Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education

by Robert H. Haworth (Editor)

Important and challenging issues in the area of anarchism and education are presented in this history of egalitarian and free-school practices. From Francisco Ferrer's modern schools in Spain and the Work People's College in the United States, to contemporary actions in developing "free skools" in the United Kingdom and Canada, the contributors illustrate the importance of developing complex connections between educational theories and collective actions. Major themes in the volume include learning from historical anarchist experiments in education, ways that contemporary anarchists create dynamic and situated learning spaces, and critical reflections on theoretical frameworks and educational practices. Many trailblazing thinkers and practitioners contributed to this volume, such as Jeffery Shantz, John Jordon, Abraham de Leon, Richard Kahn, Matthew Weinstein, and Alex Khasnabish. This thoughtful and provocative collection proves that egalitarian education is possible at all ages and levels.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Politics, Theory, Anarchism, Teaching, Social Justice

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up Judith Suissa's Anarchism and Education: A Philosophical Perspective a few years back and was pretty disappointed. While it did a good job explaining anarchism and raised some interesting points about the differences between libertarian and anarchist education, it was just too philosophical and not practical enough for me. When I saw that PM Press was publishing Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education I got very excited. There is a real shortage of writings about anarchism and education. It seems like most critical writing about schools, learning and education comes from either social-democratic or Marxist perspectives. I read those books and take what I can, but it's refreshing to see anti-authoritarian discussions taking place more consistently on the topic of education. After having read Anarchist Pedagogies, I can say that it met almost all of my expectations and will stand for many years as the best collection of writings on anarchism and education.

To start, Robert H. Haworth should be commended for putting together such a fine selection of writings which are, on the whole, of a very high quality. As with any edited collection of writings by various authors, there are stronger and weaker pieces and of course not everything will resonate with each reader. Regardless of your specific interests (public schools, post-secondary, home-schooling, activism, etc.) it is most likely that you will find something useful within.

The book is grouped into three main sections which are, roughly, i)history , ii) "here and now" and iii) theory. I preferred the first two sections, but that's mostly because I'm an anarchist history teacher in a public school setting. What follows are few brief highlights of some of my favourite pieces.

Justin Mueller kicks off the History section by providing a useful overview entitled "Anarchism, the State, and the Role of Education". Mueller's piece is the type which quickly and effectively raises numerous issues and covers a lot of ground in order to familiarize new readers to the topic. This is followed by a pessimistic but grounded critique by David Gabbard of attempts to meet social justice goals through compulsory schooling. Saku Pinta's superb article on the IWW's Work Peoples' College provides details on the working class education organized by Finnish immigrants from 1920-1940. While not explicitly anarchist, the WPC is an excellent example the type of counter-institutions needed to challenge capital and build skills of resistance.

The one article on the topic of deschooling is provided by Joseph Todd and it explores the ways in which homeschoolers are creating a counterpublic to debate and redefine the meaning of learning. Todd argues that many deschoolers and unschoolers are already applying anarchist values, whether consciously or not, through their creation of networks.

The section on "Anarchist Pedagogies in the Here and Now" has a wide sampling of anarchist initiatives in alternative learning. Matthew Weinstein takes an engaging looks at the training of activist street medics and considers it as a form of "popular science". Readers who are familiar with Summerhill School in England will be interested in the chapter on Paideia, an anarchist free school in Spain. Paideia has been running for 3 decades and serves as an example of educational self-management where students direct learning, organize food preparation, resolve conflicts, and run the school through assemblies.

Jeff Shantz provides two solid selections to the collection. One of which looks at the Anarchist Free Skool which operated for a few years in Toronto. The other explains the purpose of the Windsor Workers' Action Centre which has attempted to be a hub for class and community-based resistance in Southern Ontario.

Caroline Kaltefleiter and Anthony Nocella round out the practical section with advice for anarchist academics on how to navigate the contradictions of working in the post-secondary realm while maintaining a commitment to meaningful and radical political engagement. While some of their issues are specific to the university setting, much of what they address can apply to most teachers regardless of their setting.

Part 3 on "Philosophical Perspectives and Theoretical Frameworks" was definitely the least rewarding part of "Anarchist Pedagogies" for me. While Abraham DeLeon raised some interesting ideas of anarchist education as a form of infiltration "behind enemy lines", other selections, such as one on post-structuralism, were barely readable. It was sadly humourous to find one selection calling for anarchist writing to be clear and accessible paired back-to-back with one of the densest, most jargon-filled pieces of writing I've ever encountered. Regardless of this criticism, most selections in "Anarchist Pedagogies" were well-written and could be used by the general public.

The only area which I wish Haworth's book could have addressed more explicitly is the development of anarchist teaching practice within the public school system at the elementary and secondary levels. Anarchists seem to be very good at writing critiques of the public school system (and the system is well-deserving of these critiques) and they also can write academic pieces that are theoretical, but my desire is to see more thinking about actual pedagogy. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems to me that there are probably more anarchists working in public schools than in universities. Also, there are probably more anarchists working in public schools than in alternative free schools. We should develop more ideas about putting anarchist ideas into practice in our classrooms where we encounter the largest number of members of our society. It seems like we should be organizing where we are and where we can have the greatest impact.

All of this said, Anarchist Pedagogies is a great book. Its ideas should be shared and debated by anyone who is interested in the connection between learning and the struggle to build a world based on freedom, equality, and mutual aid.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I couldn't reconcile my anarchist leanings with my appreciation for having had access to public education, especially now that I'm a parent whose child makes use of the public school system. The essays seem heavily slanted toward higher education and universities, which was disappointing for my purposes, but understandable. I was pleasantly surprised to read Matthew Weinstein's article about street medics, who treat injured protesters. The author does a fine job of showing how the street medic ethics are, intentionally or not, congruent with anarchist principles and serve a larger purpose, namely, to inform and empower the public with DIY medicine. One article examined, in depth, an anarchist school specifically for minors, but I wasn't exactly inspired by the example. As I neared the end of the book, I'd given up finding what I was looking for; certainly Lucy Nicholas's chapter title "Anarchism, Pedagogy, Queer Theory, and Poststructuralism: Toward a Positive Ethical Theory, of Knowledge and the Self" seemed too academic to help me with my nine-year-old. Was I ever wrong! And so glad to be so! Nicholas's chapter also crystallized for me themes from the preceding chapter by Alex Khasnabish, "To Walk Questioning..." about Zapatista strategies. I now feel on much firmer ground regarding my approach to my child's education, which partakes of both public schooling and anarchist de-schooling.

An aside: the collection needed a much more rigorous proofreading. I'd volunteer my services for a second edition. :)

[Egor Breus · Rating 2 out of 5]

First book I DNF on here. The opening chapters and discussions are fantastic, I loved hearing about Paideia, a free school in Spain, steet medicine and medics, the idea of a communal science. The chapter about the Work People's College was fantastic like the rest of these because they were practical, historic, and really thought-provoking just by presenting different forms of alternate, non-authoritarian pedagogies.

That said, after the 5th chapter in a row espousing utter gobbledegook about how activists want to "start an engaging participatory process that transforms subjectivities" and other academic versions of tepid water poured over my face in an attempt to sound smarter or more practical that any of it really was, I just had to STOP.

It is especially ironic to read the Paideia chapter that mentions near the end how not all children coming out of an anarchist school became activists, asking why and considering that activism is not necessarily the end result of anarchist learning, AND THEN have the next chapter after chapter slather your face with how activists did this or that AROUND education without ever getting to the point or any practical MEANINGFUL applications of pedagogical methodologies that could be considered anarchistic other than a few meandering paragraphs that are surrounded on all sides by discussions about how difficult it was for them to get the little workshops together which all FAILED for some inexplicable reason and wondering what this could possibly mean without coming to the conclusion that I did, that everyone around them was as bored and annoyed with them as I was reading this dissapointment of a book.

There got it off my chest.

[Emiliano Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro me abrió la imaginación como pocos lo han hecho. Una educación que reconozca la individualidad y autonomía de niñes y grandes es posible, y los proyectos anarquistas que aparecen en este libro lo demuestran. Aprender no es algo que sucede sólo en las escuelas y no se detiene cuando llegamos a la adultez, podemos aprender en comunidad y podemos aprender a salirnos de este terrible juego capitalista que destruye todo en su paso.

[KatzeKet · Rating 4 out of 5]

When picking up Anarchist Pedagogies, you already know what you're going to be getting yourself into. This book is a collection of writings and essays on education and pedagogy through the lens of anarchism. It's topic ranges from the critique of education, and it's intersection between the state and capitalist production; examples of anarchist inspired pedagogy in the here and now, as seen in community led Free Skools and Escuela Libre Paideia in Spain; and the history of anarchism and education. (It is divided into the historical, the "here and now", and theoretical writings)

From what I got out of this book, looking through the essays I did like, was a furthering of education and how it can be used for cooperative action and liberation. Many education theorists like Paulo Freire and Ivan Illych are mentioned here, and led me to a new appreciation of their works.

My favorite essays were those of the Free Skools, the Escuela Libre Paideia; and the Anarchist Studies Initiative, taking from the works of Freire, Chomsky and Althusser. From this my imagining of what education can be, away from the current structures, is the most important thing I got out of it.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really solid chapters, with some weaker ones nearer the end. In particular, the chapter on the Modern School in Spain was especially interesting, and offered some practical examples of how a non-hierarchical un/de-schooling pedagogy might work in the real world. The chapter on the Zapatista movement is likewise stimulating, though less concerned with education in the traditional sense.

[Quinten Coomans · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good exploration of pedagogy from anarchist perspective(s), gives you a lot to think about and to act on, education is a necessity to think about for non-authoritarian civilization

[Ashby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to delve in Anarchist Pedagogies after an initial introduction to Paulo Freire and after reading Butler's Parable of the Sower and Talents. I'm already familiar with emancipatory educational models such as the Sudbury School, but I wanted to engage with texts that immediately address the political and imperialist agendas of American public schooling. The essays certainly do a wonderful job of addressing the "hidden curriculum" of public education. There is a severe lack of intersectional analysis of race, gender, and class and the ways they impact students' experiences in school.

[Daniel T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly too academic for my liking but excellent real world profiles of anarchist movements happening now and in the past in educational spaces.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt, one of the best, most helpful, and thought-provoking books I have ever read. In spite of what its title implies, the collection of writing in this book is covers a diverse array of experience and understanding reaching far beyond the confines of what is traditionally thought of as "education" or "schooling" and most certainly offers much to those who do not necessarily identify with anarchism but are seeking out alternatives to the corporate-influenced, state-test-driven, and sadly limited reading of what official education is today. This book spills over with the possibilities of what could be, while illuminating what exciting alternative models already exist. These aren't just pages filled with utopian daydreaming. This is a groundbreaking step toward practical application of nonhierarchical, nonstandardized, antiauthoritarian structures of teaching and learning in which exploitation and domination are continually challenged rather than enshrined.

[Shay Gabriel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the essays failed to pique my interest. Some were hopelessly mired in obscure postmodern ideology; others touted the alleged benefits of alternative schooling systems with little examination of the ultimate effects on children's growth. While I'm sympathetic to the project of anti-authoritarian schooling, there's more to anarchism than validating the smallest inclination of a child's ego.

Saved from one star by the excellent essays on the Working People's College, street medic education, and a few other fascinating real-life examples.