The Ragged School Movement and the Education of the Poor in the Nineteenth Century

This is the work of D.H. Webster who wrote a thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Leicester, 1973. It remains an important historical document and analysis of the Ragged School and free education movement in Britain. It will be reproduced and published verbatim in installments for educational purposes to facilitate review and discussion about education. This post is the first part of the thesis where the references have been reproduced inline within the text.

Read more…

Critical Perspectives: Digital Technologies, Education and Sustainability

We live in an age of digital technology and year after year new infrastructure to support this gets laid out, economies expand based on these and new software tools are released into the wild made by tech developers trying to make a living. For many, digital technology has permeated every aspect of our lives as users, and if not as users then as people who have their lives shaped by other peoples use of digital technologies.

Read more…

Education as Pre-Political and The Living Curriculum

If we think of politic as involving the recruitment of support for a particular perspective, idea or project amongst a group of people – a polis – then the state of education can be understood as pre-political. This is in juxtaposition to indoctrination – the use of intrigue through rhetoric, eristics, misinformation and peer pressures. For the learner not having the sufficient knowledge on a given matter may be understood as in a pre-political state – undecided, uninformed, unaware. Read more…

Is Alternative Education The Route To Utopia? Alex Dunedin Responds to Hina Suleman’s Questions

This is a piece of writing where Alex Dunedin responds to Hina Suleman’s questions about whether alternative education is the route to Utopia. One of the joys of having been involved in doing Ragged University is getting to meet so many people who love learning and who are invested in analysing the differing aspects of doing education in various ways.  I had the pleasure of meeting the inspirational Hina Suleman at Liverpool John Moore’s University where she was involved in doing a session with students exploring ways of approaching teaching and learning. Read more…