Other learnings are possible: autonomous education, decolonization and radical democracy

This talk offers a brief introduction to some diverse forms of education now being practiced around the world and considers the light these shed on the politics of counter-capitalist educational projects in Britain today. It asks why radical imaginaries of autonomous, egalitarian, co-operative and post-capitalist education remain marginal in educational discourses and politics here despite decades of opposition to the marketization of society, extensive academic and experiential evidence of its exclusionary consequences, and the growth of global education movements which demonstrate the liberatory potential of counter-hegemonic epistemological and pedagogical practices. The talk will argue that mainstream education debates, institutionalized educational practice and critiques of both in the UK are often framed within colonial logics that not only contribute to the production of social and epistemic injustice but render already-existing and not-yet alternatives invisible or impossible. The aim of the talk is to explore how decolonizing these logics can create space for the emergence of new imaginaries which support the flourishing of life rather than its domination, open possibilities for educating radical democracy, and equip us to collectively embrace the challenges of reclaiming our ecological, political and economic futures from our own locations today