About+Popular+Education

United for a Fair Economy believes that economics education needs to reach thousands of people in religious congregations, unions, neighborhood groups and business associations. We have a special knack for transforming dry economic statistics into memorable learning experiences that connect with people's lives and—most importantly—lead to action. To multiply our efforts, UFE also trains and supports a national network of volunteer workshop leaders.

Popular education is a unique approach to traditional classroom education methods. Rather than sitting through lectures and writing assignments, popular education workshops engage participants in a more democratic and cooperative conversation based on personal experiences. Popular education is openly political, and popular educators see the learners as potentially powerful people who can change the social conditions that surround them. With popular education, ordinary people define their own problems and apply the lessons of past political successes and failures to their own situation.

We believe that popular education is a critically important tool for base-building in the economic justice movement. It is an effective approach to raising the consciousness of those most impacted by economic inequality and empowering these individuals towards action. In short, popular education helps with movement-building to support the greater democratic social movement.