Universities and Activism

How can University research contribute to radical changemaking in education? Listen in to this episode for an audience led discussion on how academic research can fuel the movement for liberated learning and social justice in education, with past and present academics and activists Max Hope, Martin Mills and Freya Aquarone.

Max has a passion and energy for transforming the education system. The first fifteen years of her professional life were spent in the community and voluntary sector, largely working with socially excluded and disadvantaged young people who were disengaged from education. Her frustration and anger at the way that they had been failed by the system led her to becoming a university academic at the University of Hull, undertaking research about inclusive education, equalities, freedom, democracy and social justice. Her recent book, Reclaiming Freedom in Education (Routledge) was published in 2018. She is the Chair of Trustees at Phoenix Education and defines herself as an academic, a facilitator, an educator, a researcher, an activist, and a writer.

Martin is a former high school teacher, and Professor and the Director of the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research at the Institute of Education, UCL. He is committed to struggles seeking to create a socially just education system – and a more socially just world. Recent books include Re-engaging young people in education: learning from alternative schools (2014); Reimagining schooling for education (2017); Alternative education: International perspectives on policy and practice (2018); and Autonomy, accountability and social justice: stories of English schooling (2019). He grew up in England, but has spent most of his life living in Australia.

they attended mainstream primary schools until the age of 10, and then spent two years at Summerhill (the radical democratic school in Suffolk founded by A.S. Neill) where they spent a lot of time climbing trees, being in plays, and doing algebra. Freya has worked in a number of educational contexts including a Pupil Referral Unit, democratic schools, and residential camps. They are currently doing an ESRC-funded PhD at King's College London which focuses on participatory democracy in schools and its significance for social justice, particularly for marginalised students. Freya also teaches on the BA Social Science programme at King's, which is run along quasi-democratic lines.

Samira is a university student studying the BA Social Sciences programme at King's College London. Within the course she has been a facilitator for the Course Community Meetings (quasi-democratic meetings which students and staff use to discuss issues and make decisions about the programme). She has an interest towards inequalities within the education system and higher-education, particularly with reference to race and class. Samira has been working with Freya on a research project reviewing the Social Sciences programme at King's and how it is committed in trying to create social change and justice within the university landscape and beyond and the challenges faced when attempting to do so. Samira attended a comprehensive non-selective state school throughout her education, finding navigating her way through the education system to be difficult. She is therefore passionate about shifting the existing education paradigm.

The discussion is hosted by Rowan Salim, programs lead at Phoenix Education, founder and facilitator at Free We Grow, and supporter of the ecoversities network, where learners and communities are reclaiming diverse knowledges, relationships and imaginations to design new approaches to higher education.