Comprised of in-depth interviews and conversations with key figures in education and activism that thoroughly examine the intersection of neoliberalism, neocolonialism, and racism, this first-rate collection critically explores, through their teaching, various, important issues situated in the context of Western neoliberalism and neocolonialism.

Comprised of in-depth interviews and conversations with key figures in education and activism that thoroughly examine the intersection of neoliberalism, neocolonialism, and racism, this first-rate collection critically explores, through their teaching, various, important issues situated in the context of Western neoliberalism and neocolonialism.

What is education, what is it for and what are its fundamental values? How do we understand knowledge and learning? What is our image of the child and the school? How does the ever more pressing need to develop a more just, creative and sustainable democratic society affect our responses to these questions? Addressing these fundamental issues, Fielding and Moss contest the current mainstream dominated by markets and competition, instrumentality and standardisation, managerialism and technical practice. They argue instead for a radical education with democracy as a fundamental value, care as a central ethic, a person-centred education that is education in the broadest sense, and an image of a child rich in potential. Radical education, they say, should be practiced in the ‘common school’, a school for all children in its local catchment area, age-integrated, human scale, focused on depth of learning and based on team working. A school understood as a public space for all citizens, a collective workshop of many purposes and possibilities, and a person-centred learning community, working closely with other schools and with local authorities. The book concludes by examining how we might bring such transformation about. Written by two of the leading experts in the fields of early childhood and secondary education, the book covers a wide vista of education for children and young people. Vivid examples from different stages of education are used to explore the full meaning of radical democratic education and the common school and how they can work in practice. It connects rich thinking and experiences from the past and present to offer direction and hope for the future. It will be of interest and inspiration to all who care about education - teachers and students, academics and policy makers, parents and politicians.

“A refreshing collection of essays that offers a range of critical and radical voices which are generally marginalized in the critical social studies ‘mainstream’ ... This collection is a good read with valuable insights that can impact teaching practice.”— Canadian Social Studies - Canada’s National Social Studies Journal - Volume 45 Issue 1

This book presents a novel perspective on neocolonialism, education and other related issues. It unveils the effects of neocolonialism on the learning and well-being of students and workers, including marginalized groups such as Native Americans, Latino/as, and African Americans. It is a collection of in-depth interviews with and heartfelt essays by committed social justice educators and scholars genuinely concerned with educational issues situated in the context of western neocolonialism and neoliberalism.This dialogical way of discussing important issues and co-constructing knowledge can be traced back to ancient philosophers, who used dialogue as a form of inquiry to explore and analyze educational, socio-economic and political issues facing the world. It will cover many interwoven and pressing issues echoed through authentic voices of progressive educators and scholars.

. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.

This book celebrates the rights of the child, through including student voice in educational matters that affect them directly. It focuses on the experiences of children and young people and explores how our educational policies, practices and research endeavours enable educators to help young people tell their own stories. The respective chapters illustrate how listening to young people can help them attain new positions of power, even though doing so often creates discomfort and requires a radical change on the part of the adult establishment. Further, the book challenges researchers, teachers and practitioners to reconsider how students are involved in research and policy agendas, and to what extent radical collegiality can create fundamental and positive changes in the lives of these learners. In recent decades, greater attention has been paid across policy, practice and research discourses to involving children more meaningfully and actively in decisions about their participation in both formal and informal educational settings. The book’s goal is to illustrate how researchers have systematically involved students in the pursuit of a richer understanding of educational experiences, policy and practice through the eyes and ears of young people, and through their own cultural lens.