Looks like a classroom to us

Abstract

Neoliberal ideologies, with their emphasis on the rule of markets, and community development, which promotes ground-up collective social change and human rights, stand in stark contrast to each other. In a social practice school, teaching tomorrow’s social change-makers the theory and practice of community development, we experiment with what authentic out-of-classroom learning experiences might be – by, for example, engaging students in a union picket, a protest march and a policy breakfast – and reflect together on how these might inform a deeper discussion of community development using a Freirean lens. The risks, logistics and outcomes of this work-based learning are explored as well as the potential for this innovation to illuminate further the paradox of educating change-makers in a neoliberal institution.