JOIN US FOR THE FIRST-EVER VIRTUAL EDUCATION JAM IN INDIA!
Calling all jammers in India committed to creating just, healthy, and meaningful learning systems! While the Coronavirus pandemic has underlined and intensified existing issues and inequities that plague the education system, we are also seeing innovative approaches to learning like never before. It’s a perfect time for us to build this community with a powerful and deeper vision and carry forward the transformations we seek.
In July, we sent a mail to India Jamily asking if you would be interested in JAM focused on education. Encouraged by the overwhelming response, we decided to keep India’s first-ever Education Transformation Jam within the existing JAM community. We invite you to this unique opportunity to co-learn, co-create, and JAM with change-makers who are working in dynamic and (r)evolutionary ways to transform themselves, their relationships, and the field and state of education as we’ve known it.
This will be our first Education Jam and the first virtual Jam in India! We will be having the Zoomy Education Transformation Jam from Oct 8th to Oct 16th, over five 2-hour sessions. So, Oct 8, Oct 10, Oct 12, Oct 14 and Oct 16, 5:00-7:00 pm IST each of those days. On the non-meeting alternate days, you can choose to join in for spontaneous conversations, engagements, open bazaar, secret angels, learning shares, films, dance parties, etc. We’ll send more details, and feel free to ask us any questions.
Please register by Sept 25th, 2020 (the sooner the better). Thank you!
WHAT IS YES! EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION JAM – INDIA?
The YES! Education Transformation Jam – India (Ed Jam, for short) is envisioned as a unique gathering for folks engaged in education. We will bring together no more than 25 leaders and visionaries from across the often-divided education world: government, private and alternative schools, unschooling, homeschooling, learning communities, youth empowerment, youth activism, leadership development, adult education, early childhood learning, higher education, and more.
The Ed Jam creates opportunities to explore our experiences and visions of education, build lasting and collaborative relationships, deepen our perspectives of challenging questions, share places of growth, struggle, and healing, and have a lot of fun. The Ed Jam weaves the personal, interpersonal, and systemic together — from the deep motivations of why we are called to be in this field, to the unique interwoven interaction of religion, caste, class and gender diversity present in our learning spaces, to imagining and manifesting the full possibilities of what education can be in this emergent and ever-changing world.
Unlike many education conferences that focus on systemic questions and rarely weave together connections to our own life journeys — or personal retreats that focus on self-transformation and leave out systemic issues — the Jam seeks to address both of these levels, as well as the very vital area of interpersonal connection, learning, and healing. All fields of transformation are brought together in a shared space co-created by all of the participants. On a personal level, we get time to reflect on what’s alive for each of us and tune into deeper sources of information from within and outside of us. On an interpersonal level, we build relationships across differences, to see and support each other, to play together, and to have challenging and truthful conversations while rooted in curiosity and love. On a systemic level, we share our work and build our collective vision of the education that our communities and this world needs to meet this moment and carve pathways forward. We invite you to join us!
WHAT COULD HAPPEN AT THE EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION JAM?
Over the course of the Zoomy Jam, we will have time to engage with many questions, such as:
- What are you learning and unlearning right now? What are your growing edges, cliffhangers, and pivot points?
- What challenges has the pandemic posed to you and your work? What are the unexpected possibilities you see now, that seemed unimaginable before the pandemic? How has your heart broken and broken open?
- What have been your triumphs and your traumas around education? How are they shaping your work in the world?
- How are you creating and implementing your systems and visions of education? As you go about your work, what struggles do you face, and what opportunities do you see?
- In an increasingly polarized nation and society, how are you approaching building bridges within and across diverse identities, like caste, class, gender, geography, and sexuality, in your education work?
- How are you living the values and world you are trying to create?
- What kind of support do you need to help come into deeper alignment? What kind of support can you offer others for their journey into deeper alignment?
What are your questions?
Bring all of them to the Jam! They are essential for all of us to learn, grow, and dream further. This is a Zoomy Jam and not a workshop or seminar. Each Jam is co-created by everyone who attends in multiple ways.
Since this is our first time doing an Education Jam and that too virtually, we are prepared to be surprised! One hope is that we will have the opportunity to integrate our learnings and carry them home. We hope to be able to find and connect with people who have the heart, spirit, skills, and knowledge that we are needing for the next steps of our personal and collective journey.
I’M INTERESTED! WHAT ABOUT COST AND LOGISTICS?
We are offering this program on a sliding scale of Rs. 1700-Rs. 3500. The actual cost of the JAM per participant is Rs 3500/- (including modest stipends for organizers and facilitators). We recognize the different potentials people have to support the economy of Jam, and so we offer a sliding-scale contribution of Rs. 1700/- to Rs. 3500/-. This means that you can contribute according to your unique financial situation, anywhere in this range. We also request you to contribute by taking a stretch i.e. contributing a little more if you comfortably can. This will help us have an inclusive group of participants and at the same time, be financially sustainable. We appreciate your efforts to find the money, especially in these times (we can help you in asking for support from family, friends, your organization, etc).
It is important to know that anything below Rs. 3500/- is a scholarship. However, if the minimum Rs 1700/- is not possible for you and you need an additional scholarship, please mention that in the form. We do not want money to be an impediment to your participation and we encourage you to please talk to us so that we can find a solution together. We can also work with you to create a monthly payment plan
Since the JAM will happen over Zoom, your computer/tablet/mobile phone must have fast, reliable internet, as well as a working front-facing camera, microphone, and speakers, so that you have a good JAM experience. If you anticipate problems with your internet, please get in touch with us or fellow jam alumni in your city, maybe there will be some support available.
MEET OUR FACILITATORS/ORGANIZERS:
Vartika feels that all her real learning has taken place outside of institutions. Disillusioned with the entire education system, and simultaneously, with the modern industrialized society of which factory schooling is a part, she started a creative learning space – Swabhav – in her hometown Kolkata, after completing her studies. The idea behind Swabhav was to help children and youth find their self-worth – often destroyed by mainstream institutions – through the creative arts, at the same time questioning the prevailing model of development and consumerism. Over time, Swabhav evolved into Swabhav Natak Dal – a people’s theatre group. Apart from creating and travelling with plays on social and environmental issues, Swabhav Natak Dal works with children, youth and women in different parts of the country, helping them tell their stories through theatre. Vartika has worked with alternative learning spaces across urban and rural India as a youth facilitator, conversational English teacher and theatre trainer. Her greatest joy is to connect with people through song, dance and stories, and she actively seeks out spaces where that can happen!
At age 14, Suyash (or Saboo) shared with his family about dropping out of school. The family convinced him otherwise. At that time, however, they all recognized that he was not going to lead his life the conventional way. One day, with a wandering spirit and a bit of luck, he lands at Swaraj University and discovers a whole new world of learning. He has 8 years of association with it today – from being a khoji in the program, to interning and now facilitating the program as a core team member – Suyash has had hands-on experience on understanding different kinds of educational and learning systems. He has a strong calling now to start a community-based learning initiative which is committed to serving the society. He gets his high by indulging in co-creative processes that are mutually enriching. Among others, he has a superpower to eat and sleep almost anytime.
Shruti Tharayil lives engaging with each day as a possibility of exploring ways to unlearn, reimagine and recreate every aspect of her life. Spending over 6 years in the grassroots working with various rural, dalit and adivasi communities disillusioned her from the theoretical knowledge of all that she had diligently learned till her post graduation. She began to see the beauty of learning about life and communities first hand and the profound intelligence that was inherent in the seemingly ‘uneducated’. On the other hand, she also saw that many ideas from formal education , such as the idea of development, were sometimes distant and ignorant of many ground realities. Since 2011, Shruti has been on a journey of active unlearning – She gave up her Ph.D opportunity, founded her own NGO on contextualizing and decolonizing the learning process with adivasi children and youth, engaged closely with projects on self-designed learning and mentorship for youth and experimented constantly to reclaim autonomy of her life – from food, clothing, relationships, etc. During this time, she has been part of Swaraj University, Learning Societies UnConference, The Dalai Lama’s Foundation (Furrhhdl), India Youth Jam and South India Jam. Presently, she lives with her partner in Kozhikode, Kerala and together they run ‘Unlearning Ashram’ which offers a multitude of possibilities for those who wish to deepen or begin their own ‘unlearning’ journey. Her present offerings include, Moonstrual Mapping, Body & I, Rewild Your Life, Forgotten Greens which reflect her desire to revive relevant traditional knowledge systems and decolonize narratives. When she isn’t happily busy working on these offerings, you may find Shruti happily engrossed in gardening, crocheting, cooking or just daydreaming about a wild edible plant!
Sukhmani Kohli walked out of the mainstream education system after passing class 12th and decided not to go to a college or get a degree. She has learned to take responsibility for her own learning ever since, and got to choose her gurus and learnt multiple life and professional skills along the way. She realises her privilege in being able to walk-out of a system that many cannot choose and also that she did this at a time when the concept of ‘Gap-years’ was still unknown. This has shaped a lot of Sukhmani’s work in the world today. She uses theatre, clowning, body wisdom practices and her skills as an empathetic facilitator to assist others in releasing shame and practice self acceptance. She believes that learning happens when one feels safe and open to possibilities. She works with children, young adults, working professionals, communities and organisations. She runs Purple Mangoes, a company of facilitators who call themselves experience builders, gleaners and artists. She is also the co-founder of India Youth Jam and has been organising and facilitating jams in India since 2012. Before starting Purple Mangoes, she freelanced with organisations and schools on transforming education systems and teaching, started and ran a volunteer run community cafe, Cafe Kaffee Kuchh and a storytelling cafe-in-a-van called Cafe Bean There Bean Here. Currently, along with jamming, she’s enjoying performing and teaching the art of clowning and wishes to be on stage again very soon.
Organisers and Visionaries of this JAM
Arushi: Arushi (she/her/hers) graduated from IIT Delhi and recently completed a Masters in Education from Harvard. While this might make her seem like a sucker for tradition, she uses the labels to seek power in patriarchal Rajasthan and hopes to share her privilege with other women from her land. She is constantly trying to find and tow the line between idealism and realism. Dreaming of revolution, she works towards evolution, in education and in politics. Arushi believes that the only future is feminist and strives to inflitrate existing systems with feminist values of collaboration, authentic relationships and radical love. Currently, she is in the process of establishing Ashvattha: The Teacher’s College, a teacher-leaner-leader development institute with a focus on pre-service teachers entering government schools in Rajasthan. In the past, Arushi has worked with non-profits like SRTT, CSE, Be! Fund, and People for Parity.
Preksha is interested in the intersection of education and wellbeing. She believes in learning spaces that honor the whole individual and their unique journey. She is currently working on a research project at the EASEL Lab at Harvard on the socio-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks used in education in emergencies (EiE) context. Prior to this, she was a Gandhi fellow, where she worked on systemic improvement and process redesign in government schools of Thane Municipal Corporation. Spending time with children in the classroom and experiencing their life back home shapes her perspectives and grounds her work in education. She also traveled to explore various education systems and philosophies rooted in the Indian context. Realizing the role travel played in her learning, she co-creates travel-based learning experiences with Travellers’ University. Before she transitioned to the Education sector, she was a software engineer for a multinational investment bank.