Do you have the spirit of a facilitator? Propose your workshop and encourage others to take part in it.
A long workshop is a cyclical, daily morning session for participants who commit to taking part in it throughout the entire duration of RIDEF.
During the daily 3.5-hour sessions, a 30-minute break is planned. In total, the workshop includes approximately 18 hours of work. It is a comprehensive project whose theme should be aligned with the main theme of RIDEF.
Anyone who would like to share their pedagogical knowledge and experience in practicing Célestin Freinet’s pedagogy can propose a workshop. Proposals should be submitted online using the form available below.
The workshop may be led by one facilitator or a team. The outcomes of the joint work will be presented to all participants during an engaging presentation on the penultimate day of RIDEF.
A list of proposed and accepted workshops will be published below as they are submitted.
How can we transform education so that children and young people become leaders of social change with a sense of responsibility for the world? If you have an idea for a workshop, please complete the form below and send it to us. Thank you for your cooperation.
In this section you will find the list of long workshops proposed by RIDEF participants. This section will be updated regularly.
On the second day of the international RIDEF meeting (01.08.2026), after the morning presentations of the workshops by their facilitators, you will be able to register for the workshop of your choice.
FACILITATORS:
Prof. Dr hab. Ewa Filipiak – Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Head of the Department of Didactics and Studies on the Culture of Education
Julia Czyż – student at Kazimierz Wielki University
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 15–20
DURATION: 3 hours × 7 days (i.e. modules 1–5)
LANGUAGE: English, Polish
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Where and when does democracy begin? In kindergarten? In the first years of school? Or only when people reach the age at which they can vote in elections?
Is there a place within institutional education for democracy as a value – and therefore for participation, justice, equality, shared decision-making, group work, cooperation, distribution of power, strengthening social roles, mutual respect, diversity and difference?
This workshop focuses on recognising the challenges of creating space for developing democratic thinking and citizenship in school, fostering a sense of agency, and reflecting on the need for education for and within democracy from early childhood, as well as on cultural barriers and limitations.
Participants will work with empirical material from participatory research conducted with children attending both traditional and alternative classes. Particular attention will be given to the possibilities of building democratic practices in the Freinet classroom.
We warmly invite participants to engage in discussion and reflection on this topic.
FACILITATORS:
Juan Fernández Platero – member of MCEP (Movimiento Cooperativo de Escuela Popular), the Freinet Movement of Spain. Member of the CA of FIMEM. Experience in psychomotricity in primary school. Studies in pedagogy.
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: maximum 30
DURATION: 3 hours per day for 7 days
LANGUAGE: Spanish, French
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Freinet Pedagogy facilitates cooperation through the Natural Method, which is a commitment to the complexity of life. We focus on the body and emotions and on how they foster cooperation. In a practical way, through playing and dancing, we show that the body is a necessary condition for spontaneity and cooperation. Cooperation is the basic tool of emancipation and humanization. Reflection becomes deeper because it is experienced.
METHODOLOGY:
Predominantly practical. We talk after playing, laughing and dancing. We deepen the reflection because we experience it.
FACILITATOR:
Witold Bobrowski
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: up to 15
DURATION: 3 hours per day for 7 days
LANGUAGE: Polish, English
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
After 1989, the educational aspirations of the Kashubians in the field of their own culture, after many years of totalitarian rule, finally found the possibility of being realized. While searching for ways to pass on knowledge to students not only in the field of material culture but also spiritual culture, which includes beliefs, art, morality, laws and customs, we encountered enthusiasts of Célestin Freinet’s pedagogy. At the beginning of the development of Kashubian ethnic education, Freinet played a significant role.
Language, as a medium of communication and mutual exchange of information, is at the same time what shapes the image of the world and its understanding. One could say that the Kashubian language is what creates Kashubia. Hence its role in Kashubian regional education. Thanks to the works of Professor Kazimierz Kossak Główczewski, in which he distinguishes the “regionalization of teaching” of the past period from “regional teaching,” we moved toward teaching for freedom.
The search for a path toward regional teaching has become a “searching experience” both for teachers and for students, the burden of which we carry together in solidarity. Solidarity, as a general principle of mutual support and assistance, which has a long tradition in our society, is the main principle of our activity.
