What is Education for ?
And how Supplementary Schools
can help to answer this
DR ORNETTE D CLENNON
VISITING ENTERPRISE FELLOW
MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
EMAIL: O.CLENNON@MMU.AC.UK
BLOG: HTTPS://CRITRACEMMU.WORDPRESS.COM/
What does Privilege look like in an educational
setting?
Some interesting thoughts of what White privilege might look like,
courtesy of Peggy McIntosh’s Invisible Knapsack:
14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to
my race.
15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
16. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color
who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any
penalty for such oblivion.
17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its
policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
(McIntosh, 1990)
Point 17 is very interesting in view of the current educational and
safeguarding focus on PREVENT.
Who gains from Privilege?
Education merely for market participation?
Perhaps it means that people should be educated only
to further their nation’s economic competitiveness
(Browne, 2009)
Who is responsible for Inherent Inequality?
What about those who do not benefit from market
competition?
“we focus always on the subordinated group and not
on the dominant group. And that’s one of the ways that
the power of dominant groups isn’t questioned – by
remaining invisible.”
(Jhally, et al., 1999, p. 6)
Alternative Education and Community
Engagement
Making Education a Priority
Using critical theory to explore themes around privilege and merit in my
book Alternative Education and Community Engagement: Making Education
a Priority published by Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN: 978-1-63463-808-1, ISBN: 978-1-63463-817-3
Foreword by Diane Abbott, MP
What is wrong with our mainstream education system in the UK and what
can we do about it? Alternative Education and Community Engagement
explores some of the ethical and philosophical issues behind the provision of
market-led alternative education, namely: Free Schools, Studio Schools,
Supplementary Schools and Co-operative Schools. This volume seeks to
explore how power is mediated in these educational models, drawing on
Foucault, Bourdieu, Lyotard and others to provide a theoretical underpinning
of its analyses of both mainstream and alternative education in the UK, and
to introduce the reader to a 'critical pedagogy'. Using case studies, Ornette
Clennon examines the practicalities of working within these alternative
models and asks whether a market-based approach to delivering higher
standards of education for everyone actually works.
Counter narratives of Resistance
Some critical thinking skills that supplementary
schools can nurture:
Excavating historical memories
(Martin-Baro, 1994)
Awareness and analysis of “double-consciousness”
(Du Bois, 1903, p. 9)
A brief summary of some of our activities so far
with some of our Partners
Investing in Critical
Reflective Thinking
Manchester Metropolitan University
Making Education a Priority - MEaP
The development of a PG Cert in Teaching
and Learning
that was specially designed for
supplementary schools , covering ;
learning, teaching
and assessment strategies and leadership
and management skills in educational
settings
Manchester Museum
Investing in
Creative Thinking
Using the Manchester Museum’s
Manchester Museum Comes to You programme
to stimulate creative thinking
around some of its collection via community curation
Bibliography
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. (R. Nice, Trans.) Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Browne, J. (2009, November 9). Browne Report: An independent review of higher education & student finance in
England. Retrieved April 9, 2014, from The National Archives:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/hereview.independent.gov.uk/hereview/
Clennon, O. (Ed.). (2014). Alternative Education and Community Engagement: Making Education a Priority.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Du Bois, W. (1903). The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (Second ed.). Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.
Freire, P. (1973). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press.
Jhally, S., Ericsson, S., Talreja, S., Katz, J., Earp, J., & Media Education Foundation. (1999). TOUGH GUISE:
Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.
Martin-Baro, I. (1994). Writings for a Liberation Psychology. New York: Harvard University Press.
McIntosh, P. (1990). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Independent School, Winter, 31-36.