Movements on the Streets and in Schools

Research links social movement and education, but almost no related studies address classroom practices. Oaxacan teachers in this ethnography are political and pedagogical pioneers who move between the streets and schools. Movements on the Streets and in Schools materializes from the practices of politics, in classrooms, manifestations and rural primaria communities, in a major migration-sending region of Southeastern Mexico. Movements on the Streets and in Schools theorizes teaching and activism in creative tension, with what Anna Tsing called friction of global connection. Using friction, three contentious concepts emerge: quality, patrimony and governability. Through the engaged universals of quality, patrimony and governability, the book thickly describes and analyzes how activism and teaching intertwine, on the city streets and in the rural schools. Here, teaching, between uprisings, police raids and austerity reforms reveals how operating critically transcends a centered critical project. For instance, quality, to the state and corporate philanthropists leads to standardization, but parents and pupils rally around quality education to demand learning-centered schools. Likewise, patrimony, may drive heritage for the tourist market; though patrimony also permits teachers to claim labor rights on historical grounds. Lastly, governability, an NGO imperative for Global Southern countries like Mexico, becomes pedagogical when the misrule of state authorities leads to police raids against teachers and cuts to public education. Movements on the Streets and in Schools is timely, as the activism-schooling nexus has just begun to generate interest with high profile events on and around campuses worldwide. Both pre- and in-service teachers, education activists, administrators, and professors alike will find this book essential in bringing activism into their classroom practices in a clear and cohesive manner.