Anarchist education and the paradox of pedagogical authority

CIVITAS EDUCATIONIS. EDUCATION, POLITICS AND CULTURE, 2019

I would like to try to identify some general philosophical themes that I understand as fundamental to the anarchist vision, and which I see as implicit in all the papers offered here. I present them as binaries, albeit with the understanding that experience tends to confound binaries and binaries tend to distort experience, and are, finally, overcome only in the poetic realm. My hope is that these thematics may help us to reflect on and to explore how the anarchist vision—which I understand as inherently prophetic—applies to education, and even more specifically to the form of education that we call school.

Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education, 2012

Education has played a particularly important role in the history of anarchist thought and practice, perhaps more so than any other political philosophy aimed at social transformation. This is in part because, for anarchists of all stripes, education has never been simply a means to achieve a new social order. It has been, rather, part of the very practice and prefiguration of the anarchist ideal of creating freer and more critical minds, and more open, cooperative and non-oppressive relationships within society. As a result, understanding the peculiar nature of the role of education for anarchism can help us better understand the relationship between anarchist educational theory and its relatives in the broader circles of "libertarian" or "radical" education. It can also help us underscore the tremendous differences between the anarchist conception of education and that of historical and contemporary statist and capitalist pedagogies. Finally, a greater understanding of the role of education within anarchist theory can help us clarify the means, aims and ideas of the wider anarchist movement and tradition. This paper seeks to elaborate on these topics.

Choice Reviews Online, 2011

Introduction 1 1 Anarchism-definitions and questions 7 Anarchism and Marxism 12 Anarchism, philosophy of education and liberal suspicions 15 Liberalism and liberal education 18 2 Anarchism and human nature 24 Human nature in social-anarchist theory 25 Human nature and the capitalist state 29 Nurturing the propensity for mutual aid 31 The ideal of rationality 34 Human nature in liberalism 36 3 Anarchist values? 38 Autonomy in anarchism and liberalism 41 Reciprocal awareness 44 Liberal paternalism and libertarianism 46 Autonomy and community-tensions and questions 47 Robert Wolff and the argument from autonomy 50 4 Authority, the state and education 54 The anarchist objection to the state 55 Authority 57 Preface to 2010 edition vii 5 The positive core of anarchism Equality 63 Fraternity 67 Liberal values? Anarchist values? 72 Education for the social virtues 73

Educational Studies, 2012

Educational Studies, 2019

In this article, the distinctions between anarchism as a political philosophy are outlined and contrasted with that of liberal democratic theory upon which much of educational philosophy is based. The principles upon which the social anarchist position rests are briefly outlined with respect to the state, authority, and human beings’ way of interacting with and relating to one another. Next, some of the anarchist critiques of state-controlled schooling are considered. Following the discussion of traditional anarchism, largely rooted in late 19th and early 20th century European workers’ movements, some of the foundational principles of contemporary anarchism, beginning in the 1960s and continuing up through the present, are considered. Finally, the article conceptualizes what it might look like to utilize anarchist principles as an organizing framework for education and how these principles might be put into action in a real-world educational context.

2018

This dissertation provides a Christian conception of suffering as the possible answer to the problem of the oppression of the students inherent to education, including its anarchist conceptions. The thesis examines anarchist forms of education proposed both without (Kropotkin) and within (Suissa) the State and argues that both types, in order to uphold anarchist values within the school result to the continuous oppression of the students. Inspired by Illich’s reading of the parable of the good Samaritan, the thesis proposes to articulate freedom as a relationship with the other. This relationship only being possible in the mutual sharing of their suffering.

2023

A talk given at the International Teaching and Learning Workshop, Sciences Po, 2023. This talk focuses on the uncertainty educators face when opening modules to student input and suggests anarchism as way to rethink educator authority.

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 2006

Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2009