Learning and education for a better world: The role of social movements

Abstract

The editors of Learning and Education for a Better World: The Role of Social Movements established for themselves an ambitious goal. As indicated in the introduction, they intend for the book to offer ‘new insights into the theories of how social movements work, deeper insights into the theory and practice of adult education in the context of political struggle, and new resources for hope’ (p.x). Each contribution to this edited volume investigates a different aspect of the intersection of adult education and social movement work. The volume is divided into three parts. The first is focused on theoretical and historical perspectives, the second on learning through cultural struggle and the third on ‘changing the world’. The interplay between education and social movements/ social change is the theme that ties the chapters together. While some chapters focus on education as a part of social movements (such as in the opening piece about an adult education program for South African militants), others show how education is the target of social movements, as demonstrated in Steinklammer’s piece on Austrian kindergarten teachers protesting for better education funding. Liam Kane provides a primer on popular education and a nice history of the popular education movement in Latin America. Darlene Clover’s and Stephen Brookfield’s respective articles both describe how art is an educational tool that is specifically appropriate for social movement work. In one of my favorite articles of the compilation, Astrid von Kotze describes a grassroots-based adult education system in South Africa in which the ‘students’ set their own curriculum and build the radical imaginings of an alternative social world. The examples von Kotze describes provide excellent lessons for teachers of all kinds about how to involve students in their own education. In addition, the ‘bottom-up’ model of freely available education described by von Kotze could provide a fascinating contrast with the largely ‘topdown’ massive online open courses or MOOCs that have been touted as democratizing higher education. Likewise, Budd L. Hall’s article describes the grassroots training and educational processes at the heart of the Occupy Movement, and how Occupy’s use of the Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement Vol 8/No 1 (2015): 167–68 © UTSePress and the author