Ivan Illich’s visions on education in practice: from countercultural educational projects in the 1970s to indigenous decolonial pedagogy from the 1990s on

Abstract

Ivan Illich published Deschooling Society in 1971. In this paper we examine educational projects and movements grounded either in a countercultural vision or in Indigenous pedagogical proposals. Central questions in our paper are: How do these projects read Illich within the specific context in which they were inserted? What were the intentions of those who drew on Illich’s ideas? In the first part of the paper we examine two spaces that worked with notions of counterculture: the CIDOC in Cuernavaca (Mexico) and The Learning Exchange, located in Evanston (Chicago, United States). We then focus on Illich’s influence on John Holt, who led the long-standing homeschooling movement from 1977, and on the work of Lee Felsenstein, who introduced Illich’s ideas to the Homebrew Computer Club in 1975. Finally, we study the theoretical foundations underlying “La Universidad de la Tierra”.