Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Refections on Education

Description

Education is a challenging subject for anarchists. Many are critical about working within a state-run education system that is embedded in hierarchical, standardized, and authoritarian structures. Numerous individuals and collectives envision the creation of counterpublics or alternative educational sites as possible forms of resistance, while other anarchists see themselves as “saboteurs” within the public arena—believing that there is a need to contest dominant forms of power and educational practices from multiple fronts. Of course, if anarchists agree that there are no blueprints for education, the question remains, in what dynamic and creative ways can we construct nonhierarchical, anti-authoritarian, mutual, and voluntary educational spaces? Contributors to this volume engage readers in important and challenging issues in the area of anarchism and education. From Francisco Ferrer’s modern schools in Spain and the Work People’s College in the United States, to contemporary actions in developing “free skools” in the U.K. and Canada, to direct-action education such as learning to work as a “street medic” in the protests against neoliberalism, the contributors illustrate the importance of developing complex connections between educational theories and collective actions. Anarchists, activists, and critical educators should take these educational experiences seriously as they offer invaluable examples for potential teaching and learning environments outside of authoritarian and capitalist structures. Major themes in the volume include: learning from historical anarchist experiments in education, ways that contemporary anarchists create dynamic and situated learning spaces, and finally, critically reflecting on theoretical frameworks and educational practices. Contributors include: David Gabbard, Jeffery Shantz, Isabelle Fremeaux & John Jordan, Abraham P. DeLeon, Elsa Noterman, Andre Pusey, Matthew Weinstein, Alex Khasnabish, and many others. Introduction, Robert H. Haworth 1 Section I: Anarchism & Education: Learning from Historical Experimentations Dialogue 1: (On a desert island, between friends), Alejandro de Acosta 12 Chapter 1: Anarchism, the State, and the Role of Education, Justin Mueller 14 Chapter 2: Updating the Anarchist Forecast for Social Justice in Our Compulsory Schools, David Gabbard 32 Chapter 3: Educate, Organize, Emancipate: The Work People's College and the Industrial Workers of the World, Saku Pinta 47 Chapter 4: From Deschooling to Unschooling: Rethinking Anarchopedagogy after Ivan Illich, Joseph Todd 69 Section II: Anarchist Pedagogies in the "Here and Now" Dialogue 2: (In a crowded place, between strangers), Alejandro de Acosta 88 Chapter 5: Street Medicine, Anarchism, and Ciencia Popular, Matthew Weinstein 90 Chapter 6: Anarchist Pedagogy in Action: Paideia, Escuela Libre, Isabella Fremeaux and John Jordan 107 Chapter 7: Spaces of Learning: The Anarchist Free Skool, Jeffrey Shantz 124 Chapter 8: The Nottingham School: Towards a Systemization of Praxis, Sara C. Motta 145 Chapter 9: Learning to Win: Anarchist Infrastructures of Resistance, Jeffrey Shantz 162 Chapter 10: Inside, Outside, and on the Edge of the Academy: Experiments in Radical Pedagogies, Elsa Noterman and Andre Pusey 175 Chapter 11: Anarchy in the Academy: Staying True to Anarchism as an Academic-Activist, Caroline K. Kaltefleiter and Anthony J. Nocella II 200 Section III: Philosophical Perspectives and Theoretical Frameworks Dialogue 3: (On a mountaintop, between two who are in fact one), Alejandro de Acosta 218 Chapter 12: To Walk Questioning: Zapatismo, the Radical Imagination, and a Transnational Pedagogy of Liberation, Alex Khasnabish 220 Chapter 13: Anarchism, Pedagogy, Queer Theory, and Poststructuralism: Toward a Positive Ethical Theory, of Knowledge and the Self, Lucy Nicholas 242 Chapter 14: Anarcho-Feminist Pedagogy: Contributing to Postformal Criticality, Curry Stephenson Malott 260 Chapter 15: Paideia for Praxis: Philosophy and Pedagogy as Practices of Liberation, Nathan Jun 283 Chapter 16: That Teaching Is Impossible, Alejandro de Acosta 303 Chapter 17: Against the Grain of the Status Quo: Anarchism behind Enemy Lines, Abraham P. DeLeon 312 Afterword: Let the Riots Begin, Allan Antliff 326 Contributors 329 Acknowledgments 334 Index 335