What can we really learn

from Antonio Gramsci?

DSB October 2013 David Wilson, P.O. Organising

Andrew Baisley, Camden Division Secretary

Why Gramsci?

‘I have been influenced by the scrupulously researched findings of scientists such as Daniel T. Willingham and social scientists like the OECD's Andreas Schleicher who use evidence to make the case for education reform in an unanswerable fashion.

But two particular individuals have influenced me more than any others.

The Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci…..

…..and the reality television star Jade Goody.’

• Michael Gove, speech to the Social Market Foundation – 5th February 2013

Overview of workshop

• Experimental – trying to conceptualise the

changes happening around us to best counter

them

• Not about ‘conservative schooling for radical

politics’ debate

• Based upon discussion and dialogue, does not

presume any substantial knowledge of Gramsci

‘Hegemony’ and ‘common sense’

• What do we mean by ‘hegemony’? – A set of ideas produced by a dominant group (class) that informs

a coherent ‘world-view’. A world view that in many ways sets the

limit of everyday ‘common sense’. A set of ideas that inform the

reality of everyday experience and that therefore, to a large

extent, gain the lived consent of other groups (classes).

• Using this definition, what is the ‘common sense’

‘world-view’ of education pursued by dominant

political discourse?

The hegemony of GERM

• Global Education Reform Movement:

• GERM symptoms: – competition;

– choice;

– standardisation;

– test based accountability;

– performance related rewards

• Who’s spreading the GERM: – National governments;

– World Bank;

– OECD;

– private corporations

The ideological underpinnings of GERM:

The Chicago (School) connection

• Human capital (Gary Becker): ‘The economic success of individuals, and also whole

economies, depends on how extensively and effectively people invest in themselves’

– ‘Investment in learning in the 21st centaury is the equivalent of investment in the

machinery and technical innovation that was essential during the industrial

revolution. Then it was capital, now it is human capital’ DFE, 1996

• Social capital (James Coleman): it is the depth on an individuals social connections

that will assist in the development of their human capital and consequent social

mobility

• Monetarism (Milton Friedman): deregulated, privatised, competitive markets at all

levels of society create the conditions of social and economic advancement

Global hegemony of GERM

The goal: economic success in a global

economy

Economic success requires

educational success

PISA is the global measure of

education success

Therefore . . .focus on core subjects

. . . and test relentlessly

The winning of hegemony:

Consent and Coercion • ‘Welfare’: post-war to mid 1970s

• Professional autonomy / public trust

• Expansion of comprehensive education and ‘child centered’ learning

• National pay and conditions, supported by national collective bargaining: ‘a national system, locally administrated’

• Conflict and dislocation: mid 1970s to mid 1980s • Teacher autonomy under attack (William Tyndale)

• Teachers’ action: ‘the protracted dispute between 1984-86 must be seen not simply as a strike about pay, but as a watershed conflict over management and control of teachers and teaching’ (Ball, 1988)

• ‘Neo-liberal’ phase 1: 1988 - 1997 • Centralisation (National Curriculum; SATS; ‘league tables’ and de-centralisation

• Teacher unions seen as obstacle to reform and target of reform (‘Producer capture’ analysis)

• Narrative of ‘human capital’

• …a subtle set of linked measures are to be relied on to have the desired effect – that is to push the whole system towards a degree at least, of privatisation, establishing a base which could be further exploited later (Simon, 1987)

‘Neo-liberal’ phase 2: 1997 –today Fragmentation of education provision through ‘academies’ and ‘free schools’: marketisation and competition

End of national pay framework and introduction of performance related pay

Privatisation of education services

International ‘Global Education Reform Movement’

Counter-hegemony and ‘good

sense’

• NUT vision of education and our understanding of the social role of education is fundamentally opposed to the notion of education as exclusively developing ‘human capital’ for a neo-liberal market economy – and therefore potentially counter-hegemonic

• Is it possible/desirable to reach a pragmatic

compromise or do we develop a new type of (social movement) trade unionism?

• Another Chicago model….

The ‘scientific management’ of

teaching and the shaping of

common sense? • The freedom of teachers in their classrooms is a strongly held professional value in England and

Wales. It has always been a source of pride to the profession and a very proper one, that in this country the teacher has the inalienable right to decide what to teach and how to teach it.

– The Schoolmaster (1960)

• ‘You can't have room for innovation and the pressure for excellence without having some real discipline and some fear on the part of the providers that things may go wrong if they don't live up to the aims that society as a whole is demanding of them.’

Oliver Letwin, 2011

1. Identification of the ‘one best way’ through scientific analysis and

design of work

2. Identification features of the ideal worker – based on approach as per (1) above

3. Locate ideal worker (1) and match to scientifically designed task (2) recruitment and division of labour

4. Link pay to productivity – reward and control

The ‘contradictory

consciousness’ of teachers?

• Support in case of allegations (95% said very

important or important)

• Support in case of employment dispute (93%)

• Collective bargaining to improve pay and conditions

(87%)

• Wanting a strong collective voice for profession

(86%)

• Raising the professional status of teachers (80%)

• Campaigning on wider issues (70%) » Source: Collectivists, Functionalists & Critics: What do teachers think of their unions?

Loic Menzies (2012)

Building counter- hegemony: from

common sense to good sense • Common sense of NUT?

– Division: only structure needed

– Facilities time: absolutely key to the functioning of division

– Reps: can’t act as workplace leaders because….

– Members: are apathetic/ground down

– Alternative: there isn’t one

• Good sense of NUT? – Division: key unit but new structures needed to help rebuild activism in

fragmented environment

– Facilities time: to be fought for, but more people involved reduces reliance upon facilities time

– Reps: reps and school group can negotiate and represent themselves if trained and confident

– Members: will act collectively if they think their action will have an impact

– Alternative: there is one!

Winning hegemony: from

common sense to good sense

• Clear vision and strategy of getting there

• Process not event

• Discussion and practice: ‘show me’ not just

‘tell me’

• On-going and constant: hegemony is a lived

process and never complete

• Individual action is key: we need to find and

develop activists – ‘organic intellectuals’

The accumulation of ‘organic intellectuals’

• Fundamental aim is to find and develop a layer of reps and activists suitable to win members to our ‘world view’

• If the common sense of GERM is to fragment, atomise, and introduce competition then we need to counter this in practice: – Network our reps and activists in a way that makes

sense to them (clustering) • Break fragmentation • Mutual support • Collective identity and solidarity • New structures and ‘race to the top’

Praxis – the relationship between

our vision and our practice

• Important to have conceptualisation that informs

strategic vision

• Change only delivered in practice

• Need to build around specific objectives in

specific contexts – this does throw up ‘practical’

problems, but always need to reference back to

overarching aims and method

Finally….

‘Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will’