Gramsci, Politics and Pedagogy: An Interpretative Framework

This chapter contextualises the contributions to this volume in an interpretive framework based in the Italian and English language scholarship on Gramsci and education. This framework is of particular importance for English language readers who may not be familiar with the extended and extensive literature on Gramsci and education in the Italian scholarship. The chapter traces the development of Gramsci’s ideas about the nexus between pedagogy and politics from the years of L’Ordine Nuovo to the more mature formulation of the Prison Notebooks and assesses them in the light of some key voices in the historiography. The broader aim of this chapter is to expand the discussion of Gramsci and education to include formal, nonformal and informal forms and contexts of education.