{"id":8488,"date":"2023-12-05T06:32:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T06:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8488"},"modified":"2023-12-05T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T16:15:06","slug":"activism-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2023\/12\/05\/activism-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Activism in Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last evening, I took part in an event organised by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ministryofeco.org\/\">Ministry of Eco Ed<\/a> on activism in schools \/ education.<\/p>\n<p>It set out to explore these 'key questions':<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What do we mean by activism?<\/li>\n<li>What examples have you seen of activism working well in schools?<\/li>\n<li>Where, for you, is the line? <strong>*<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>How can we encourage and facilitate more activism in schools?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The expert panel was:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rowan Ryrie - Parents for Future UK<\/li>\n<li>Paul Atkin - NEU Climate Network<\/li>\n<li>Morgan Phillips - Global Action Plan<\/li>\n<li>Emma de Saram - Activist (Exeter University)<\/li>\n<li>Alison Body - University of Kent<\/li>\n<li>Emily Grossman - XR Scientists<\/li>\n<li>a Student - Teach the Future<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Being encouraged to submit a question, I did:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<div class=\"\"><em>What are the values that underpin the sort of activism you are talking about? \u00a0That\u2019s to say, what in your view distinguishes the sort of activism you approve of, and the sort you\u2019d like to see prevented?<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"\">\n<div class=\"\">I did this because, implicit in the blurb (despite the idea <strong>*<\/strong> that there is a line), is the idea that student activism is something that needs to be encouraged. \u00a0And maybe teacher activism as well. \u00a0I'm not necessarily against this, but there are issues.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I can't believe that anyone on the panel would be in favour of <em>all<\/em> kinds of activism. \u00a0For example, no one is surely going to think that racist or homophobic activism would be appropriate. \u00a0So where's the line, and how do you draw it? \u00a0It can't just be because you don't like something.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For me, one line is illegality. \u00a0But would activism to change the law be ok? \u00a0Or would this depend on which law? \u00a0Would activism to decriminalise all drug use be ok? \u00a0Would activism to bring back the death penalty? \u00a0Then I suppose there is activism that is pro a particular political party, religion or organisation. \u00a0I wonder how many of such issues will be discussed?<\/div>\n<div>.............................................................................<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Well, I wondered in vain. \u00a0I thought that this was a most unsatisfactory 90 minutes, and a missed opportunity. \u00a0For me:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>it began unforgivably late<\/li>\n<li>there were too many speakers, especially as the convener seemed determined to give everyone a say on everything<\/li>\n<li>it was never clear what the activism was that was supposed to be being discussed<\/li>\n<li>it might be an old fashioned idea, but it cried out for an introduction to explore the idea of activism and pose questions for the panel. \u00a0Morgan Phillips would have done that well.<\/li>\n<li>the speakers were too similar; it was a classic echo chamber with added happy-clappy self-promotion<\/li>\n<li>there was little if any challenge to anything that was said no matter how startling<\/li>\n<li>the convenor was pretty ineffective at convening given that not all the key questions were given an airing and the focus just meandered along<\/li>\n<li><em>and<\/em> I was miffed that my question wasn't raised in any form; I still think it's important.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I thought it would never end. \u00a0Cleary others did as well judging by the number that slipped away into the night before we has that last ramble round the panel. \u00a0It might be better next time, but I'll not be there. \u00a0You can access the recording <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/i1CopJf98LA\">here<\/a> but I don't recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last evening, I took part in an event organised by the Ministry of Eco Ed on activism in schools \/ education. It set out to explore these 'key questions': What do we mean by activism? What examples have you seen...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-talks-and-presentations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}