Teaching is political: Introduction

Teaching is political. Paul Thomas, Professor of Education, Furman University wrote on his blog (15 February 2017), “Everything involving humans is necessarily political, even and especially teaching and learning.” Thomas goes on, “Therefore, no teacher at any level can truly be apolitical, objective. Taking a neutral or objective pose is a political choice, and an endorsement of the status quo.” Here Thomas is echoing Paulo Freire’s well-known proposition, “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral” (1984, p. 524). In this New Zealand election year (2017), we invited John O’Neill, Martin Thrupp and Liz Gordon to speak to teachers and school leaders about their particular current educational concerns. It was the intention to provide food for thought for teachers/school leaders and to encourage dialogue around the dinner party table, BBQ or other social gathering where the election might be discussed