Connecting with the Past

Urban change, growing social inequality, general uncertainty: social transformations pose new challenges for schools. How can the knowledge from educational reforms of the past be made productive for the present? Historian Håkan Forsell starts from Berlin’s Großstadtpädagogik of the early 20th century and asks: How can an active examination of urban space promote creative participation by children and adolescents? What knowledge can be gained from the historical comparison regarding current developments such as gentrification? The historian of education and childhood, Catherine Burke , examines consistencies over time in efforts to challenge the hegemony of the classroom. She explores the concept of the actively engaged urban child that informed the practice of 'Streetwork', a curriculum intervention advocated during the 1970s by British anarchist Colin Ward. Luis Armando Gandin talks about the "Escola cidadã" in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Between 1993 and 2004, the Citizen School project created a learning community consisting of students, teachers and citizens according to Paulo Freire’s educational principles.