Community organising in higher education: activist community-engaged learning in geography

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of multiple data collection participant/source and methodology 2016–2021.

Data Ref.	Participant/collaborator focus	Cohort/period of observation.	Data collection source and methodology
1.a	Students	February 2017 (n = 8)	Group dialogues transcribed to capture individual and collective experience of community engagement over the previous five months
1.b	External organisers and civic partnerships	May 2017 May 2018 (n = 5)	Oral and written feedback from external partner organisation (primary contact) to explore lessons learned for mutually beneficial relationships.
1.c.	Students	2017/18–2020/21 (Total n = 86)	Pre-entry questionnaire. Open-ended responses from four student cohorts, each questioned on their experience and expectations of community engagement.
1.d	Students, paid organisers, alliance members, and civic activists. As above, plus paid student action research interns	2016–2021	Composite vignettes derived from personal communications and printed materials sourced from multiple training workshops (including 2-day 2016, 6-day 2018), continuous leadership development, in-person and online (2018–2021), and multiple CO action (Reclaim the Metro, Just Change, Just Transition and others).
1.e		September 2020 – July 2021.	Newcastle University funded action research to promote social connectedness (with community organising) during the COVID-19 crisis. Data collection and methods as above, plus anonymised transcript of online symposium (n = 40 student community organisers and civic partners) to pool experiences at the end of the academic year.

Box A. student experience, motivations, and expectations of community engagement from pre-entry survey, 2017–2021 (representing on-line engaged learning format in 2020/21)

2020/21	Selected phrases from free-text survey responses	N = cohort of 26
Previous experience: “weekly volunteering” “regular volunteering, fundraising and campaigning” (14 mentions) with explicit reference to “Covid-19 response activity” (6 mentions), “work experience at national elections (counts), digital activism, regular volunteer in local nature conservation (and) future career in voluntary sector” “volunteering (and) experience of leadership with environmental group” (5 mentions) including “to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable fashion” “member of Extinction Rebellion” and “fundraising for national charities (and) campaigning on climate change, plastic waste and social equality issues” (4 mentions). Motivations: “keen to make a difference beyond university (and) to be more active in local community off campus” (3 mentions), interested in learning about wider voluntary sector” (3 mentions), “keen to apply skills of digital activism” (2 mentions) and “looking to pursue voluntary service overseas” “passionate to agitate on environmental and social change” (3 mentions) and on “humanitarian and animal rights issues” “passionate about helping drive social change through grassroots … .currently tackling austerity within benefits system … .feminist activist” (aware of Tyne and Wear Citizens).
2019/20	Selected phrases from free-text survey responses	N = cohort of 24
Previous experience: “Organised collection for Calais Refugees (and youth based charity in Swaziland) through cake sells and organising discos for younger school years; bucket collections for Marie Curie” “charity shop volunteer; litter picker; fundraising for Children in Need; a cuddle programme in a premature baby unit; helping the elderly with their computers/using the internet; helping refugees to develop English language skills as a student-run initiative” (14 mentions from this list) “National Citizen Service programme” (3 mentions) “helped to communicate the severity of local homelessness, encouraging local people to provide necessities such as food and water to those sleeping rough” (2 mentions) “European Youth Parliament organiser; Advocacy NE Training” (1 mention) Motivations: “(hoping to) actually interact with people” “to give back” “to hopefully make an impact and explore possible career in the voluntary sector” (4 mentions) “particularly interested in poverty and education” “to help the community and build upon my communication and people skills” “to work in the humanitarian field, either in education or response to crisis” “to make a difference to other people’s lives” (5 mentions) “I want to step out of my comfort zone” “Tyne and Wear Citizens sounds like a brilliant new approach to politics and a way for people to bring about change in the North East” “Tyne and Wear Citizens because of what I have read about the #JustChange campaign regarding free school meals, and on hate crime, and mental health (3 mentions, heard about community organising from earlier cohort).
2018/19	Selected phrases from free-text survey responses	n = cohort of 15
Previous experience: “three weeks in Ghana constructing new library and improving existing facilities … had to organise multiple fundraising events for travel costs” “volunteered in Africa for a week at a school teaching English” “volunteered as part of my Duke of Edinburgh award” “regularly helped at local primary school to help with reading” (3 mentions) “children’s camp counsellor” “litter picker at (music) festival” (2 mentions) “students union RAG (raising and giving) Motivations: “I want to help make a positive difference for the organisations I will be involved with” “Hoping to step away from the University bubble and work with local people (and) help to improve their opinion of students” “I want something to add to my cv and to build me as a person” (2 mentions) “I’d like more knowledge of how the charity sector actually operates and to make a difference within the local community” “I am very interested in sustainability and the environment, and grassroots community engagement is a great way to achieve these goals” (direct reference to community organising for change).
2017/18	Selected phrases from free-text survey responses	n = cohort of 21
Previous experience: “volunteering in Madagscar on conservation projects with Operation Wallacea” (2 mentions) “helped with Rotary Club fundraising around my village (linked with overseas expedition” “Volunteering this summer in Nicaragua for 10 weeks on a sanitation project with the charity Raleigh International” “a week of volunteering in school for disabled children in Brunei” “took part in conservation work for NGO project in Mexico” “Worked with a team to raise money to build/redecorate an orphanage in Rishikesh, India” “donated clothes, stationary, books etc.” (3 mentions like this)“Volunteered in a local hospice charity shop as part of my Duke of Edinburgh award” (2 mentions) “with National Citizen Service” (3 mentions) “volunteered at festivals for Oxfam and as an English language teacher with refugee student society” “I volunteered for a food bank/primary school in my local town during the school holidays” (3 mentions)Motivations: “thinking of working for a charity in the future” (2 mentions) “motivated by my family experience of caring for older relatives” “I’ve been involved with volunteering my whole life because my mum runs the hometown branch of (a national charity)” “interested in austerity issues” “homelessness is a real issue I care about” “passionate about sustainability, the ethos behind (food waste education) is really inspiring and one that needs to be spread” (2 mentions) “I have done little volunteering before, which is why I was really keen to do this module” “I am not aware of all the partner organisations but I’m happy for a new challenge” “I really want to make a difference” “I am excited to be in a more practical module”

Box B. composite vignette of student experience and reflections on the ‘political theatre’ of a large Tyne and Wear Citizens (TAWC) Assembly and associated direct action (2018-2022).

One of my first experiences of community organising with TAWC was through the Assembly: “Initially, I found it difficult and confusing to understand how TAWC operated, as I had never heard of community organising before. The first meeting I attended I was not confident enough to share my opinions or put myself forward to take on roles.” We participated in the Assembly as members of the floor team, supporting key roles such as co-chairs, timekeeper, action team speakers, chaperones for the VIP guests, and technical support. We learned from seminal texts by Saul Alinsky and Paulo Freire that campaigning is most likely to get results if the Assembly is staged as a piece of political theatre. But we were not here to “watch a show.” It was explained that: “This Assembly is about all of us. Everyone in this room has a part to play. We are not a collection of random individuals. Tyne & Wear Citizens is a charity and a non-partisan organisation. All of us come from an organisation that cares about this region.” This was said to seek consent and to demonstrate democracy from the floor. First impressions were of a thousand-seat venue packed with a diverse gathering – in stark contrast to passive and partisan public consultations. The script was emotionally stirring as it combined moments of tension with scope for celebration. “It struck me that children and young people who are otherwise overlooked and ignored in decision-making have a visible platform here” (Student personal communication 2020). The timekeeper role is important because “by keeping the event and all speakers to time, without fear or favour, we respect our speakers and the decision makers who we are seeking to build working relationships with”. “We’ve kept on developing leaders, strengthening our institutions, increasing the number of people involved in public life, and working together to create change. This is what brings us all here this evening.” (Assembly script.) Unlike an election husting, the Assembly was scripted in three parts, without questions or heckling from the floor. The first part explained the origins of TAWC in a regional history of collective action for justice. This concluded in a roll call of member organisations to demonstrate the strength of mandate. We then heard powerful testimonies on priority issues and campaigns for action. Storytelling is at the heart of community organising through one-to-one meetings where we listen to and share our story: “Through community organising I have been told and trusted with honest and personal stories of deplorable Islamophobic hate crime, student struggles with poor mental health and experiences of child poverty. TAWC has provided me with a platform to tell my own stories, while giving me the tools to realise my own power to progress social change with the backing of the collective alliance” (Student reflection 2018/19). “As a community organising volunteer, I worked with a group of children in a local school in Sunderland to work on the launch of Just Change and to help support schools to de-stigmatise access to school meals” (student reflection 2019/20). “From the beginning of my journey I was made aware that focussing on the Just Change and Schools-Based Counselling Campaigns would benefit both the campaign groups through my passion for young people and help to develop my own future ambitions in education. I could explain why I am so passionate about working with young people by looking back at the struggles my own peers went through in school. I was encouraged to act on my own self-interests (anger and motivations for change) and not to pursue a campaign that I was less passionate about” (Student reflections, 2019/20). Within the Just Change team (we) conducted a power analysis to identify key “power holders” such as MPs and private organisations. Initially I struggled to understand the concept of power analysis in the training I was following, one evening each week. There were a lot of unfamiliar concepts. But when I applied the training to our meeting with my MP to gain her support for the campaign, I discovered that community organising is about “speaking truth to power”. My MP was clearly interested in hearing from us, as she needed to understand her constituents. She agreed to apply for a ministerial debate in support of our campaign, demonstrating that change is possible” (Student reflections 2020/21). Positive commitments were asked of each authority figure. A typical “ask” on mental health: “if elected will you ensure that, by the end of your five-year term, every school under North of Tyne Combined Authority responsibility, be it Local Authority maintained or Academy, has access to counselling provision?” Positive agreement elicited rousing applause and celebration. Even when pushing an uncomfortable reversal of platform, candidates for public office were treated with courtesy and thanked with a gift. The final part is always celebratory, demonstrating how “working together for the betterment of our communities, together, action is the oxygen of democracy.” (Assembly script.)