The Pedagogy of Radical Change - by Spyros Themelis (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book discusses and compares how social movements in Brazil, Chile, Greece and England are beacons of alternative politics.

It focuses on the potential of these movements to radically transform higher education and society. It explores how social movements create new forms of resistance to the ubiquity of global capitalism and new forms of thinking, acting and being in the world that are not based on exploitation and profit. Rather, they are premised on respect for diversity, commitment to equality and inclusion, solidaristic structures and multiple and equally valued (pluriversal) epistemologies. The book draws on empirical material collected over 12 years in conversation with key participants in social movements including the Brazilian Movimiento de los Trabajadores Rurales Sin Tierra, Chilean and Greek Student movements, and the Black Lives Matter Movement in England. These movements confront the realist pedagogies in our lives, that is, the practices and structures that dominate the way society and education are organized. Realist pedagogies are juxtaposed with what the author calls pluriversal pedagogies, which are premised on horizontalism, democratic fellowship, solidarity, harmonious existence of humans and non-humans (a broadened sense of ubuntu) and prefigurative politics. These pluriversal pedagogies create emergent social relations that have the potential to deliver real alternatives for the majority of people in the global North and South. The book includes a foreword written by Antonia Darder and a preface by Rebecca Tarlau.

Review Quotes

In these precarious times, The Pedagogy of Radical Change underscores the urgency of resistance, reminding us that social movements are not relics of the past but vital forces shaping the future. Spyros Themelis offers a compelling testament to the necessity of collective struggle, demonstrating that in the face of rising authoritarianism, the fight for justice, education, and human dignity is more critical than ever.

In these pages, the struggle for a more just world is not an abstract ideal-it is already unfolding in classrooms, collectives, and movements worldwide that insist on the radical possibility of another future.

The Pedagogy of Radical Change is not merely an academic intervention; it is a battle cry, amplifying the voices of those who refuse to yield to the forces of neoliberalism and repression.

Themelis shows us how, in the midst of political crisis and economic austerity, new kinds of educational practice have emerged. He has written an invaluable history of the present - a committed and insightful analysis of movements for political and social change that are novel in their arguments and rich in their implications.

About the Author

Spyros Themelis is Associate Professor in Education at The University of East Anglia, UK.