Education out of traditional schooling systems, aiming at transforming society
Popular education
is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle,
critical theory
and
social transformation
. The term is a translation from the Spanish
educacion popular
[
es
]
or the Portuguese
educacao popular
[
pt
]
and rather than the English usage as when describing a 'popular television programme', popular here means 'of the people'. More specifically 'popular' refers to the 'popular classes', which include
peasants
, the unemployed, the working class and sometimes the lower middle class. The designation of 'popular' is meant most of all to exclude the upper class and upper middle class.
Popular education is used to classify a wide array of educational endeavours and has been a strong tradition in Latin America since the end of the first half of the 20th century. These endeavors are either composed of or carried out in the interests of the popular classes. The diversity of projects and endeavors claiming or receiving the label of popular education makes the term difficult to precisely define. Generally, one can say that popular education is class-based in nature and rejects the notion of education as transmission or 'banking education'. It stresses a
dialectic
or
dialogical
model between educator and educand. This model is explored in great detail in the works of one of the foremost popular educators
Paulo Freire
.
Though sharing many similarities with other forms of
alternative education
, popular education is a distinct form in its own right. In the words of Liam Kane:
"What distinguishes popular education from '
adult
', '
non-formal
', '
distance
', or 'permanent education', for example, is that in the context of social injustice, education can never be politically neutral: if it does not side with the poorest and marginalised sectors- the 'oppressed' ? in an attempt to transform society, then it necessarily sides with the 'oppressors' in maintaining the existing structures of oppression, even if by default."
[1]
Europe
[
edit
]
Popular education began at the crossroads between politics and
pedagogy
, and strongly relies on the democratic ideal of the
Enlightenment
, which considered
public education
as a main tool of individual and collective
emancipation
, and thus the necessary conditions of
autonomy
, in accordance to
Immanuel Kant
's
Was Ist Aufklarung?
(What is Enlightenment?), published five years before the 1789
French Revolution
, during which the
Condorcet report
established public instruction in France.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
's
L'Emile: Or, On Education
(1762) was another obvious theoretical influence, as well as the works of
N. F. S. Grundtvig
(1783?1872), at the origins of the Nordic movement of
folk high schools
. During the 19th century, popular education movements were involved, in particular in
France
, in the
Republican
and Socialist movement. A main component of the
workers' movement
, popular education was also strongly influenced by
positivist
,
materialist
and
laicite
, if not
anti-clerical
, ideas.
Popular education may be defined as an educational technique designed to raise the
consciousness
of its participants and allow them to become more aware of how an individual's personal experiences are connected to larger societal problems. Participants are empowered to act to effect change on the problems that affect them.
19th century
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]
One of the roots of popular education was the
Condorcet report
during the 1789
French Revolution
. These ideas became an important component of the
Republican
and Socialist movement. Following the split of the
First International
at the 1872
Hague Congress
between the "anti-authoritarian socialists" (anarchists) and the
Marxists
, popular education remained an important part of the
workers' movement
, in particular in the
anarcho-syndicalist
movement, strong in
France
,
Spain
and
Italy
. It was one of the important theme treated during the 1907
International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam
.
France
[
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]
During the
Second Empire
,
Jean Mace
founded the
Ligue de l'enseignement
(Teaching League) in 1866; during the Lille Congress in 1885, Mace reaffirmed the
masonic
inspiration of this league devoted to popular instruction. Following the 1872
Hague Congress
and the split between Marxists and anarchists,
Fernand Pelloutier
set up in France various
Bourses du travail
centres, where workers gathered and discussed politics and sciences.
The
Jules Ferry laws
in the 1880s, establishing free, laic (non-religious), mandatory and public education, were one of the founding stones of the
Third Republic
(1871?1940), set up in the aftermaths of the 1870
Franco-Prussian War
and the
Paris Commune
.
Furthermore, most of the teachers, who were throughout one of the main support of the Third Republic, so much that it has been called the
Republique des instituteurs
("Republic of Teachers"), while the teachers themselves were called, because of their
Republican anti-clericalism
, the
hussards noirs de la Republique
, supported
Alfred Dreyfus
against the conservatives during the
Dreyfus Affair
. One of its consequences was for them to set up free educational lectures of
humanist
topics for adults in order to struggle against the spread of
antisemitism
, which was not limited to the far-right but also affected the workers' movement.
Paul Robin
's work at the
Prevost orphanage
of
Cempuis
was the model for
Francisco Ferrer
's
Escuela Moderna
in Spain. Robin taught atheism and internationalism, and broke new ground with co-ed schooling, and teaching orphans with the same respect given to other children. He taught that the individual should develop in harmony with the world, on the physical, moral, and intellectual planes.
Scandinavia
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]
In Denmark, the concept of
folk high school
was pioneered in 1844 by
N. F. S. Grundtvig
. By 1870, Denmark had 50 of these institutions. The first in Sweden,
Folkhogskolan Hvilan,
was established in 1868 outside of Lund.
In 1882, liberal and socialist students at
Uppsala University
in Sweden founded the association
Verdandi
for popular education. Between 1888 and 1954 it published 531 educational booklets on various topics (
Verdandis smaskrifter
).
Some Swedish proponents of
folkbildning
have adopted an anglicisation of
folkbuilding
[2]
A Swedish bibliography on popular education with 25,000 references to books and articles between 1850 and 1950 is integrated in the Libris catalog of the Royal Library.
[3]
20th century
[
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]
Popular education continued to be an important field of socialist politics, reemerging in particular during the
Popular Front
in 1936?38, while
autogestion
(self-management), a main tenet of the
anarcho-syndicalist
movement, became a popular slogan following the
May '68
revolt.
Austria
[
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]
During the
Red Vienna
period (1919?34) the Viennese
Volkshochschule
played an important role in providing popular education attracting significant levels of participation from both factory and office workers. They also attracted significant participation from prominent people associated with the
Vienna Circle
:
Otto Neurath
,
Edgar Zilsel
,
Friedrich Waismann
and
Viktor Kraft
.
[4]
The
Escuela Moderna
(1901?1907)
[
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]
The
Escuela Moderna
(Modern School) was founded in 1901 in
Barcelona
by free-thinker
Francesc Ferrer i Guardia
, and became a leading inspiration of many various movements.
[5]
Opposed to the "dogmas of conventional education Ferrer set a system based on reason, science, and observation.
[6]
" The school's stated goal was to "educate the working class in a rational, secular and non-coercive setting". In practice, high tuition fees restricted attendance at the school to wealthier middle class students. It was privately hoped that when the time was ripe for revolutionary action, these students would be motivated to lead the working classes. It closed in 1906. The
Escuela Moderna
, and Ferrer's ideas generally, formed the inspiration for a series of
Modern Schools
in the United States,
[5]
Cuba
, South America and London. The first of these was started in New York City in 1911. It also inspired the Italian newspaper
Universita popolare
, founded in 1901.
France
[
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]
Following the
1981 presidential election
that brought to power the
Socialist Party
(PS)'s candidate,
Francois Mitterrand
, his Minister of Education,
Alain Savary
, supported Jean Levi's initiative to create a public high school, delivering the baccalaureat, but organized on the principles of
autogestion
(or self-management): this high school took the name of
Lycee autogere de Paris
(LAP).
[7]
The LAP explicitly modelled itself after the Oslo Experimental High School, opened in 1967 in Norway, as well as the
Saint-Nazaire
Experimental High School, opened six months before the LAP, and the secondary school Vitruve (opened in 1962 in the
20th arrondissement
of Paris, still active).
[
citation needed
]
Theoretical references include
Celestin Freinet
and his comrades from the I.C.E.M., as well as
Raymond Fonvieille
,
Fernand Oury
, and others theoreticians of "
institutional pedagogy
", as well as those coming from the
institutional analysis
movement, in particular
Rene Lourau
, as well as members of the institutional psychotherapeutic movement, which were a main component in the 1970s of the
anti-psychiatric movement
(of which Felix Guattari was an important member). Since 2005, the LAP has maintained contact with self-managed firms, in the REPAS network (
Reseau d'echanges de pratiques alternatives et solidaires
, Network of Exchange of Solidarity and Alternative Practices")
[8]
A
second generation
for such
folk high school
meant to educate the people and the masses spread in the society (mainly for workers) just before the
French Front populaire
experience, as a reaction among teachers and intellectuals following the
February 6, 1934 riots
organized by
far-right leagues
. Issues devoted to
free-thinking
such as
workers' self-management
were thought and taught during that time, since the majority of attendants were
proletarians
interested in politics. Hence, some received the name of
Universite proletarienne
(Proletarian University) instead of
Universite populaire
(Popular University)
[9]
in some cities around the country. The
reactionary
Vichy regime
put an end to such projects during World War II. The second generation continued in the post-war period, yet topical lectures turned to be more practical and focused on daily life matters. Nowadays, the largest remnant is located in the
Bas-Rhin
and
Haut-Rhin
departements
.
[10]
Following
World War II
, popular teaching attempts were initiated mainly by the
anarchist movement
. Already in 1943,
Joffre Dumazedier
,
Benigno Caceres
, Paul Lengrand,
Joseph Rovan
and others founded the
Peuple et Culture
(People and Culture) network, aimed at democratization of culture. Joffre Dumazedier conceptualized, at the Liberation, the concept of "cultural development" to oppose the concept of "
economic development
", thus foreshadowing the current
Human Development Index
. Historian
Jean Maitron
, for example, was director of the Apremont school in
Vendee
from 1950 to 1955.
Such popular educations were also a major feature of
May '68
and of the following
decenie
, leading in particular to the establishment of the
University of Paris VIII: Vincennes?Saint-Denis
in Paris, in 1969. The Vincennes University (now located in Saint-Denis) was first an "Experimental University Center," with an interest in reshaping relations between students and teachers (so-called "
mandarins
", in reference to the
bureaucrats of Imperial China
, for their authority and classic,
Third Republic
pedagogy
) as well as between the university itself and society. Thus, Vincennes was largely opened to those who did not have their
baccalaureat
diploma, as well as to foreigners. Its courses were focused on
Freudo-Marxism
,
psychoanalysis
,
Marxist theory
, cinema, theater,
urbanism
or
artificial intelligence
. Famous intellectuals such as
Gilles Deleuze
,
Michel Foucault
,
Jacques Lacan
and others held seminars there, in full classrooms where no seats could be found. The assistance was very heterogeneous. For instance, musicians such as
Richard Pinhas
assisted at Deleuze's courses, and after having written
Anti-Oedipus
(1972) with
Felix Guattari
, Deleuze used to say that non-specialists had best understood their work. Furthermore, Vincennes had no
amphitheatres
, representatives of the
mandarin
teacher facing and dominating several hundred students silently taking notes. It also enforced a strict
equality
between professors and teaching assistants. The student revolt continued throughout the 1970s in both Vincennes and the
University of Paris X: Nanterre
, created in 1964. In 1980, the
Minister of Education
Alice Saunier-Seite
imposed the transfer of Vincennes' University to Saint-Denis. Although education was normalized in the 1980s, during the
Mitterrand
era, in both Saint-Denis and Vincennes, these universities have retained a less traditional outlook than the classic
Sorbonne
, where courses tend to be more conservative and sociological composition more middle-upper class.
Another attempt in popular education, specifically targeted towards the question of philosophy (France being one of the rare country where this discipline is taught in
terminale
, the last year of high school which culminate in the
baccalaureat
degree) was the creation, in 1983, of the open university named
College international de philosophie
(International Philosophy College, or Ciph), by
Jacques Derrida
,
Francois Chatelet
,
Jean-Pierre Faye
and
Dominique Lecourt
, in an attempt to re-think the teaching of philosophy in France, and to liberate it from any institutional authority (most of all from the university). As the ancient
College de France
, created by
Francis I
, it is free and open to everyone. The Ciph was first directed by Derrida, then by
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
, and has had as teaching members
Giorgio Agamben
,
Alain Badiou
,
Sidi Mohamed Barkat
,
Geoffrey Bennington
, Francois Chatelet,
Jose Gil
,
Olivier LeCour Grandmaison
,
Antonio Negri
, and others. The Ciph is still active.
In 2002 philosopher
Michel Onfray
initiated
Universite populaire de Caen
[11]
in his hometown and starting a long seminar dealing with
hedonistic philosophy
from ancient times to
May'68 events in French society
, for at least ten years.
[12]
His very topical subject in this seminar keeps going with a
free-thinking
spirit, since people are invited on the whole to rethink the
history of ideas
to eliminate any Christian influence. Despite the same name of
Universite populaire
, it is not linked to the European federation of associations inherited from the second generation. In 2004, Onfray expanded the experience
[13]
to other cities such as Arras, Lyon, Narbonne, Avignon, and Mons (in
Belgium
); each with various lectures and teachers joining his idea. The
Universites populaires
in
Argentan
is meant to deliver a culture of culinary
tastes
to nonworking people, through lectures and practises of famous chefs.
[14]
Latin America
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Popular education is most commonly understood as an approach to education that emerged in Latin America during the 1930s. Closely linked with
Marxism
and particularly
liberation theology
. Best known amongst popular educators is the Brazilian
Paulo Freire
. Freire, and consequently the popular education movement in Latin America, draws heavily upon the work of
John Dewey
and
Antonio Gramsci
. One of the features of popular education in Latin America has been
participatory action research
(PAR).
1940s?1960s
[
edit
]
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. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
September 2017
)
|
1970s?1980s
[
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]
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. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
September 2017
)
|
1990s?present
[
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]
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. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
September 2017
)
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Africa
[
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]
Portuguese colonies
[
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]
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. You can help by
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.
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Anglophone colonies
[
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]
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.
(
September 2017
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Anne Hope and Sally Timmel were Christian development workers and educators who used popular education in their work in East Africa. They documented their work between 1973 and 1984 in four handbooks designed to aid practitioners titled "Training for Transformation."
North America
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]
In the United States and Canada popular education influenced
social justice
education and
critical pedagogy
, though there are differences. At the same time, however, there are examples of popular education in the U.S. and Canada that grew up alongside and independently of popular education in Latin America.
United States
[
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]
Scholar and community-worker
Myles Horton
and his
Highlander Folk School
(now
Highlander Research and Education Center
) and his work in Tennessee can be classified as popular education. Horton's studies at
Union Theological Seminary
in New York under
Reinhold Niebuhr
in the 1920s parallels the emergence of liberation theology in Latin America and both are heavily influenced by socialism and a focus on the practical relationships between Christianity and everyday life. Niebuhr, however, was a staunch anti-communist while liberation theology has a much closer relationship to the work of
Karl Marx
. Additionally, popular education has been linked to
populism
and
land-grant universities
with their
cooperative extension programs
.
McCarthyism
and the
red scare
were used to challenge and in some cases close labor schools and other institutions during the early part of the
Cold War
, as anticommunists attacked such schools for including communists. Nevertheless,
Highlander Folk School
, for example, played a significant role in the
civil rights movement
providing a space for leaders to consult and plan. And the methods of popular education continue to live on in radical education and community organizing circles, even though U.S. labor unions have largely abandoned the kind of labor education that more directly tied workplace organizing and collective bargaining to class struggle.
Canada
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
September 2017
)
|
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
Kane, Liam (2001).
Popular Education and Social Change in Latin America
. Nottingham, UK: Russell Press. p. 9.
ISBN
1-899365-52-4
.
- ^
Hektor, S (2005)
"A 'Folkbildning' Approach in Media Training"
Archived
March 23, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
in
Journal of the International Communication Training Institute
.
- ^
SFbB
, Svensk folkbildningsbibliografi (1850?1950).
- ^
Dvorak, Johann (1991). "Otto Neurath and Adult Education: Unity of Science, Materialism and Comprehensive Enlightenment". In Uebel, Thomas (ed.).
Rediscovering the Forgotten Vienna Circle: Austrian Studies on Otto Neurath and the Vienna Circle
. Dordrecht: Kulwer Academic Publishers. pp. 265?274.
- ^
a
b
Geoffrey C. Fidler,
The Escuela Moderna Movement of Francisco Ferrer: "Por la Verdad y la Justicia"
in
History of Education Quarterly
, vol.25, issue 1/2, Spring-Summer 1985, pages 103?132
(in English)
- ^
Avrich, Paul (2006).
The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States
. Edinburgh, UK: AK Press. p. 19.
ISBN
1-904859-09-7
.
- ^
"Lycee Autogere de Paris - L'autogestion comme solution"
.
www.l-a-p.org
. Archived from
the original
on March 25, 2018
. Retrieved
March 23,
2018
.
- ^
repas (January 30, 2013).
"Presentation du Reseau REPAS"
.
www.reseaurepas.free.fr
. Retrieved
March 23,
2018
.
- ^
Fr: Education populaire
- ^
Von Treitschke, H. (1915). Germany, France, Russia, & Islam. London, Jarrold.
- ^
French WP article: Universite populaire de Caen
- ^
A recorded compilation of his lectures on CD became a hit in France, about 200 000 copies sold:
Contre-histoire de la philosophie
.
Synopsis
- ^
He also published [a book]
[
citation needed
]
as a
manifesto
to describe his hopes about it:
La communaute philosophique
.
- ^
The first lecture at Argentan was delivered by the main chef of Crillon motel; Onfray commented on radio he liked to enable such extravagant encounters.
[
citation needed
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Hope, Anne; Timmel, Sally (1984).
Training for transformation : a handbook for community workers
. Gweru: Mambo Press.
ISBN
0-86922-256-2
.
OCLC
13329206
.
External links
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]
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