Search

At the time of this writing, the richest 1 percent owns nearly 40 percent of private wealth in the United States. The bottom 50 percent owns just 1 percent of that same pie. Meanwhile, the median black family owns just ten cents for every dollar of wealth owned by white families. Women make up three-quarters of the low-wage workforce and 36 percent of low-wage workers are women of color. Thanks to movements like Occupy, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and the hard work of movement educators around the country, consciousness around economic, racial, and gender inequality is growing. And yet while more are aware these problems exist, few see the links between them or agree on how we can solve them. Pocket Political Education from United for a Fair Economy supports interactive dialogue that helps working people connect the dots between economic, racial, and gender inequality to inform their strategic action for change. The tool is highly adaptable so that organizers and educators working in diverse contexts can create spaces for consciousness-raising that move people and groups to action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivation of democratic culture is a potential antidote to radical disagreement, contradiction, and polarisation. Folk high schools (folkehøjskoles) emerged in Denmark following a nonviolent revolution from monarchy to democracy in 1849 and were founded as non-formal educational institutions for the cultivation of a pervasive democratic culture. The Scandinavian folk school tradition emerged in the US to meet diverse democratic needs for: adult education, community building, labour organising, and social movement leadership. The Highlander Folk School embodied the democratising leadership of the early Danish folk schools as it shaped the US labour, civil rights, and environmental movements. Folk schools as popular non-formal education hold promise for developing a culture of democratic preventative peacebuilding to foster individual and collective agency; advance a vital agonistic democracy; and counter the politics of fear, division, and polarisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines an important aspect of the politicisation of contingent work: the evolution of grassroots organising strategies by immigrant day labourers, an allegedly ‘unorganisable’ class of contingent workers. The paper focuses on the ways in which repertoires of contestation – based in a philosophy of social transformation through radical democracy and Popular Education – have defused from mass-movement social struggles in Latin America in the 1980s to street-corner organising in US cities today. Through a series of in-depth interviews with day labour organisers, the paper: (1) follows the continental travels of Popular Education methodologies; and (2) explores how organising approaches from the global South have been adapted and recombined to meet the challenges presented by day labour markets in the US which are characterised by rampant violations of core labour standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urged on by a young generation of reform-minded professionals, museums in the United States adopted the premises and practices of consumer culture in the early twentieth century. This article argues that this turn towards consumer culture resulted from a new institutional commitment to public education and a radical re-conception of visual pedagogy. In doing so, the article opens dialogue between two bodies of scholarship that rarely inform one another: the history of education and the history of early twentieth-century consumer culture. Focusing on natural history museums, the article explores how and why museum reformers gradually came to accept the psychological principles underlying advertising and salesmanship and to believe these principles could be employed on behalf of education. It chronicles how museum staff increasingly emphasised visual pleasure as a pedagogical tool, and constructed displays to arouse attention, attraction and desire for knowledge. Finally, it describes how these new pedagogical ventures did not always have the effect that reformers anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The intent of this article is to examine the significance of Carter G. Woodson to the historical development of the fields of curriculum and social studies, particularly as they relate to the evolution of the modern multicultural movement. The authors focus on Woodson's contributions through his curriculum and his pedagogical efforts in establishing a more rigorous and historically accurate social studies framework through his community education initiatives, the Negro History Bulletin, and his textbooks. They conclude the article with a discussion of how Woodson's efforts can have direct implications for social studies educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a philosophical reconstruction of the subject of the educator as the agent of curriculum. Starting from recent work in critical theory and philosophy, it describes the process of the existential crisis of the educator as the first step toward a truly critical education. The article argues that philosophy of curriculum must be concerned not just with forms of thought but also with forms of being—with the very ground of the subject and its real. This political ontology of the subject suggests a process of reconstruction consisting of several stages: the disclosure of ideology and complicity, the investigation of the process of interpellation, and the creation of a fundamentally collective educational practice. It is only on the basis of the effective staging of this crisis at the heart of the teaching subject that a meaningful critical pedagogy and curriculum can be articulated. The article concludes with a description of the outlines of such a critical education, as they emerge through the process of reconstruction described above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the application of critical race theory and critical pedagogy in the use of voice in African American educational theory. She notes that critical pedagogy is an approach to imparting that uses a theoretical framework by which social injustices are judged. She states that critical race theory occurred to take on the social, political, educational and economic concerns of race. The author provides an example of a counterstory. Information on the Senior Advocacy Leadership Training (SALT) program is also offered.

The article focuses on theories of critical democratic pedagogy noting the radical views of communication theorist and media critic James W. Carey. It notes the interrelationship of politics, communication and democracy. It discusses the concepts of indigenous participatory theatre and the performance in relation to communicative human disciplines . The author also explains the pedagogies of hope, the critical imagination and the forms of critical performance education relative to participatory, performance action inquiry as well as cites the social issues depicted in these reports.

The article examines whether critical pedagogy works well with the more privileged fields of teacher education programs in the U.S. It relates the works of the founder of critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire. He authored the "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" empowering the oppressed people in general. In his writings, he describes a philosophy of education and liberation, contending that the oppressed must challenge that which oppresses them without becoming like the oppressors. The role of the oppressor is central to his construction of his effort. Moreover, he advocates that the oppressed must be directed by a radical love for all humanity so that they do not end up like the oppressor, who is full of fear and hate.

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to explore Maggie Kuhn's theoretical and analytical contributions to social gerontology and more broadly to the advancement of critical and public sociology. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is an theoretical exploration of ageing. Maggie Kuhn's and the Gray Panthers theoretical contributions include analyses of, and related to: identity politics, intersectionality, cultural and media studies and the cognitive sciences, the forces and factors in the developing political economy of ageing including critiques of the ageing enterprise and the medical industrial complex, the sociology of knowledge of gerontology and globalization and world imperialism. The concluding section argues that the post-retirement career of Maggie Kuhn was one of a Public Sociologist. Findings - Maggie Kuhn fulfils the promise of the Project of Public Sociology, which "is to make visible the invisible, to make the private public, to validate these organic connections as part of our sociological life". Maggie Kuhn's example moved forward the work of multiple generations of scholars. She lived and produced critical social analyses in pursuit of emancipatory knowledges. Her work is one of the earliest forms, if not the first, of critical pedagogy in gerontology; she promoted and advanced discourses of resistance. Maggie Kuhn was an engaged and outraged, practicing organic intellectual - the epitome of what bell hooks means by `teaching to transgress" and "education as the practice of freedom". In the 24 years after her involuntary retirement, this was Maggie Kuhn's full-time transformational agenda. Originality/value - The paper looks at how the biography of Maggie Kuhn helped to engender the rise of radical social gerontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on political biographies of the authors and on the Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide. The authors' political biographies give an overview of why they became political and how experiences shaped them to be sociologists, activists and movement builders. The authors made use of popular education to be able to develop new leadership in scholar activism. The project has helped them in their political work in communities. The aim of the project is to build relationships among organization in the U.S. for a united movement for justice and equality.

The article focuses on the deficiencies in the teacher education programs in the U.S. many teacher education programs continue to produce fragmented experiences for students. This structure of fragmentation commonly derives from teacher education standards that are mandated by individual states and force colleges of education into the position of creating programs that demonstrate compliance with governing codes. Educational practices are usually developed and become entrenched without a clear articulation of the theories on which they are founded. Critical pedagogy is committed to the exploration and development of a culture of schooling that supports the nature of self-conscious critique. Like critical pedagogues, place-based educators are centrally concerned with cultural context of teaching and learning and the role of schooling in shaping and reconstructing society. In drawing on the local environment, they also often focus explicitly on ecological contexts of community life, and thus seek to expand critical pedagogy's decidedly cultural focus to include the total ecological realm of human experience.

This article seeks to explore the education and public dialogue of Malcolm X, a major African American leadership figure of the 1950s and 1960s. It is the author's intent to explore an aspect of Malcolm X's leadership not addressed in much of the current literature, his educational attainment leading to his role as the intellectual and pedagogical antecedent to the modern Black studies movement of the 1960s. This article examines his educational and intellectual development, his role as a public activist and debater, and his contribution to curricular reform in his public rhetoric. In a review of the current literature on Malcolm X and adult education, there is evident congruence of the two areas, offering new insight into the contributions and legacy of a significant historical figure for African Americans. Malcolm X associate A. Peter Bailey has referred to him as a "master teacher" whose contributions go beyond the conventional Black leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that critical educators in the United States have to define the concepts of liberty which serve as the bases of their liberatory pedagogies. The concept of liberty should be modified in ways that emphasize collective action in addition to individual freedom from oppression. A concept of liberty is presented that stresses social responsibility.

Community-based environmental education is an important part of the sustainability project. Along with regulation and market-based instruments, adult learning and education in non-formal settings consistently features in the sustainability strategies advocated and implemented by government, community and industry entities. Community-situated environmental education programs often feature didactic "messaging"™, public awareness and community-based social marketing approaches. Clearly, these approaches have limited capacity to stimulate the social learning necessary to reorient toward sustainability. Popular education provides a framework to break from these dominant modes of environmental communication and education and achieve outcomes of different order. Popular educators build curriculum from the daily lives of community members, address their social, political and structural change priorities, and emphasise collective rather than individual learning. Their work creates opportunities for education as social action, education for social action, and learning through social action. Case studies from Australia and the United States highlight opportunities for community educators to draw on the traditions and practices of popular education. Residents of contaminated communities organize "toxic tours"™ to bolster their campaigns for remediation. Residents and conservationists concerned about freeway construction incorporate learning strategies in their campaign plan to enhance peer learning, mentoring and prospects of long-term success. Advocacy organizations and research institutions work together to create formal and informal educational program to strengthen and learn from social action. The principles derived from these case studies offer a starting point for collaboration and action research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implications of writing programs on teaching assistants (TAs) in the U.S. It is suggested that it is necessary to move away from the paradigm and the language of TA training and to favor TA development. It is noted that contrasting the training and development paradigms highlights the need for the shift with the demand for multiliteracy and critical pedagogy emphases. Meanwhile, author Etienne Wenger has provided one of the best frameworks for thinking about the TA development process in his notion of communities of practice.

The article cites a paper that compares Paulo Freire's concept of pedagogy and Karl Marx's concept of alienation in the U.S. educational context. Freire is well-known for having developed a student-centered teaching approach that assists learners in developing the awareness of their oppression. It mentioned that Marx would argue that the existing educational system naturally produces the forms of alienation and revolution can abolish the inequalities within schools.

Concurring with Cunningham's assessment of the need for a counterhegemonic vision of critical pedagogy in adult education thought and practice, this article theorizes a coalition-engendered education as a specific type of emancipatory pedagogy common in North America. Examining the Boston Women's Health Book Collective's body education as an exemplar of coalitionengendered education, this article compares and contrasts coalition-engendered education with the more familiar Freirean critical pedagogy, drawing important implications for both the theory and practice of adult education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines a community practice methodology developed at the Center for Participatory Change, a nonprofit organization in the Appalachian mountains of Western North Carolina. This methodology, which we call participatory change, signals confluence of three practice approaches that have rarely been integrated: community organizing, popular education, and international participatory development or Participatory Rural Appraisal. The article provides an overview of these three practice approaches and discusses their strengths and limitations. Participatory change as a community practice approach is presented along with an introduction to the core values, attitudes, and behaviors that guide the use of the methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses teacher education reform in the United States from the context of critical pedagogy in general and the globalization of capitalism in particular. Privatization and commercialization of public education; One centerpiece of a revolutionary working-class pedagogy; Attributes of a revolutionary working-class pedagogy; Conclusion.

Links critical pedagogical theory to practice through teaching-research activities in one southern inner-city elementary classroom. Description of critical pedagogical activities; Issues of power, privilege, social relations and student resistance; Recommendations for teaching and using critical pedagogy in the schools and in the college classroom.

Explores the concept of critical pedagogy in rural education in Poland and the U.S. Impact of the aftermath of various revolutions in Europe on the state of education of both countries; Tendency of rural populations in the U.S. to support the demoralizing grand educational agendas; Tenets of critical pedagogy to ascertain the actual forms which schooling takes.

Summarizes issues pertaining to and compares the different action technologies. Action research; Action-reflection learning; Action science; Collaborative inquiry; Participatory action research; Popular education; Assessing validity; Theory to practice gaps; Generalizability; Implications for adult and continuing education practitioners.

Presents a framework for popular education based on key ideas of Paulo Freire's works. Origin; Freire as advocate of the dialectical approach to structures and social agency in education; Contention that knowledge is a social construct and a process rather than a product; Emphasis on sharing and reflecting upon learners' experience and knowledge; Examples of popular education; Experiential learning.

The article focuses on the importance of developing a program of audience research within museums. A program of audience research will create better exhibits and improve the relationship between museums and their diverse audiences. The American Association of Museums' Commission on Museums for a New Century called upon museums to re-dedicate themselves to their historic mission as agents of popular education in 1984.

The article provides information on the growth and nature of the lyceum movement in the U.S. from 1826-1840. It mentions that the popularizing and promoting of the lyceum idea largely fell to Josiah Holbrook, an itinerant lecturer and teacher, who spent his life trying to further popular education. Lyceum lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered one of his first lectures to the Boston Society of Natural History, discussing the advantages of the study of natural history on November 5, 1833.

The article reports that the National Federation of Filipino Students and its five thousand members in the U.S. pledged to teach an illiterate adult every year. The Federation prepared two textbooks in support of the initiative. The first textbook focuses on reading and writing exercises, while the other covers sanitation, hygiene, civics, history, geography, and morals.

The article focuses on the role of various political parties in the elementary education laws in the United States. British Statesman Robert Lowe's assessment of the implications of the Reform Act of 1867 has been accepted by most historians in their discussions of the Elementary Education Act of 1870. It is assumed that, as a logical extension of their competition over parliamentary reform political parties proceeded to compete over education, and that this accounts for the spate of educational schemes, which culminated in the 1870 Act. As far as the Conservative party is concerned the Reform Act had no significant influence on educational policy, which was hesitant and inchoate before 1867, and remained so afterwards. Generally, the sentiment of the party was opposed to any measure, which might undermine the denominational basis of popular education. The squire and the parson were still regarded as natural allies. Individual Conservatives were far less optimistic and more inclined for drastic remedies. Conservative John Pakington's advanced views on education had been expressed forcibly for some twenty years, much to the embarrassment of his party.

The article focuses on the history and relations of the educational bill in Great Britain. It is noted that the English popular education has been a center of interest for many months. The new education bill extends the ideas of reorganization and unification of the London schools. The situation is considered the most natural phase of school evolution.

The article discusses transformative learning groups in adult popular education. The authors compare transformative learning programs in Guanajuato, Mexico and the Highlander Center in the U.S. and examine the learning methodologies employed by each. The Mexican strategy focuses on "systematization" as a form of critical reflection as the basis for transformative learning. Highlander espouses the virtues of community involvement and participatory methodology in adult education. The authors describe their theoretical framework and analyse the findings of their cross-cultural research project.

The article comments on the issue that popular education is the chief reliance of the nation for making Democracy safe for the world in the U.S. The author asserts that the actual practice lies back to traditional conceptions of responsibility, individual and local, presenting education as a personal privilege and not as a need of the state. In addition, the author states that the limitation of state control of education is determined by the conception of the people of the meaning and the worth of democracy and their responsibility for its safety.

The article focuses on the national universities in the U.S. Popular education lies at the foundation of the democratic system of government. A university that will develop the sense of pride and democratic support which is not felt by existing institutions is needed. A bill provides that there shall be established in the district of Columbia an institution of higher learning which will be known as the National University of the United States.

The article presents the two speeches on educational expenditures separately delivered by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot before the Connecticut State Association and the New Hampshire State Association. He cites that the average expenditure per pupil for the whole school year in the U.S. was $21.14 in 1900-1901. He discusses the causes of labor strikes and their impact on popular education. He offers a background on the status of kindergarten in the country.

The article focuses on propositions for the adoption of the concept of alternative education in the U.S. Indications showed that as problems within communities increase, as in large urban settings, the degree of scrutiny into the school objectives and commitments also increase. Some are skeptical regarding the very nature of the term alternative schools because it tends to create a temptation to design programs that are separate and distinct from public school offerings. Others criticize the government for failing to adequately test the flexibility of public education due to fear from taking risks.