Event Highlights: Launch NSI 10 - Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future
Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future
On 23 October 2024, the NORRAG Global Education Center launched the NORRAG Special Issue (NSI) 10, titled Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future. The launch was chaired by Chanwoong Baek, NORRAG’s Academic Director, and introduced by sociologist Rezan Benatar and American University Professor Michael Gibbons, two of this edition’s guest editors. The session included the screening of video presentations by eight of the edition’s contributing authors. It was followed by a Q&A session in which several NSI 10 authors had the opportunity to discuss their work and answer questions from the over 240 audience members. This edition of the NSI was edited by eight members of The Alternatives Project (TAP), a diverse, transnational collective of progressive academics, union members, civil society activists, and social movement participants concerned with building a global collective critical voice oriented towards education and societal transformation.
In their introduction, Benatar and Gibbons highlighted that the poly-crises affecting our planet, from sustainability to economic perspectives, required determined action from those interested in its preservation and acted as the driving force behind the NSI 10. They focused on pushing for a human-centered approach against neoliberal capitalism and countering how current socio-economic and educational arrangements replicate harmful power relations. Rezan Benatar and Michael Gibbons’ presentation was a powerful reminder of how vital works such as the NSI 10 can be in rallying economics, sociology, and education experts to promote positive change in today’s seemingly grim world, in which a life-centered approach takes the place of the hegemony of profit-centered neoliberal capitalism. In their presentation, Benatar and Gibbons introduced realistic alternatives to the current world system through which the political, economic, social, cultural, and ecological spheres of life can be guided by ethics of solidarity, diversity, care, rights, and responsibilities from direct democracy to gender justice. What differentiates the NSI 10 from other works is that, as stressed by Benatar, it “is less about criticism of how things are and more about alternatives.”
The introduction to this edition of the NORRAG Special Issue was followed by video presentations by contributing authors.
Steven J. Klees, author of Not TINA but TAPAS!, Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, and Professor of International Education Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, argued that for education alternatives to flourish, we need system change. And while hard to envision, alternatives to neoliberal capitalism do exist. Klees mentioned the democratizing work movement, the push for a universal basic income, and the fight against the privatization of public services.
Gustavo E. Fischman, author of Democratic Education Brazilian Style: The Citizen School Project’s Legacy, Professor at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, and Senior Global Futures Scholar at Arizona State University, suggested that current education systems are failing young people. Nevertheless, Fischman argues that such failures can be addressed by democratizing access to schooling, curriculum, governance, and political participation to create high-quality, fun, and active schools open to all.
Ashok Danavath, Senior Researcher at the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights and co-author of Anticaste Activism in US Higher Education: Beyond a Politics of Recognition with Radhika Marwaha and Dr. Nisha Thapliyal, discussed the momentum gaining across U.S. higher education institutions to recognize castes as socially protected categories and the shortcomings witnessed in terms of providing for reparation and opportunities to caste-oppressed students.
Rebecca Tarlau, Associate Professor at Stanford University and co-author of Landless Workers Constructing Educational Alternatives for Agrarian Reform, Agroecology, and Food Sovereignty with Alessandro Mariano, discussed how the Landless Workers Movement, a successful example of land redistribution, developed alternative pedagogies and education systems to ensure the thriving of rural communities and the expansion of more sustainable agricultural solutions.
Silvia Espinal Meza, author of Critical Pedagogies in Neoliberal Times: Teachers’ Voices of Resistance from Rural Peru and doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, stressed the need to revalorize indigenous knowledge by rural teachers in Peru and how its inclusion in contemporary pedagogies can benefit both students and teachers. Such social justice practices can give new meanings and values to everyday life and indigenous culture and counteract neoliberal policies.
Aahana Ganguly, author of A People’s Pedagogy for Climate Action in the Indian Sundarbans and Chemistry and Climate Science Professor at Azim Premji University, advocated for the role of youth climate action groups partnering with workers’ unions to advocate for a more just and sustainable development of the vulnerable Indian Sundarbans.
Jumana Al-Waeli, author of Pedagogical Love: The Relational Condition for a Socially Just Refugee Education and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ulster University, highlighted how refugee children in resettlement contexts need not simply a safe space to succeed but, most importantly, love from teachers which takes the shape of pedagogical love. This kind of love is a transformative, inspiring, and respectful imperative for refugee children to thrive.
Paul Hendricks, author of Breaking the Chains of South Africa’s Apartheid Education: The Legacy of Educational Fellowships and History of Education Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, discussed the vital influence of educational fellowships in the quest for progressive change, especially in the South African apartheid context, through the rejection of racial, gender, and class inequalities in education and society. According to Hendricks, the fellowships offer a window of opportunity for young people and teachers to counter dominant ideologies through ideals of non-racialism and anti-imperialism.
The NSI 10 launch concluded with a lively Q&A session in which the guest editors and contributing authors answered questions from the audience and put their articles into perspective with one another. Of importance was the discussion over the concept of non-reformist reform, which Rezan Benatar defined as the need to move past ‘band-aid’ solutions to global crises to achieve systemic change and which Steven Klees framed as a “judgment call” due to its broad yet aspirational nature. Another crucial matter discussed by the speakers was whether to work with current establishments. According to Rachel Glickman, author of Recentering Alternative Educational Approaches in the Post-Pandemic Context: A Case Study in Rural Vermont, it is necessary for those working within educational systems to apply pressure from within and invite outside organizations to apply pressure for change.
Rezan Benatar concluded the event by reminding the audience that the NSI 10 “is an invitation for dialogue, for sharing. It is a way of opening new horizons and possibilities for dialogue, exchange, brainstorming, and change towards a better world.”
Speakers:
- Jumana Al-Waeli, Ulster University
- Chanwoong Baek, NORRAG
- Rezan Benatar, Sociologist
- Ashok Danavath, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
- Silvia Espinal Meza, University of Bristol
- Gustavo E. Fischman, Arizona State University
- Aahana Ganguly, Azim Premji University
- Michael Gibbons, American University
- Paul Hendricks, University of Witswatersrand
- Steven J. Klees, University of Maryland
- Rebecca Tarlau, Stanford University