smartphone, tablet, and computer application would facilitate the ability to send reminders, conduct quick evaluation surveys, and post-training reflections on a scheduled schedule (week, month, quarter, six months after) to be able to better and more easily measure the impact of training on professional and union activity. The multitude of platforms (MS Forms, Slack, Google Forms, Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet, Skype) can be an unnecessary complication for trade unionists. Also, national trade union federations use different sheets and blended training methods. It would be advisable to use a standardized pre- and post-training platform after agreeing on European best practices. ETUI’s Eurotrainers could then benefit from the experience of their colleagues in other countries, which at the same time could translate into standardizing the best way of hybrid training.