Tracing radical working-class education: praxis and historical representation

Abstract

Growing collections of social and educational history chronicle the many instances of educational agency that lie outside institutional narratives. Renewing and developing historical understanding, these histories raise important methodological questions surrounding historical representation. Addressing such questions, this paper develops the methodological notion of praxis as a means to trace genealogies of radical working-class educational agency. It is concerned primarily with the possibility of history to create understanding across temporality, and with the place of theory in histories that mobilise conceptual terms of reference, such as class. Reflecting on research undertaken on the temporally and culturally distinct Socialist Sunday Schools and Black Saturday Schools, the discussion begins by considering the academic representation of workingclass communities. Following from this, analyses of Marx, Foucault and Ricoeur inform the conceptual development of praxis. The paper concludes by reflecting on the use of community-based testimony in constructing genealogies of radical working-class education.

Self help and protest: the emergence of black supplementary schooling in England

“…Speaking on their own experiences of the BSS movement, the memories and reflections of these men and women offer a personal depth to the narrative history of BSSs. However, in using these testimonies to write a history of a movement that is not only ongoing, but also still in generational memory, I am acutely aware of the ethical demands in presenting their stories (see Gerrard 2012). This is particularly important given that many of those interviewed are still involved in black activism, education, politics, culture and arts.…”

“…In this article, I therefore join with a growing collection of scholarship that works to position black people 'as social actors, as history makers, as thinkers who are central to Britain's social formation' (Warmington 2012, 11;see also Mckenley 2001;Gerrard 2011;Alleyne 2002a). Working to make visible that which can appear to sit on the 'margins' of official narratives of education (Reay and Mirza 1997;Myers and Grosvenor 2011;Gerrard 2012), I therefore aim to bring forward the history of black educational agency as a constitutive part of the wider narrative of British education -past and present.…”

Social Movements and Educational Research: Toward a United Field of Scholarship

“…Perhaps because of how they both mirror and critique state-sponsored formal education while remaining clearly situated within movements, social movement schools have been of interest to researchers with divergent interests, whether these be non-formal or formal education, youth or adults. Researchers from myriad fields have studied the history of movement schools serving adults, such as the American Labor Colleges of the 1920s and 1930s (Altenbaugh, 1990;Edwards & McCarthy, 1992) and the Highlander School (Edwards & McCarthy, 1992;Horton & Freire, 1990;Thayer-Bacon, 2004), and children, such as the British and American Socialist Sunday Schools of early 20th century (Gerrard, 2012(Gerrard, , 2013Teitelbaum, 1995). More recent examples of movement-sponsored schools featured in educational research include community schools for children living in Brazilian favelas (Jones de Almeida, 2003), Black supplementary schools for youth in the U.K. (Reay & Mirza, 1997), and the schools supporting the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil (which range from primary schools for children through graduate schools offering teacher education; Caldart, 2002;Diniz-Pereira, 2005;Kane, 2000;Knijnik, 1997Knijnik, , 2002.…”

Class Analysis and the Emancipatory Potential of Education

“…Certainly, to talk about working-class educational activity means talking about the diversity of working-class life and the complex relations -past and present -between state systems of education and educational aspirations. 52 This means also understanding the ways in which gender, ethnicity, culture, and race interconnect with contemporary class inequalities and, at the same time, the ways in which colonialism and modern social biographies of migration and mobility complexly intertwine with the reproduction of class relations. With diverse intents, motivations, and practices, across a range of social and cultural contexts, working-class parents and students have variously attempted to resist, adapt, intervene into, make do, make the most of, take advantage of, supplement, and complement the schooling opportunities provided for them.…”