Matt’s Notes
Welcome one and all to EnT 84! We are glad to have you with us. In this episode we explore resistance to oppressive education. It’s been awhile since we’ve spoken to Paulo Freire and associated thinkers. As we’re still relatively early in the academic year, this seems like a good time to jump in with both feet!
Down by law, but not by YouTube! #ednontech
We snatched this audio like our freedom depends on it! #ednontech
As with my previous episode’s notes, I felt like this topic would be better expressed handwritten!
Doug’s Notes
Resistance to oppressive education
The secret of liberty is to enlighten men, as that of tyranny is to keep them in ignorance.
Robespierre, M. (1793). Works of Maximilien Robespierre (Vol. 9). E. Leroux.
Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression.
It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education.
Freire, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury.
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
Medvedev, F. E., & Kulikov, G. I. (1981). Human rights and freedoms in the USSR. Progress.
The expression “hedge school” encapsulates the ideas of poverty (an open-air educational enterprise), clandestinity and local protection: surviving political repression over a long period of time is impossible outside a deep-rooted network of local acquaintances and complicity.
O’Connell, A. M. (2011). The Irish hedge schools: Rejection, resistance and creativity (1695-1831). Revue Civilisations, (11), 55-86
School boards have attempted to justify their removal decisions based on “educational suitability,” despite substantial evidence that those removals were politically motivated.
Schroeder, R. L. (2021). How to ban a book and get away with it: Educational suitability and school board motivations in public school library book removals. Iowa L. Rev., 107, 363.
The main social determinants of mental health include adverse early life experiences, poor education, unemployment, job insecurity, poverty and income inequality.
Mohammadi, A. Q., Neyazi, A., Habibi, D., Mehmood, Q., Neyazi, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2024). Female education ban by the Taliban: a descriptive survey study on suicidal ideation, mental health, and health-related quality of life among girls in Afghanistan. Journal of Public Health, 46(3), e439-e447.
Success was determined by the school’s ability to fulfill the objectives laid down by the policy makers; assimilation was the prime objective.
Haig-Brown Vayro, C. (1986). Invasion and resistance: Native perspectives of the Kamloops Indian Residential School (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).
Word of the Podcast
Agency
Question of the Podcast
How can educational technology play a positive role in resisting ideological education?
Phrase of the Podcast
Asymmetrical and other kinds of education
It’s been a slice, and then some! Please come around again!
Breakin’ rocks in the hot sun
I fought the law and’a the law won
I fought the law and’a the law won
I needed money ’cause I had none
I fought the law and’a the law won #ednontech
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