{"id":8,"date":"2024-04-02T20:42:20","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T18:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rydlinski.pl\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2024-12-08T19:00:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T18:00:42","slug":"biografia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rydlinski.pl\/?page_id=8","title":{"rendered":"How do we face and deal with radical populism? Training for teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The training was held as part of a workshop meeting of the Central Club of Young Teachers (CKMN, Centralny Klub M\u0142odego Nauczyciela)<\/a> of the Polish Teachers’ Union (ZNP, Zwi\u0105zek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego). The event was held on April 11-12, 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The CKMN brings together young teachers up to age 35 from different parts of Poland; as part of its activities, it organizes training, seminars, debates, and conferences during which young teachers and educators exchange best practices and experiences gained in working with students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My training, „How do we face and deal with radical populism?” took place at the end of the second day of the CKMN meeting in Warsaw. The first day and half of the second day of the training was devoted to organizational and internal affairs of the CKMN and planning activities for 2024. As a trainer, I was not responsible for recruiting the group, as CKMN has its members. I have discussed the date and topic of the training with the chairman of the board of CKMN ZNP, Szymon Lepper, who is also a Eurotrainer. Szymon gave me the email addresses of the training participants so I could gain more information about their work experience and contact information with radical populism in the workplace.

The training aimed to supply young teachers and educators with knowledge regarding models of how radical populism operates in Europe, the peculiarities of political radicalism, and forms of response, both from a teacher and staff perspective. Special attention was paid to teachers’ reactions to possible behavior of students in and out of the classroom. I was the originator of the training topic and the methods used. I consulted the scenario with my coach for the Eurotrainers accreditation, Colin Nolan. The timeliness of the training topic is related to the April 7 local elections in Poland, which were won nationally by the populist-right Law and Justice party (PiS, Prawo i Sprawiedliwo\u015b\u0107), while the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) came in fourth place. An additional training context is the European Parliament elections, which were held in Poland on June 9, 2024. As a rule, during the European campaign, radically populist parties used their anti-refugee, xenophobic, and anti-European narrative to attack the European Union. I found the timing regarding training in dealing with extreme populist content perfectly appropriate. Radical right-wing populism has become one of the world’s leading political issues since Brexit and Donald Trump’s first victory in the 2016 US presidential election. In 2024, the far-right’s electoral successes in Europe put the training topic well into political reality. My additional role as a trainer was to bring the political attention to young unionized teachers that we have to react and fight the radical populists. Xenophobic and nationalistic agenda – as history taught us – is a vital threat to democracy and human rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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At the beginning of the training, I introduced myself and briefly discussed the activities. Then, I asked the participants to move to a larger room, where I used the spider web method as an energizer. Using a ball of wool, I asked them to throw it to a person of their choice, while the person who caught it was asked to introduce themselves and identify one word they associated with radical populism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After each participant had a piece of colored paper with their association, I asked them to group their answers into categories individually. As a trainer, I did not impose my opinion; I answered questions and cleared trainees’ doubts. Participants decided to form three groups related to nation\/people, politics, and characteristics of radical populism. In the next step, we briefly discussed why the CKMN members made such groupings rather than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The second part of the training involved embedding the first associations of radical populism with existing academic and theoretical frameworks. I recalled the recognized Polish researchers of radical populism, Miros\u0142aw Karwat’s and Andrzej Ci\u0105\u017cela’s definitions that draw attention to the relationship of populism with the emotional reflexes of large communities, prejudice, social obsessions, and radical argumentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I gave the examples from Polish political life that exemplify radical populism, after which I announced the central part of the training, i.e., working in groups according to the World Caf\u00e9 method. I’ve divided three groups and three reporters of each sub-table.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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During the theoretical introduction, I referred to the existing literature on the subject, including the results of research conducted by Daphne Halikiopoulou and Tim Vlandas, published in a report titled \u201cUnderstanding right-wing populism and what to do about it<\/a>\u201d. Then, I moved from the European perspective to the national aspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then showed all participants three examples of far-right statements by Confederation politicians:<\/p>\n\n\n\n