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Educational Partnerships for Social Justice and Community Empowerment

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Resisting Neoliberalism in Higher Education Volume I

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical University Studies ((PCU))

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Abstract

In the context of neoliberal hegemony in policy, and an ever-narrowing view of education as simply ‘market advantage’, what are the possibilities for educational collaboration for social justice? This chapter draws on data from a doctoral study which critiqued the neoliberal character of partnerships in education and explored possibilities for collaboration. Roundtables with educators, parents, community members and education activists provided rich, grassroots perspectives on everyday educational practice, and suggested a need for critical, anti-corporatist partnerships based on collaboration which privileges grassroots knowledge, solidarity, struggle and critical consciousness. Some lines of development are proposed for how we might contribute to such practice, reflecting on our struggles, past lessons, and inspiration, to develop strategic perspectives for community driven, subversive university partnerships for social justice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Jo Williams, “A Contribution to Perspectives on Educational Partnerships for Social Justice”, in Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy, eds. Michael A. Peters and Tina Besley (New York: Peter Lang, 2014), 445.

  2. 2.

    Alexandra Winter, John Wiseman and Bruce Muirhead, “University-Community Engagement in Australia: Practice, Policy and Public Good,” Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 1 (2006) 211.

  3. 3.

    David Peacock, “Neoliberal Social Inclusion? The Agenda of the Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance,” Critical Studies in Education 53 (2012) 311.

  4. 4.

    Nicholas Buys and Samantha Bursnall, “Establishing University-Community Partnerships: Processes and Benefits,” Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 29 (2007) 73.

  5. 5.

    Robert Fisher, Michael Fabricant and Louise Simmons, “Understanding Contemporary University Community Connections: Context, Practice, and Challenges,” Journal of Community Practice 12 (2004) 13.

  6. 6.

    Naomi Sunderland, Bruce Muirhead, Richard Parsons and Duncan Holtom, Foundation Paper. The Australian Consortium on Higher Education, Community Engagement and Social Responsibility, 2004; 5. Accessed August 12, 2017. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:10362/foundation_paper.pdf

  7. 7.

    Sarah M. Brackman, “Community Engagement in a Neoliberal Paradigm.” Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 19 (2015) 115.

  8. 8.

    Tracey Ollis, Jo Williams, Rob Townsend, Anne Harris, and Jorge Jorquera. “The Popular Education Network of Australia (PENA) and Twenty-First-Century Critical Education,” in Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy, ed. Michael A. Peters and Tina Besley (New York: Peter Lang, 2014), 175.

  9. 9.

    Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1996 ed.). London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1970.

  10. 10.

    Peter McLaren and Ramin Farahmandpur, “Recentering Class: Wither Postmodernism? Toward a Contraband Pedagogy,” in Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory, ed. Dave Hill, Peter McLaren, Mike Cole and Glenn Rikowski (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2002), 239.

  11. 11.

    Gregory Martin, “The Poverty of Critical Pedagogy. Toward a Politics of Engagement,” in Critical Pedagogy: Where are we now? ed. Peter McLaren and Joe L. Kincheloe (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), 337; 341.

  12. 12.

    Sullivan and Skelcher, 2002, cited in Chris Skelcher, Navdeep Mathur, and Mike Smith, “The Public Governance of Collaborative Spaces: Discourse, Design and Democracy,” Public Administration 83 (2005) 573; 575.

  13. 13.

    Freire, 68.

  14. 14.

    Furter, 1966, cited in Freire, 1970, 74–75.

  15. 15.

    Peter McLaren, Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000), 192–193.

  16. 16.

    Peter McLaren, Che Guevara, xxv.

  17. 17.

    Henry A. Giroux, Stealing Innocence. Corporate Culture’s War on Children (New York and Hampshire: Palgrave, 2000), 148.

  18. 18.

    Freire, 77.

  19. 19.

    Freire, 72.

  20. 20.

    Susanne MacGregor, “Welfare, Neo-Liberalism and New Paternalism: Three Ways for Social Policy in Late Capitalist Societies,” Capital and Class 23 (1999) 91.

  21. 21.

    Martin Lefebvre, “Eisenstein, Rhetoric and Imaginicity: Towards a Revolutionary Memoria,” Screen 41 (2000) 349; 351.

  22. 22.

    Orlando, Fals-Borda and Mohammad Anisur Rahman, Action and Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action Research (New York: Apex Press, 1991), 8.

  23. 23.

    Michael W. Apple, Can Education Change Society? (New York: Routledge, 2013), 105.

  24. 24.

    Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, chapter 4.

  25. 25.

    Antonia Darder, A Dissident Voice. Essays on Culture, Pedagogy, and Power (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2011), 155.

  26. 26.

    Freire, 48.

  27. 27.

    Freire, 110.

  28. 28.

    Freire, 111.

  29. 29.

    Freire, 148.

  30. 30.

    Antonia Darder, “Critical Leadership for Social Justice. Unveiling the Dirty Little Secret of Power and Privilege,” The Radical Imagine-Nation: The Journal of Public Pedagogy (2016): 41.

  31. 31.

    Freire, 154.

  32. 32.

    Freire, 154.

  33. 33.

    Chantal Mouffe, Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism (Vienna: Institute for Advanced Studies, 2000), accessed August 14, 2017 https://www.ihs.ac.at/publications/pol/pw_72.pdf

  34. 34.

    McLaren, Che Guevara, 157.

  35. 35.

    McLaren, 152.

  36. 36.

    McLaren, 155.

  37. 37.

    McLaren, 157.

  38. 38.

    Freire.

  39. 39.

    Antonia Darder, “Teaching as an Act of Love: Reflections on Paulo Freire and His Contributions to Our Lives and Our Work,” in The Critical Pedagogy Reader (Second edn), ed. Antonia Darder, Marta P. Baltodano, and Rodolfo D. Torres (New York: Routledge, 2009), 567; 571.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Jo Williams

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  1. Jo Williams
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Dorothy Bottrell

  2. School of Education, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia

    Catherine Manathunga

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Williams, J. (2019). Educational Partnerships for Social Justice and Community Empowerment. In: Bottrell, D., Manathunga, C. (eds) Resisting Neoliberalism in Higher Education Volume I. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95942-9_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95942-9_14

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