Learning from and with the education movements in Greece and Brazil: Knowledge, action and alternatives

The insights shared in this paper are based on research conducted in Greece and Brazil It is centered around the exploration of activist knowledge as a distinct form of knowledge. In doing this, it discusses the role of reflection in acquiring critical consciousness as well as the unified and holistic character of activist knowledge. This unity entails the intertwining of action with reflection and action with theory. It shows how critique forms a key feature of activist knowledge and highlights some nuances, tensions and contradictions inherent in the knowledge production of this kind. The latter is shown to be underpinned by plural dialogical processes, which further challenge and enrich knowledge produced in social movements. The paper aims to feedback insights from theory into praxis and vice versa. To achieve its aims, it approaches learning as an ongoing part of the quest for meaning and the quest of meaning as an integral part of acting

Educação e igualdade: desmontando o mito da meritocracia

This article explores how in the postwar years education was constructed as the main way in which a meritocratic society could be created in Britain (but also elsewhere). The concept of meritocracy, that is to say of a just society in which equality of opportunities and education for all, would ostensibly provide the basis with which labor market allocation would be realized. As this article argues, nothing in education operates outside the wider political economy, which in capitalism is inherently unequal as it is underpinned by the existence of antagonistically opposed social classes, separated from each other by unequal access to the means of production. As such, the circulation in the British social system that occurred in the early postwar years was not the result of decreasing inequalities within the class structure but rather the product of the occupational restructuring that fostered high rates of structural mobility. Consequently, “ascription” rather than “ability” continued to facilitate labor market stratification.Este artigo explora como a educação pós-guerra foi construída como a principal forma pela qual uma sociedade meritocrática poderia aparentemente ser criada na Grã-                 -Bretanha. O conceito de meritocracia de uma sociedade justa, em que há a igualdade de oportunidades na educação para todos, não importando origem nem classe social, aparentemente fornece a base segundo a qual a alocação no mercado de trabalho seria igualitária. Como este artigo argumenta, nada na educação opera fora da economia política mais ampla, o que no capitalismo é inerentemente desigual, uma vez que é sustentado pela existência de classes sociais antagonicamente opostas, separadas umas das outras pelo acesso desigual aos meios de circulação e produção. O sistema social do Reino Unido que ocorreu nos anos do pós-guerra não diminuiu as desigualdades dentro da estrutura de classes, mas sim o produto da reestruturação do trabalho, o que promoveu altas taxas de mobilidade estrutural. A “atribuição”, em vez da “capacidade”, continuou, consequentemente, a facilitar a questão da estratificação no mercado

BAICE Thematic Forum:Challenging deficit discourses in international education and development

Research and policy in international education has o en been framed in terms of a deficit discourse. For instance, policy debates on women’s literacy and education have begun by positioning women as a group who need to ‘catch up’ on certain skills in order to become more active in development. Rather than recognising the skills and knowledge that participants already have and prac se in their everyday lives, researchers who adopt this deficit perspective on learning and education may find that the research agenda and questions will already be shaped to a large extent by the providers’/ policy makers’ standpoint. This BAICE Thematic Forum aimed to deepen understanding around how deficit discourses have shaped the questions and objectives of international educational research. As well as deconstructing and gaining greater knowledge into why and how these dominant deficit discourses have influenced the research agenda, we also set out to investigate and propose alternative conceptual models through two linked seminars. The seminars were intended to explore and challenge dominant deficit discourses that have shaped the way researchers/policy makers look at specific groups in development and thematic policy areas

Democratizing politics and politicizing education: Critical pedagogy for active citizenship in the Taiwanese Sunflower Movement

This article is the first to employ a Freirean framework to discuss the Taiwanese Sunflower Student Movement and its political, pedagogical and social significance. We analyse lecturers’ and students’ perspectives and experiences of civic responsibility in order to explore the relationship between critical pedagogy and student participation in the movement. The latter is an important development in politics and student activism, as it touched the lives of an entire generation of young Taiwanese and highlighted the value of active citizenship in the fight to improve democracy as praxis for social justice. This article makes a threefold contribution: first, it adds to our understanding of the processes through which movement participants cultivate their critical consciousness; second, it offers a new angle on a politically significant moment in Taiwanese history; and third, it uses this movement to illuminate forms of oppression that exist in society and education and ways to transform it

Norwich Opportunity Area Synthesis Evaluation

The Opportunity Areas programme was launched in 2017, with the aim of improving the social mobility for young people across 12 geographical areas facing substantial and longstanding challenges. The programme adopted a place-based approach, which both identified a local area and devolved high-level decision-making to local leaders. This report presents findings from the synthesis evaluation of the Norwich Opportunity Area (NOA). The NOA programme was funded by the Department for Education (DfE) for three years (2017 to 2020), before it was extended for two further years (2021 to2022)