Demanding "Free and Emancipatory Education"?
First I noticed that with the beginning of the wave of occupations [mainly lecture halls at universities] two months ago the communication and exchange of information between various groups in different countries increased tremendously. I am convinced, that for the first time a rather big crowd of activists actually noticed, that there are also people in other countries struggling with the same problems - the increasing commercialisation and privatisation of public education.
And now? Many express their solidarity with the protests elsewhere, but there seems to be no real interest to really unite in the our struggle.
Why is that?
Well, I think that many groups still generally focus their main energy on expressing specific demands and directing them at politicians or those they deem to be responsible for certain problems. This keeps many from developing a real interest in global networking.
I think that itself is a big problem mainly due to two reasons:
- Activists, groups and movements indicate, that they don't see their protests as part of the global struggle. By directing demands towards some authority, these authorities are being legitimised and these authorities [usually a specific political party or head of university] are propagated to be the root of the problem.
- It indicates that the primary goal of achieving free and emancipatory education can be demanded from authorities, which of course can't. The education system is a stage for several interests, which partly contradict each other: economical interests, state interests and institutionalized religious interests for example. Emancipation enables people to live self-determined lives. Current dominant organized interest groups, such as the three mentioned before, want to influence and control the people by nature. Therefore we have contradicting interests [emancipation - control/power] here.
Therefore demanding emancipatory education makes no sense.
So this again indicates that many activists, groups or movements don't even struggle for emancipatory education, but are solely focussing on improving the "conditions within educational institutions" and lobbying against the introduction or increasing of tuition fees.
What can we conclude from this? Isn't there a fundamental conflict between groups who don't want to change society and the (economic and state) system [which is inevitable for free and emancipatory education], but merely lobby for "better conditions and less fees" [sometimes even arguing, that this is better for the "national economy"] and those who generally want to kick off a public discussion on the actual functions of so-called "education" [which nowadays is more like training] within society and whose interests are really reflected within current "education systems" [training systems] worldwide.
How can this be handeled? Ideas? Comments?
Reform or Replacement of the System
It seems your point is the education system is irreperably damaged and needs to be replaced. Lower tuition fees and improvements for student conditions are not enough to address the damage the system has caused and will perpetuate ad infinitum.
However "pro-administration" making demands of rights from authorities might seem, considering the situation at University of Berkeley, occupation and demonstrating are important steps.
As an outsider looking in, perhaps demanding rights from the authorities can be a catalyst for creating a dialogue which openly questions the merits of the current education system.
I've only recently become relatively informed of this movement, so excuse the naivete.
What conflict if it's impossible to identify groups
The above questions are very important to think about, and have to come up sooner or later in any studentmovement, or any social movement. In many struggles for better, equitable, socially beneficial and just conditions there seems to be a 'conflict' between those who merely want to improve conditions 'within the system' and those who wish to abolish and replace the current institutions themselves - the sooner the better. Nevertheless, there is not necessarily a 'fundamental conflict' between two 'groups' who use these different strategies, nor do these different strategies necessarily counteract each other. Because...
As it wouldn't make any sense to accuse a slave in the 18th century that by demanding more sleep at night he accepts and supports the rule of the slaveholder and doesn't want to abolish slavery, it neither makes any sense to accuse all who lobby for "better conditions and less fees" of not wanting to change society more profoundly.* In fact, to speak of two 'groups' who are in a 'fundamental conflict' would be like saying that slaves who demanded more sleep were in a fundamental conflict with the Quakers-movement who wanted to abolish slavery itself. It was probably not the love for slavery that prevented slaves from speaking out against it, but a lack of belief that it could be abolished any time soon. The same holds for the current student movement, in which many do not love the educational system per se, but do not dare to dream yet of more profound, radical changes within the educational system or even society in general. Those who DO feel a profound love for the fundamentals of the current educational system and the dominant institutions of today - the market, the neoliberal state and the lack of democracy - should be condemned of course. But it wouldn't be wise to group every student lobbying for less fees immediately in that category.
Speaking of two groups and a fundamental conflict between them is also unwise for another reason: because lobbying for small changes can in fact further the cause of abolishing institutions in the long run, though many would disagree. In fact, small successes of the studentmovement 'within the system' might encourage many to explore just how far their influence really reaches, only to find out that it doesn't reach far enough and come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with the fundamentals of the educational system itself, and perhaps even society. Though this doesn't happen automatically unfortunately...
How can this be handeled? The first thing is to not alienate fellow activists too soon, agree to disagree for the time being, and respect the activism of people with identical objectives - i.e. better, equitable, socially beneficial and just conditions. And THEN of course, if you are yourself (as i am) convinced of the need to change the educational system and society itself more profoundly, i'm confident that in a time and sphere of rebellion and resistance, alternative ideas about education or society in general will find some interested ears, as I have already noticed. That's the way we should handle things I think. And also remind people as much as we can that though small improvements should be aimed for, and small successes should be celebrated, we shouldn't let it weaken our movement by feeling overly satisfied and that it's about more than just fees and the economy.
*in no way would i compare our (students') misery with that of 18th century slaves. It's just an example to make a point.