Challenging the Order of Things: Independent Working-Class Education as a Model for Contemporary Praxis

Abstract

We are living through a period of immense political and social change, with an economic and social crisis across Europe not seen since the 1930s. There is little evidence that the worlds of adult education, community development and radical youth work have developed any credible response to this crisis and, indeed, there is abundant evidence of sectors in retreat with massive cuts in state support. There is also evidence of fundamental shifts in what governments and the state define as informal and adult education with young adults, or indeed what the state now defines as ‘schooling’.

Education doesn’t mean telling people what to believe — it also means learning from them and with them. If you want to change the world you’d better try to understand it. That doesn’t mean listening to a talk or reading a book, though that’s helpful sometimes. You learn from participating. You learn from others. You learn from the people you’re trying to organize.

(Chomsky 2012: 301)