Marie Brennan and Lew Zipin talk about their research and action-research projects with schools and universities.

They present a direction for education that is intertwined with commmunities - with students researching issues that matter to them, while drawing from a range of sources and 'knowledges', and forming relevant relationships in the process.

This is contrasted with the current top-down, command-and-control approach of our schools and universities, within a Neoliberal, corporatised model. Certainly, Marie and Lew's approach is much better suited to meet the many challenges facing us, such as economic disadvantage, global warming, and the effects of colonisation.

References

Berlant, L. 2011, Cruel Optimism, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Boomer, G. 1999, ‘Pragmatic radical teaching and the disadvantaged schools program’. In B. Green (Ed.), Designs on Learning: Essays on Curriculum and Teaching (pp 49–58). Australian Curriculum Studies Association.

Bourdieu, P. 1984, ‘The forms of capital’. In J. Richardson (Ed), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, New York: Greenwood, pp 241–58.

Bourdieu, P. 1993, The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, New York: Columbia University Press.

Brennan, M. 2019, 'Scholarly activism in and for renewed Australian universities', Social Alternatives 38(3), pp 56-62.

Bunda, T., Zipin, L. & Brennan, M. 2012, ‘Negotiating university “equity” from Indigenous standpoints: A shaky bridge’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(9), pp 941–957.

Freire, P. 1993/1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. M. Bergman Ramos, New York & London: Continuum.

Marx, K. 1967, Capital Volume 1, trans. S. Moore & E. Aveling, New York: International Publishers.

Moll, L. 2014, L. S. Vygotsky and Education, New York & London: Taylor and Francis.

Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neffe, D., & Gonzalez, N. 1992, ‘Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms’, Theory into Practice 32(2), pp. 132-141.

Pignarre, P. & Stengers, I. 2011, Capitalist Sorcery: Breaking the Spell, trans. A. Goffey, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Santos, B. de Sousa 2018, The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South, Durham & London: Duke University Press.

Thomson, P. 2002, Schooling the Rustbelt Kids: Making the Difference in Changing Times, Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Zipin, L. 2019, ‘How Council-Management Governance Troubles Australian University Labours and Futures: Simplistic assumptions and complex consequences’, Social Alternatives 38(3), pp 28-35.

Zipin, L. 2020, ‘Building curriculum knowledge work around community-based “Problems That Matter”: Let’s dare to imagine’, Curriculum Perspectives 40(1), pp 111–115.Zipin, L. & Zipin, L. & Brennan, M. 2023, ‘Affective labour pains of academic capitalism in crisis’. In D. Nehring & K. Brunila K. (Eds), Affective Capitalism in Academia (pp 21-46), Bristol: Policy Press, imprint of Bristol University Press.

Zipin, L. & Brennan, M. 2023, 'Opening school walls to funds of knowledge: Students researching problems that matter in Australian communities'. In M. Esteban-Guitart. (Ed), Funds of Knowledge and Identity Pedagogies for Social Justice: International Perspectives and Praxis from Communities, Classrooms and Curriculum (pp 41-56), London & New York: Routledge.