Running Head: Antonio Gramsci and
Adult Peer Education: Speculative Currere
Antonio Gramsci and Adult Peer Education:
Speculative Currere
Joseph P. Zanoni
Abstract
Contemporary adult education approaches
to workplace health and safety identify worker leaders to take the roles
of peer educators to change behavior. In this speculative
essay I propose to link Antonio Gramsci’s theory to current practice and
develop a curriculum model with the goal of social transformation to achieve
justice for immigrant Latina/o workers. Gramsci’s
theoretical framework is presented and supported by the literature. In discussion additional areas for theoretical and practical
curriculum inquiry address three themes: a) a postmodern critique of criticism,
b) developing worker solidarity and c) a genealogy of Gramsci’s theories
of the organic intellectual and hegemony.
Antonio Gramsci and Adult Peer Education:
Speculative Currere
Critical educators live the journey
of their learning called currere in a critical re-constructionist
perspective (Schubert, 2003): to critically evaluate social conditions, they
challenge assumptions of social relations and make social action an essential
part of curriculum content. In the
Figure
1. Antonio Gramsci around
age 30 from the early 1920’s. Retrieved February 15,
2006, from http://www.italnet.nd.edu/gramsci/about_gramsci/photo_archive/index.html
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Communist
Leader (1891 to 1937) (see figure 1) who, through his writing, organizing
and political action, sought to transform the burgeoning capitalist industrial
economy of
I propose to create a Gramscian curriculum for peer educators to address levels of social organization in the workplace, with the primary position being the individual worker, moving to a small social group of workers and culminating with the collective, commune or community. In the curriculum, these positions may interrelate, with skill and capacity development taking place simultaneously on all levels, with the potential for positive outcomes on all, as well. I seek to show that specific concepts that Gramsci described may be intentionally assigned to one of these levels and to describe support in the literature for this approach. I introduce the concept of pseudo-hegemony or echogemony as a potential practice of peer educators that could disrupt dominant discourses to achieve progress in social justice. My hope is that this proposed currere will result in practical action that will benefit the work life of contemporary Latina/o immigrant workers. I present this idea later to stimulate thought about creating responses and action in adult education.
The daily economic activity or work
of adults at home or in a workplace is an important source of learning and
teaching as part of the non-school curriculum (Schubert, 1986). Gramsci recognized the learning potential of workers
and their need to organize themselves to overcome the adverse conditions
of work in the early development of Italian industrialization. He stated that workers are “continuously exposed to the
most deadly hazards” (Gramsci, 1988, p.83) and may lead an “uncertain and
precarious life” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 63); this situation currently exists
in the lives of many immigrant workers in the United States, particularly
day laborers--workers who stand on the street corner or participate in a
worker’s center each day to find employment (Valenzuela, Theodore, Melendez,
& Gonzalez, 2006, Buchanan, 2004, McCauley, 2005). Gramsci
held a positive view of the potential of workplace education when he recognized
that “workplaces where the producers live and function together will be the
centers of social organization” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 90) and that the shop
floor may be the “germ of true and effective labor legislation” (Gramsci,
1988, p. 91). In other words, in their workplaces,
workers may learn solidarity and create conditions to benefit themselves
and serve as models of practice for all.
Theoretical Framework
From the viewpoint of the worker,
Gramsci offers a goal of workplace education. He states
that the worker should become a “citizen of a wider world with whose other
citizens one needs to exchange ideas, hopes and sufferings” (Gramsci, 1988,
p. 68) and that part of critical workplace education is to prepare workers
to govern and rule. The result of the educational
process should be “to raise the intellectual level of ever-growing strata
of the populace” (Gramsci, 1971, p. 340) as a resource to enhance and accelerate
the process of social transformation. The ultimate
stage of this development he calls the creation of “collective man” (Gramsci,
1971, p. 242) where the worker realizes and acts in concert with the interests
of her class of workers.
Figure 2. Levels of workplace social organization
with Gramscian curriculum themes.
My contribution to a discourse reflecting
Gramsci’s work is to organize his theory into a curriculum model that considers
questions at three levels of social organization (See Figure 2). At the personal level, I propose that inquiry focus on
the development of the organic intellectual and the process of criticizing
her own conception of the world. The next level, the
social work group, addresses the philosophy of praxis and deconstructing
the binaries of common sense and good sense. The final
level, the commune, considers hegemony and the war of position surrounding
this process with the ultimate result establishing the identity of the collective
man (person).
Organic Intellectual
In considering workplace peer educators and their role we need to examine Gramsci’s concept of the “organic intellectual” (Mayo, 1999, p. 41); Gramsci describes the “organic quality (organicita’) of intellectual strata” (1971, p. 11). Intellectuals in Gramsci’s view are the basis of critical consciousness of workers and the catalyst of social transformation. Critical consciousness may be defined as the ability a) to receive information, messages or to perceive conditions, b) to consider this information in terms of “what does this mean for me” regarding impact and consequences for self and others, c) to criticize this elucidating the social conditions underlying the force of this message and d) to generate actions meant to both educate and respond in a way that brings power to self and others.
Workers have natural intellectual powers and through experience and praxis develop ideas and positions to distinguish themselves and influence others. He emphasizes this by saying:
Every social group, coming into
existence on the original terrain of an essential function in the world of
economic production,
creates together with itself, organically,
one or more strata of intellectuals which give it homogeneity and an awareness
of its
own function not only in the economic
but also in the social and political fields. (Gramsci, 1971, p. 5)
Gramsci presented positive views toward which organic intellectuals may strive and negative views they should avoid. His images include: “exist as an element of order” (Gramsci, 1971, p. 59), “be your own guide” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 325), “breathe-in” (Gramsci, 1971, p.31) the beliefs and attitudes that empower your development and action, “rousing himself from a fatigue that brutalizes” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 91), do not allow will, intelligence and awareness to “run along the tracks to a predetermined station” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 64), “not to be afraid of monsters” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 74), and “refuse to accept from outside the molding of one’s personality” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 325). Adult educators and workers may use these images for consideration and reflection about the intention and meaning of Gramsci.
Criticize Conception of the World
Peer educators lead the development
of critical consciousness. Gramsci states “to criticize
one’s own conception of the world means therefore to make it a coherent unity
and to raise it to the level reached by the most advanced thought in the
world” (1971, p. 324). Posed as a question Gramsci
asks:
Or is it better to work out consciously
and critically one’s own conception of the world and thus, in connection
with the
labors of one’s own brain, choose
one’s sphere of activity, take an active part in the creation of the history
of the world, be
one’s own guide, refusing to accept
passively and supinely from the outside the moulding of one’s personality?
(1988, p. 325)
Gramsci looks at the process of
social development and recognizes that we enter the
workplace influenced by what was current at the time of our initial education
and life experience. However one may also see the
worker’s self-perception and assumptions about work as essentially creating
and enforcing the domination of workers by those of wealth and power. Gramsci encourages us to ask ourselves “of what historical
type is the conformism, the mass humanity, to which one belongs” (1971, p.
324).
On the personal level he states
that the worker may become “alert gradually and gently, falling into error
and pulling himself up, taking wrong turns and come back on course” (Gramsci,
1988, p. 65). Here one sees a very natural process
of accepting and recognizing the exploration that workers must make on a
personal level when encountering workplace programs led by peer educators. Taking Gramsci to heart, peer educators would not to be
discouraged with the wrong turns that co-workers make, but be ready to begin
a discussion or analysis of actions and their outcome or support co-workers
to come back on “course” when they reach that moment in their learning. What “on course” means may also be constructed by the
group and their joint learning. There may be friction
in this process but in a positive way this may result in heat and light. At one point Gramsci talks about adult education and says
it should be a “cultural heat source, provided that it is alive and really
gives off heat” (1988, p. 65).
Philosophy of Praxis
Gramsci
believed in praxis, which may be described as applying a theory to a practical
situation through action and reflection. Gramsci’s
code for communism in his Prison Notebooks, intended to neutralize communism
in the eyes of the prison censor, was “philosophy of praxis” (1988, p. 333). He describes the social dynamic of praxis in this way:
“Some part of even a subaltern mass is always directive and responsible,
and the philosophy of the part always precedes the philosophy of the whole,
not only as its theoretical anticipation but also as a necessity of real
life” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 337).
Peer educators have multiple identities,
with at least two being a leader and a worker, simultaneously. Gramsci identifies these roles when he describes the opportunity
peer educators have in praxis: “It is an invitation to the best and most
conscious workers to reflect on the problem and collaborate—each in the sphere
of his own competence and activity—toward its solution, focusing the attention
of their comrades and associates on it” (1988, p. 79). Where
do they begin? To elaborate on a philosophy of praxis,
Gramsci describes the role of the philosopher: “…it is necessary to take
one’s starting point what the student already knows and his philosophical
experience (having first demonstrated to him precisely that he has such an
experience, that he is a ‘philosopher’ without knowing it)’ (1971, p. 424). Gramsci shows us the multiple processes of internal contemplation,
social interaction around the problem or goal, and the savvy of these workers
to direct the mental awareness and will of their co-workers. One may ask: what does he mean by ‘conscious?’ He may refer to the awareness of the collective or the
goal of communism; we may consider postmodern reflections on what this term
would mean today.
Gramsci asks an important question
of the praxis of organic intellectuals or, in this application, peer educators,
which further describes their role: “Have they become skilled in identifying
the deepest hidden feelings that move the popular mind, and the negative
feelings, the inhibiting forces that fatigue and immobilize the most generous
and daring impulses?” (1988, p. 101). Gramsci provides an outline for curriculum
inquiry and skill development of organic intellectuals that may be tested
qualitatively with workers.
In terms of the workgroup, Gramsci
constructs praxis as epistemology:
It is acquired by the collective
organism through ‘active and conscious co-participation’, through ‘compassionality,’
through
experience of immediate particulars,
through a system which one could call ‘living philosophy.’ In this way a
close link is
formed between the great mass, party
and leading group; and the whole complex, thus articulated can move together
as
‘collective man.’” (1971, p. 429)
At this level, adult learning theory
validates his direction and peer educators should discuss and consider how
co-workers would be active: the meaning of consciousness to them and how
they will co-participate in the education process.
Common Sense and Good Sense
“Common sense” and “good sense”
are evocative themes that Gramsci describes. While
presented as a binary by Gramsci, I propose to deconstruct this duality thorough
curriculum inquiry that addresses the multiple viewpoints critical of common
sense and establishing the definition of good sense. Gramsci
describes them in this way:
One can see from these examples
that the terms have a quite precise meaning: that of overcoming bestial and
elemental passions through a conception of necessity which gives a conscious
direction to one’s activity. This is the healthy nucleus
that exists in ‘common sense’ and the part of it which can be called ‘good
sense’ and which deserves to be made more unitary and coherent. (1971, p. 328)
The development of solidarity in
the work group is essential to the process of transformation. Gramsci states: “The principles of combination and solidarity
become paramount for the working class; they transform the mentality and
way of life of the workers and peasants” (1988, p. 83). On the topic of solidarity
Gramsci links solidarity and praxis: “Only common solidarity in a work of
clarification, persuasion and mutual education will produce concrete constructive
action” (1988, p. 79). In another place Gramsci states: “to tell the truth,
to arrive at the truth together, is a communist and revolutionary act” (1988,
p. 82). In terms of curriculum Gramsci guides us to
consider the importance of developing solidarity in the efforts of organic
intellectuals-peer educators in the setting of workplace social groups.
Collective Man
Addressing the final level of curriculum
inquiry, the collective man, Gramsci proposes a question for consideration:
“But how will each single individual succeed in incorporating himself into
the collective man, and how will educative pressure be applied to single individuals
so as to obtain their consent and their collaboration, turning necessity
and coercion into ‘freedom?’” (1971, p. 242).
Gramsci
believed that organic intellectuals have a strong role in this process and
that they “arise directly out of the masses but remain in contact with them
to become, as it were, the whalebone in the corset” (1971, p. 340). Positively, he also states:
An historical act can only be performed
by ‘collective man,’ and this presupposes the attainment of a ‘cultural-social’
unity through which a multiplicity of dispersed wills, with heterogeneous
aims, are welded together with a single aim, on the basis of equal and common
conception of the world, both general and particular, operating in transitory
bursts (in emotional ways) or permanently, where the intellectual base is
so well rooted, assimilated and experienced that it becomes passion. (Gramsci,
1971, p. 349).
Hegemony
Concluding my review of Gramsci’s
theoretical framework, I present the idea which organizes a Gramscian peer
education curriculum: the relationship between hegemony and education. Gramsci states:
Every relationship of ‘hegemony’ is necessarily an educational relationship and occurs not only within a nation, between the various forces of which the nation is composed, but in the international and world-wide field, between the complexities of national and continental civilizations” (1971, p. 350).
Gramsci identifies educational relationships
as central to the process of learning one’s place in the economic system
and the world. This awareness leads to hope that if
a worker learns her place, she may also learn to criticize her place and
collectively create a new place or new economic order. Gramsci
presciently alludes to the global economy which supports my urgency in developing
curriculum with Latina/o immigrants.
Literature Review
Curriculum theorists reflect upon
Gramsci’s theories and provide insight into the model of curriculum that
I propose. I present their ideas in accordance with
the levels of a) the personal: addressing the organic intellectual and the
critical perspective, b) the group: pertaining to praxis and common/good
sense and c) the commune: related to the collective man and hegemony.
As a starting
point it is important to recognize that worker education is essential to
create a social movement. W. J. Morgan describes Gramsci’s
belief in this way: “…he was convinced of the capacity of working people,
flesh and blood men and women, to educate themselves into a position of culture
and political autonomy. The objective was the creation
of a collective and decisive belief in the possibilities of revolutionary
change”(2002, p. 256). Peter Mayo describes Gramsci’s
focus on the factory councils of
In the revolutionary climate that
prevailed in Turin prior to the Fascist takeover, Gramsci’s Ordine Nuovo
group directed a lot of its energies towards the factory council movement,
which was, in effect, conceived of as an adult education movement through
which workers were ‘educated’ as producers rather than simply as ‘wage earners’
28 and initiated into the process of industrial democracy. (1999,
p. 39)
This learning is not limited to
the workplace but may extend to social locations as well.
Mayo continues:
For Gramsci, therefore, transformative
education can take place in a variety of sites of social practice, and this
strikes me as
being well within the tradition
of radical, non-formal adult education, particularly the tradition which incorporates
the efforts
of social-change-oriented movements.
(1999, p. 45)
Organic Intellectual
Organic
intellectuals may be manifest as peer educators, though it is interesting
to consider the difference between developing a person as a peer educator
and for that person to act in the role of an organic intellectual in the
outcome of a curriculum. Gramsci had a vision for
their role. Henry Giroux states:
Gramsci’s concern with the formation
and responsibility of intellectuals stems from the recognition that they
are not only central to fostering critical consciousness, demystifying dominant
social relations and disrupting common sense, but also for situating political
education in the context of a more comprehensive project aimed at the liberation
of the oppressed as historical agents within the framework of a revolutionary
culture. (2002, p. 60)
Stated another way, while a peer
educator may simply communicate information to co-workers in adult education
activities, an organic intellectual will use the opportunity of learning
from individual skill development or behavior change to group consciousness
and action. How these organic intellectual skills
are described and taught are an important element of a Gramscian curriculum
for peer educators.
Michael
Apple describes the role of “organic intellectuals” in this way:
Consequently, what I am arguing for here is a redefinition of our situations, a redefinition that recognizes not the ideologically laden ideal of the unattached intellectual but instead one that takes seriously the passionate involvement Gramsci called for in this notion of the organic intellectual who actively participates in the struggle against hegemony. (2004, p. 156)
Peer
educators are utilized in many public health workplace intervention programs
(Forst, 2004) and are effective, in part, due to their credibility with their
co-workers or social group. Peter McLaren, Gustavo
Fischman, Silvia Serra and Estanislao Antelo speak to the core of peer educators
credibility: “In other words, Gramsci believed that intellectuals need to
develop not only intellectual capital to distribute to the masses, but also
the social capital of trust and collective will necessary to bring about
community-based liberatory praxis (Richards, 1998)” (2002, p. 164). Gramsci views the identity development of organic intellectuals
as key to social transformation. Raymond A. Morrow
and Carlos Alberto Torres describe this by saying: “On those who can rationally
grasp and reflect upon their social and political everyday lives—as reflective
citizens—will be able to form an effective democratic movement, let alone
an autonomous personal identify (Torres, 1998)” (2002, p. 184).
Criticize Conception of the World
The
critical perspective asks participants to consider and examine experience
with a goal of weighing the price or outcome of any activity with costs to
the weakest and most vulnerable and measured with success or failure to meet
the highest goals of social justice. Peter McLaren,
et al., state: “What must serve as the genesis of such an understanding is
an unwavering commitment to the struggle against injustice” (2002, p. 172). Paula Allman describes this approach: “Critical/revolutionary
praxis involves becoming critically aware of these fundamental social relations
and actively planning and engaging in the various forms of action that could
lead to their abolition (Allman, 1999)” (2002, p. 203).
Attilio Monasta shows us one origin
of this conception:
In acquiring one’s conception of the world, one always belongs to a particular grouping – that of all the social elements which share the same mode of thinking and behaving. We are all conformists of some conformity or other, always the person-on-the-street or collective human being. The question is: of what historical type is the conformity, the human mass, to which we belong? (2002, p. 77).
What
is the content of critical curriculum? Mayo suggests:
The realm of everyday experience,
characterized by ‘taken for granted’ notions, becomes part of the focus in
a process of transformative adult education. In an
age characterized by the intensifying globalisation of capital, these notions
would include the prevalent ideology of consumerism 20 and the
marketplace, whereby even some of the most basic services are turned from
a public good to a ‘consumption good’. This ‘everyday
experience’ is evoked through a dialogical process that entails the means
of ‘extraordinarily re-experiencing the ordinary’21 it is not
celebrated uncritically but rather interrogated. (1999, p. 131).
William
Doll provides an explanation of the pragmatic aspects of Gramsci’s curriculum
task to criticize one’s conception of the world:
In such a reflective and transformative
frame, a student’s present experiences are seen in terms both of themselves
and of future possibilities. These possibilities will
emerge only if the process of reflection is critical, public
and communal. These three attributes
cannot be overemphasized; they act not only as attributes defining (reflective)
process, but also as ideal characteristics for classroom curricula. Dewey believed classrooms could be communal, places where
‘had’ experiences could be openly analyzed and transformed; not a competitive
environment where right is pitted against wrong, but one where, through mutual
cooperation, students and teachers explore alternatives, consequences, assumptions. This communal and public exploration is done in a critical
and rigorous yet sympathetic manner. Ideas are put
forward for the purpose of exploration, to be part of the recursive process. Undoubtedly such will require a new concept of what it
means to be a student as well as to be a teacher. (1993, p. 142)
Doll encourages one to take the
next step in applying this communal critique to the workplace, extrapolating
that what will also be required is a new concept of worker and employer,
concepts that are well supported by Gramsci.
Philosophy of Praxis
Praxis is well described and utilized
in curriculum inquiry particularly participatory action research with its
cycles of action and reflection as a form of praxis (Stringer, 2004, Arnold,
Burke, James, Martin, & Thomas, 1991). The roles
of peer educator and facilitator of the praxis will be elaborated as we explore
Gramsci’s viewpoint. One may think of philosopher
and educational theorist John Dewey in this regard with his recommendation
for students to move from the psychological, their familiar and personal
reference, to the logical (Schubert, 2003), what Gramsci will call the transition
from common sense to good sense which is an essential curriculum question
of praxis. Diana Coben describes this conception as a starting point: “At
an individual level, the development of good sense entails criticizing one’s
own conception of the world in order to make it ‘a coherent unit and to raise
it to the level reached by the most advanced thought in the world’ (Gramsci,
SPN, p. 324), in other words, Marxism (or good sense)” (2002, p. 271).
Common Sense and Good Sense
Peter Mayo describes the role of
organic intellectuals in posing the problem of common and good sense, “He
(Gramsci) regarded it as incumbent on these intellectuals to direct the masses,
tutoring that which is ‘positive’ about their ‘common sense’ with a view
of transforming it into ‘good sense’” (1999, p. 87). This is a key distinction
for Gramsci and a possible objective for a curriculum of transformation. Mayo elaborates by stating: “Good sense is ‘practical
empirical common sense’ – that is to say, common sense devoid of its contradictory,
wayward elements and rendered into a systematic and coherent view” (1999,
p. 87). Paula Allman comments on this distinction:
After arguing that everyone is a philosopher because he or she holds a conception of the world, he suggests that we all need to move away from thinking in the fragmented way, which is characteristic of common sense and that we should never accept uncritically ideas imposed on us by external sources. What we think should be the result of what we have worked out for ourselves consciously and critically (Gramsci, SPN, p. 323-24). Later he establishes the relationship between philosophy and common sense. He says that philosophy (and it is clear that he is talking about the ‘philosophy of praxis’) involves the critique of common sense; and in this respect ‘good’ sense rather than ‘common’ sense (Gramsci, SPN, p. 326)”. (2002, p. 210).
Diana Coben considers Gramsci’s
view of good sense: “Good sense is analogous to philosophy, in that it is
inherently coherent and critical” (2002, p. 269). She
continues elaboration on this theme and provides a great image of this process. “Gramsci envisages the individual ‘musician’ as the microcosm
and the ‘orchestra’—the group—as the macrocosm. The
process is the same in both cases: it is a process of bringing order (good
sense) out of chaos (common sense)” (2002, p. 272). The
process of worker-led education can sound off key, atonal, harsh and messy,
but it may be taken so differently, developmentally, to recognize this stage
in development as natural and has having direction toward a greater good. Tuning up may lead to making beautiful music together. This messy activity reminds me of a presentation I made
on the process of facilitating Freire-inspired adult education and examining
the facilitator’s anxiety of “losing control” of the session (Zanoni, 2002). While this may be a natural response of the facilitator,
it may not be inherently negative in that we saw it as a developmental stage
of the group experiencing the learning. These group developmental stages
may be another element of curriculum inquiry with organic intellectuals. In the musical theme, this discussion struck a chord with
the community of adult educators who wanted to explore these ideas further.
Where does common sense come from
and why does it matter? Gramsci speaks of folklore
as an amalgam of inherited concepts about life, world and location. Diana Coben states: “The exploration of folklore, then,
is represented by Gramsci as an archeological endeavor, a process of uncovering
the remains of the common sense of past ages” (2002, p. 268). W. J. Morgan brings us to the workers’ present moment
by describing the hegemonic impact of popular culture: “…this cultural web,
a product of history, is presented as a common sense, even a natural condition. In class societies it serves to hide the realities of
inequality and domination or to present them as necessary and even desirable”
(2002, p. 245). What comes to mind is the driver of
‘global competition’ as a motivation for social policy decisions or justifications
for political actions. This is seen as natural according
to Morgan, but it is important to develop critical capacity to analyze this
because common sense is sedimented with the dominant views or hegemony.
How does the peer educator teach? Peter Mayo suggests:
On the contrary, every effort is
made to promulgate democratic social relations and to render the learners
the ‘subject’ of the
learning process.
The culture of the learner makes its presence felt through a dialogical
teaching process. The educator’s task
is to facilitate the means whereby
this culture is examined critically by the learners themselves, so that the
‘common sense’ is
converted to ‘good sense.’” (1999,
p. 138)
Henry Giroux emphasizes expectations
for these same peer educators: “Gramsci’s emphasis on the importance of culture
and pedagogy in shaping a social subject, rather than on adaptive, depoliticized
consuming subject, provided the context for his insistence on the importance
of skills, rigor, discipline and hard work” ( 2002, p. 58).
Hegemony
One of Gramsci’s key contributions
was to identify and elucidate the process by which capitalists persuade workers
and others to acquiesce and participate in their own economic domination
as hegemony. Peter Mayo states:
Hegemony has been defined, in the
strictly Gramscian sense, ‘as a social condition in which all aspects of
social reality are dominated by or supportive of a single class’ 3
… I would substitute the phrase ‘dominant groups’ for a ‘single class.’ I do this to stress the multiple facets of power (not
necessarily unrelated) in a given society. (1999, p. 35)
Carmel Borg, Joseph Buttigieg and
Peter Mayo further describe hegemony in this way: “… the modern State derives
its strength from and is protected by something far more formidable than
fire power, namely its powers and mechanisms of persuasion” (2002, p. 7). McLaren, et al., emphasize this by stating:
Gramsci underscored the fact that
to obtain hegemonic power, a dominant class or class alliance necessarily
requires two forms
of control: coercion (sustained politically
regulated repression) and consent. These forms of
control work together to
stipulate an ethical domain tied
to the forces of production. (2002, p. 155)
Gramsci inspires us to consider
that while workers have learned to live under this domination they may, through
critical praxis, learn hegemonic, counter hegemonic or what I propose may
be pseudo-hegemonic/echogemonic approaches to work and life.
The essential question of curriculum
inquiry is: how do dominant groups teach workers to create identity in a
way that maintains power and dominance. W. J. Morgan
provides insightful reflection on this process:
For example, an important feature
of such a dominant culture is the presentation of a partisan version of history,
which Raymond Williams refers to as selective tradition.
The invention of tradition also plays a significant role (Hobswin
and Ranger, 1983). Such a version is based on events
and personalities significant to the dominant class and evolves meanings,
attitudes and forms or discourse that are conveyed successfully to the subaltern
classes whose experience is profoundly different. The
key concept here is the apparently successful separation of meaning from
experience. (2002, p. 245)
Hegemony is effective because this
“successful separation”, the contradiction, is so effective for masses of
people and that the separation benefits increasingly fewer who concentrate
wealth and power. Morgan does give hope for a way
out that Gramsci sees as being led by the organic intellectuals or what I
call peer educators who may be organized to lead education in a way that criticizes
hegemony.
Further, one should not dismiss
as hopelessly passive and ignorant those who appear to absorb the dominant
culture, even when they do not share in its production. They
too are individuals who ‘possess among other things consciousness and therefore
think’ (Marx and Engles, 1970, p. 64: Roseberry, 1992, p. 32). As the personal histories of Gramsci and Williams illustrate
so powerfully, the separation of meaning from experience is not always successful. Though this may not necessarily be significant, it may
prove to be so at moments of crisis or when its realization has reached a
critical mass. It is then that the hegemonic culture
may falter, its class basis exposed to view. (2002, p. 245)
What are organic intellectuals up
against? Dominant hegemony may seem redundant, but
it is fascinating to consider that hegemony is not settled once and for all
but constantly in flux, in a state of homeostasis, and this kernel of insight
is what motivates the socialist project. Culture is
not trivial, it is essential to the persuasive power of hegemony. Borg, et al., explain:
Cultural activity, in the broadest
sense of the term, also stimulates new thinking among privileged echelons
of society, enables them to address new problems, permits them to remain
attuned to the demands and aspirations of all segments of society; in short,
it reinforces the ability of the leading groups to look beyond their narrow
corporate self-interest and, hence, to extend their reach and influence over
the rest of society. Hegemony, as Gramsci conceives
it is ‘an educational rapport’. (2002, p. 8)
The status quo is maintained by
unexamined and unconscious action. Paula Allman explains:
People engaged in reproductive praxis
are born into certain social relations, modes of existence, which they accept
as natural, even inevitable. They fail to question
these and, therefore reproduce the type of consciousness and conditions of
social being that are already in existence. (2002,
p. 203)
Peter
McLaren, et al., provide us with the opening that subaltern, Gramsci’s term
for the economic underclass, have in the continuous
flux of
hegemony:
Because they are dynamic and not
static relationships they admit the possibility of rearticulation into alternative
or counterhegemonic practices. We must not forget
Gramsci’s firm conviction that ‘ordinary men and women could be educated into
understanding the coercive and persuasive power of capitalist hegemony over
them’ (Brosio, 1994, p. 49-50)”. (2002, p. 156)
Peter Mayo states: “in situations
governed by extreme repression there may be spaces which allow for resistance. Transformative pedagogy can occupy these spaces as part
of a Gramscian ‘war of position’, thereby countering the prevailing domesticating
practices with liberatory forms of resistance” (1999, p. 175). McLaren, et. al., further describe this process by stating:
“The role of the organic intellectual was to mediate between the good sense
of subaltern groups and the formation of a counter hegemonic consciousness
able to read the contextually specific and historically conjunctural contradictions
that suffuse the social formation” (2002, p. 166). This
is another opportunity for curriculum development where facilitators may
assist organic intellectuals in recognizing and developing action.
Collective Man
Social transformation is the key
outcome of popular education approaches created by Paolo Freire (1971), Miles
Horton and many others. Peter Mayo, in considering
both Freire and Gramsci states “The respective ideas of the two writers are
therefore informed by an overarching vision of social transformation – a
transformation into a society devoid of all forms of structural and symbolic
violence” (1999, p. 82). Borg, et al., state that
Gramsci believed in “the transformative power of ideas, the capacity to bring
about radical social change and construct a new order through elaboration
and dissemination of a new philosophy, an alternative world view” (2002,
p. 7). D. W. Livingstone describes Gramsci’s conviction
in this way:
But Gramsci’s insistence on the centrality
of working-class self activity by organic intellectuals, and his equal insistence
on the massive difficulties posed by bourgeois ideological hegemony, continue
to offer a fruitful starting point for contributing to the democratic transformation
of capitalist societies. (2002, p. 237)
The movement
toward the collective man that Gramsci envisions will manifest in changing
social relations. Peter Mayo asks us to
consider
the nature of social relationship in transformative adult education and Gramsci
provides a description that crystallizes the
relations
of popular education: “The relationship between teacher and pupil is active
and reciprocal so that every teacher is always a
pupil
and every pupil a teacher” (Gramsci, 1988, p. 350). Mayo
continues to elaborate by saying:
Gramsci argues that there cannot
be a passive learner, a ‘mechanical’ recipient of abstract knowledge. Gramsci argues that knowledge is assimilated according
to the learner’s consciousness which ‘reflects the sector of civil society
in which the child participates’ and the social and cultural relations to
which the learner is exposed. 116 At issue here is the manner in which meaning is circulated,
mediated and assimilated. (1999, p.100)
Discussion
Organic intellectuals embark on
a journey of identity formation, primarily for themselves but also then for
their work group. The process of identity development
is the focus of curriculum theorists with a wide range of philosophical perspectives. Maxine Greene takes an existential and phenomenological
approach to this inquiry; Madeleine Grumet and William Pinar explore identity
through autobiography. Pinar describes others who
address identity and who challenge a political view of curriculum such as
C.A. Bowers, whose own work seeks to understand the development of identify
in a social context (1995), that is how individual identity is shaped in
terms of the social group.
It is interesting to consider world
view in the context of identity development, especially with theorists who
challenge the critical paradigm. Politics and power
are essential in an analysis of adult workplace education so I rely upon
a political perspective in my speculation about curriculum. While identify formation through curriculum may have a
focus on individual development and reflection such as Pinar describes in
his method of currere, I strive to focus on how the organic
intellectual may develop a personal identify that is social and relates to
the progress of a specific social group. Furthermore
I seek to explore identity in terms of social or group currere,
which I see as an essential step in moving Latina/o immigrants toward achieving
social justice.
It
may be interesting to consider from a practical viewpoint how workers may
challenge and critique hegemony. From a view of resistance
we may describe the action as counter-hegemonic. This
is the area of critique, going against the grain. It
has been observed that Gramsci never talked about counter-hegemony per se,
which may lead us to consider various responses to critique, one meaning
being “I am creating my own persuasive viewpoint”. One
view is to consider that the process of hegemony exists no matter whose hegemony
is presented. My reading of Gramsci is that he wants
workers to create “our hegemony,” their own world view essentially created
with themselves as the locus of power that may become dominate through social
transformation. It will then need to flex and stretch
in its own homeostasis, however grounded in the principles of justice and
democracy.
One may consider in this direction
the role of pseudo-hegemony or echogemony as a strategy for reaching out
through the culture. Pseudo-hegemony or echogemony
may be described as being so close to the dominant view that it sails close
to, but over, the net of the dominant relations to reach and stimulate others
who are ready and able to consider, act and create other hegemonies to gain
field in the struggle for dominance. In this speculation
it may also be useful to examine or “weaken” as Gianni Vattimo (2002) may
describe, the binary of hegemony-counter-hegemony to create effective processes
for social transformation.
What is worthwhile about these reflections? William Schubert (1986) would ask us to consider what
is worthwhile about this curriculum inquiry? This
speculative essay is directed to all who are practitioners, adult educators
and workers. In creating a map of curriculum locations,
one may consider adult education as an area for continued theoretical consideration
and development. In terms of health and safety and
curriculum, traditional work is directed toward teaching workers and employers
principles of industrial hygiene and the legal framework of rights and responsibilities
regarding occupational health in the workplace.
What is new about what I propose
here is to use Antonio Gramsci’s potent theories to inspire recursive waves of speculation and trial of curriculum
in adult education with possible benefits including worker choices in occupational
risk reduction and local or global social transformation.
I propose to utilize these speculations in a pilot project with worker’s
centers in
Diana Coben describes Gramsci’s contribution
to this process and a reflection of the state of workplace adult education
by saying “It also necessarily involves translation from political philosophy
to educational theory in a field (the education of adults) that is acknowledged
to be undertheorized (Field, et al., 1991), and whose practitioners do not
necessarily share Gramsci’s political aims” (2002, p. 285). At this point I would like to outline additional areas
for theoretical and practical curriculum inquiry addressing three themes:
a) a postmodern critique of criticism , b) the development of solidarity
and c) a genealogy of Gramsci’s theories relating to the organic intellectual
and hegemony.
A Postmodern Critique of Criticism
A post-modern perspective would
guide us to acknowledge that the political viewpoint of social reconstructionists
or Marxists is only one way that curriculum may be studied. This being said, it seems that a political perspective
is useful when we consider the work life of immigrant workers and day laborers
with their experience of death, injury and illness, and lack of workplace
safety education. While Marxism may be challenged
as a totalizing narrative, one may shift this criticism to consider not Marxism
abstractly but the praxis that is evident in communist and socialist societies
or groups that are directed by Marxist principles. In
a worker’s mind “good sense” may not equal communism and it seems that an
organic intellectual-peer educator curriculum would be better served by creating
activities to explore the meaning and construction of “good sense” than to
define it only as Gramsci did, meaning communism. Furthermore William Watkins (2005) describes a Marxian
and radical reconstrucionist analysis of American education from an African
American perspective and his viewpoint may move this speculation forward
in terms of considering Gramsci’s Marxism in terms of Latina/os.
In exploring the relation of the
post-modern perspective to Gramsci I was struck by
William Doll’s work and believe there may be many fruitful connections between
Doll’s “4-Rs”: richness, recursion, relations and rigor and a Gramscian curriculum;
Doll states: “Curriculum’s role, as process, is to help us negotiate these
passages; toward this end it should be rich, recursive, relational
and rigorous” (1993, p. 156). To me, richness
means the messiness of workers’ lived experience and praxis. Recursion means examining and reflecting on life in a
way to develop critical consciousness, analyzing hegemony and the material
and social basis for work. Relations are the democratic
social relations and the relationship between teacher and pupil—in this case,
the organic intellectual and workers--that Gramsci describes as key to development. Finally rigor means to be disciplined, which Gramsci valued
highly for organic intellectuals.
Other theorists to consider to enhance
a post-modern view of this speculation include William B. Stanley (1992) regarding
postmodern reflections on curriculum reconstructionism , and Michel Foucault
(1972) regarding the consonance of Gramsci’s organic intellectuals and Foucault’s
specific intellectuals. An exploration of Gianni Vattimo’s
(2002) weak thought and the “ontology of weakness” (p. 452) offers an Italian
vision of post-modern deconstruction that would enrich this speculation.
The Development of Solidarity
In the development of the organic
intellectual as differentiated from peer educators, I believe there are unique
skills that they will need to encourage solidarity and social thinking among
their peer workers. This social focus may have be
a part of the social behaviorist perspective, but a unique aspect of it. Much of current adult education curriculum focuses on
individual behavior change, even if it is presented in small group activities.
I believe Western capitalist cultural
orientation promotes the hegemony of individualism and competition, I ask:
does a curriculum creator even know how workers function in a social group
and how to encourage adults to observe and act in ways that impact this group? Curriculum inquiry may look at how leaders develop and
how to encourage and conduct praxis in the area of social thinking and solidarity. In this case the work of curriculum theorists John Dewey,
Alice Miel, Louise Berman, and William Stanley may offer much in exploring
the development of these key capacities since, in their own ways, they recognized
the importance of social learning and interaction for the individual.
Working with Latina/o immigrants
may offer a unique perspective regarding social consciousness and solidarity. These migrants may have unique values and expectations
related to social groups that they have learned in their country of origin
that diverge from the traditional cultural model in force in the
A Gramscian Genealogy
A
genealogy of Gramsci’s thought would also shed much light in this speculation
and I would begin this exploration with Italian theorists—Mario
Alighiero Manacorda, Giovanni Urbani, Angelo Broccoli and British theorists—Harold
Entwhistle and Raymond Williams who have written on alternative pedagogy,
education and hegemony and the formation of man. A
fruitful discussion and exposition of essential themes, convergences and conflicts
would greatly enrich this speculation.
From the despair of imprisonment
and defeat of communism in
In other words, we must form some
idea of nature and its laws in order to come to know the laws governing the
mind. And we
must learn all of this without losing
sight of the ultimate aim: to know oneself better through others and to know
others better
through oneself. (1988, p. 59)
References
Allman, P. (2002). Antonio Gramsci’s
Contributions to Radical Adult Education. In C. Borg, J. Buttigieg, &
P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci
and
Education (pp. 201-218).
Apple, M. (2004). Ideology
and Curriculum.
Arnold, R., Burke, B., James, C.,
Martin, D., & Thomas, B. (1991). Educating
for a Change.
Lines and Doris Marshall Institute.
Borg, C., Buttigieg, J. & Mayo,
P. (Eds.). (2002) Gramsci and Education. Lanham, MD;
Rowman and Littlefield.
Buchanan, S. (2004). Day Labor and Occupational Health: Time to take a closer
look.
New Solutions: A
Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health, 14, 253-260.
Coben, D. (2002). Metaphors for
an Educative Politics: “Common Sense,” “Good Sense,” and Educating Adults.
In C. Borg, J.
Buttigieg, & P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci and Education (pp. 263-290).
Doll, W. (1993). A Post-modern
Prespective on Curriculum.
Forst, L., Lacey, S., Chen, H. Y.,
Jimenez, J., Bauer, S., Skinner, S., Alvarado, R., Nickels, L.,
Zanoni, J., Petrea, R., & Conroy,
L. (2004) Effectiveness of
Community Health
Workers for Promoting Use of Safety
Eyewear by Latino Farm Workers. American
Journal of Industrial Medicine, 46,. 607-613.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Foucault, M. (1972). Power/Knowledge Selected Interviews and Other
Writings 1972-1977.
Giroux, H. (2002). Rethinking Cultural Politics and Radical Pedagogy in the
Work of Antonio Gramsci. In C. Borg, J. Buttigieg, & P.
Mayo
(Eds.), Gramsci and Education (pp.
41-66). Lanham, MD; Rowman and
Littlefield.
Gramsci, A. (1971) Q. Hoare, and G. N. Smith, (Eds. and Trans.) Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio
Gramsci. New
Gramsci, A. (1988) D. Forgacs, (Ed.) The
Antonio Gramsci Reader.
Livingston, D. W.
(2002). Working Class Learning, Cultural Transformation, and Democratic
Political Education: Gramsci’s Legacy.
In
C. Borg, J. Buttigieg, & P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci and Education (pp. 219-240). Lanham,
MD; Rowman and
Littlefield.
Mayo, P. (1999) Gramsci, Freire and Adult Education: Possibilities
for Transformative Action.
McCauly, Linda.
(2005). Immigrant Workers in the
Occupational Health. American Association of Occupational Health
Nursing Journal, 53(7), 313-319.
McLaren, P, Fischman, G., Serra,
S. & Antelo, E. (2002). The Specter of Gramsci:
Revolutionary Praxis and the Commited
Intellectual. In C. Borg, J. Buttigieg,
& P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci and Education
(pp. 147-178). Lanham, MD; Rowman and
Littlefield.
Monasta, A. (2002). Antonio Gramsci:
The Message and the Images.. In C. Borg, J. Buttigieg, & P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci and
Education (pp. 67-86).
Morgan, W. J. (2002).
Antonio Gramsci and Raymond Williams: Workers, Intellectuals, and Adult Education.
In C. Borg, J.
Buttigieg, & P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci and Education (pp. 241-262).
Morrow, R. A. & Torres, C. A. (2002). Gramsci and Popular Education in
In C. Borg, J. Buttigieg, &
P. Mayo (Eds.), Gramsci and Education
(pp. 179-200).
Pinar, W., Reynolds, W., Slattery,
P. &Taubman, P. (1995) Understanding Curriculum.
Schubert, W. H. (1986) Curriculum: Perspective, Paradigm and Possibility.
Schubert, W. H. (1991) Curriculum Inquiry and the Speculative Essay. In E.C. Short, (Ed) . Forms of Curriculum Inquiry.
NY:
Schubert, W. H. (2003) The Curriculum-Curriculum:
Experiences in Teaching Curriculum. Curriculum
and Teaching Dialogue, 5(1),
9-21.
Stringer, E. (2004) Action Research in Education.
Valenzuela, A. Jr., Theodore, N.,
Melendez, E, & Gonzalez, A.L. (2006). On the corner: Day Labor in the
February
15, 2006 from the
http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/uicued
Vattimo, G., &
Zabala, S. (2002). ’Weak thought’ and the reduction of violence: a dialogue
with Gianni Vattimo. Common
Knowledge, 8(3), 452-463
Watkins, William,
(Ed). (2005) Black Protest Thought and Education.
Zanoni, J. (2002, November). Losing control in popular education. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Public
Health
Association;
Occupational Health Section.
Author Note
Joseph P. Zanoni, Illinois Occupational
and Environmental Health and Safety Education and Research Center, School
of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago and doctoral student,
Curriculum Studies, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago.
This
research was supported in part by the National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) Training Program T42/CCT522954-02, Illinois Occupational
and Environmental Health and Safety Education and
The
author would like to thank Pamela Konkol, Linda Forst, Leslie Nickels and
Eli Tucker-Raymond for
their reviews and comments on the manuscript.
Correspondence concerning this article
should be addressed to Joseph P. Zanoni,