Informal education in compulsory schooling in the Uk: humanising moments, utopian spaces?

Abstract

Drawing on the author's work as an informal educator in schools in the London Boroughs of Newham and Hackney, this chapter critically explores informal education, and how it can work as a prism through which to critique UK education policy and dominant Western approaches to education and young people. It examines the four key principles of informal education in relation to the potential space that informal education can inhabit within the context of UK schools: creating spaces within formal educational settings to work with young people; the importance of dialogue/conversation in creating emotional spaces and ‘horizons’; the importance of everyday geographies in fostering learning; and the creation of community/citizenship.