Writing Research Critically

Towards a society of equals: Dewey, Lippmann, the co-operative movement and radical democracy undermining neo-liberal forms of schooling

“…Pessimism is, in a sense, a recognition of, and thus a prelude to, the realistic strategy of mapping what prevents change and the development of democratic and more egalitarian forms of organisation. Critical pedagogies inspired by Freire, for example, offer a means of combining both social critique and an approach to action which can be taken up in various critical forms of action research directed towards social justice, as well as organisational, community and political equality (see Schostak, 2002; Schostak and Schostak, 2006, 2013). Apart from singular attempts with limited lifetimes – see, for example, Fielding’s (2005) discussion of Alex Bloom’s school – these ideas, practices and forms of organisation are largely counter to the hierarchical management of mainstream schooling.…”

“…Democracy – in particular its demand for an equality of voice – is not in the interests of those who consider themselves born to rule, or to teach. From its inception, democracy has been hollowed out by elites (Schostak and Goodson, 2012, forthcoming; Schostak and Schostak, 2010, 2013), particularly the financial elites. The first task of the ‘money men’, as Bouton (2007) in his history of the early days of the American Revolution made clear, was to tame democracy – just as, perhaps, recently the multi-millionaire hedge-fund entrepreneur Arron Banks funded the Brexit campaign and the UK Independence Party, a right-wing nationalist political party (for an American view of Banks’s influence, see Barnett, 2016).…”

“…And, as such, it makes for a powerful educational principle – a principle that radicalises discovery learning, child-centred learning and work-based learning generally to produce a form of learning that depends on the fullest expression not only of one’s own powers, but also of those of others. This radically democratic direction of travel, for example, has been the subject of recent studies in educational research methodologies (see Schostak and Schostak, 2008) and philosophy of education (see Bingham and Biesta, 2011), and more generally in terms of critical public pedagogies (for an overview, see Sandlin et al., 2011). Such approaches, with their focus on education’s capacity for emancipatory social change, contrast with and act as an antidote to the view held by those such as Marsh (2011) and Blacker (2013), who argue that given the decreasing need of capitalists for an educated workforce due to advances in automation and intelligent technologies (Collins, 2013), there is little, if any, real role left for the education system in bringing about social justice.…”

The researcher as cognitive activist and the mutually useful conversation

“…Schostak and Schostak prompt us to recognise that:the opportunity to engage in research radically involves identifying what is at stake for people engaging in ‘normal’ everyday practices, those practices of ‘fitting in’ and getting others to ‘fit in’ or engaging in strategies in response to their refusal to fit in. (Schostak and Schostak, 2008: 17)At first glance, this may seem as if those not actively participating are being ‘mined’ for information for some sort of intellectual vanguardism. This is a position that I would argue needs to be avoided if researchers are to truly create a more active role for those being researched, and a more equitable and socially just research paradigm that is able to respond to refusals to fit in – and not only to respond, but to assist .…”

“…the opportunity to engage in research radically involves identifying what is at stake for people engaging in ‘normal’ everyday practices, those practices of ‘fitting in’ and getting others to ‘fit in’ or engaging in strategies in response to their refusal to fit in. (Schostak and Schostak, 2008: 17)…”