Description
Book SynopsisThrough this book, the author shares the nomadology of Alys-we searching for the Ideal School. Fed up with the System, traditional mainstream education directed by neoliberalism and high-stakes testing, Alys travelled to over 180 places of learning/schools in 23 countries that were educating differently. Through performative autoethnographic-we the author shares these embodied experiences in poems, vignettes, journaling and ethnodrama. Alys realised that the Ideal School is an oxymoron and she argues that schools and schooling, even within innovative education, are not the future for learning. By developing the edge-ucation and sharing stories from the ‘gems’ that currently exist in places of learning/schools, there is the potentiality and hope for a paradigm shift. The book encourages everyone to become School Tourists themselves. Performing School Tourism is a mediation between creativity, arts, learning and teaching, leading to change as it helps shape the identity of those performing School Tourism and allows them to add these new experiences and understandings of the possibilities for education to the Earth-we, the collective consciousness of the world. Read this book to follow Alys’ journey as they share stories and trouble different innovative pedagogies (including Steiner Waldorf, Progressive, Democratic, and Montessori). The reader can choose their own adventure, following the rhizomatic multiple voices of Alys-we.
Trade Review"This is the finest critique of ‘schooling’ that I have come across since Illich’s ‘deschooling society’ blew us all away in the 1970s. The book is written as a buoyant post-colonial, feminist romp through our various education systems in the west, interwoven with autoethnographic passages of fluid writing that touches the souls of readers. This is going to become a ‘classic’ text!" – Jane Speedy, Professor Emeritus of Education, University of Bristol "Searching for the Ideal School around the World is a must-read and must-use pedagogy for our time. The arts-based performative approach embodies a reflexive and collaborative autoethnographic ‘we’ encouraging the reader to use the book as a transformative and practical guide to efficacious educational adventure. Mendus invites us to ‘educate differently’ through entanglements of COVID, human exceptionalism, and isolationism. Personally and politically compelling, Mendus’ work offers a life affirming pedagogy in these times of great possibility." – Tami Spry, author of Body, Paper, Stage: Writing and Performing Autoethnography
Table of ContentsForeword Michael Kamen Preface Acknowledgements List of Figures About the Author Introduction 1 Alys the Guide 2 Part 1 Covers… 3 Part 2 Covers… 4 Part 3 Covers… 5 Alys the Guide PART 1: Fed up with the System 1 ‘Fed up with the System’ 1 Alys the Guide: Introduction 2 Fed up with the English Education System 3 Fed up with Neoliberalism in Education 4 Alys the Guide 5 Performative Autoethnography 6 The Multiplicities of Alys-We 7 Summary 2 My Nomadology 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys the School Tourist: Where Did I Travel? 3 Fed up with Fixed Home Dwelling: Introducing My Embodied Nomadology 4 Alys the Van-Dweller Describes Their Life in 2017 5 An Ode to the Car Park – 13th September 2016 6 Alys the Nomad 7 Vignette 1 8 Summary 3 School Is Not the Answer 1 Alys the Guide 2 The Queering of ‘Bad-Alys’: The Green School Epiphany Poem 3 Edge-ucation, Potentiality and the Utopian Performative of Hope 4 Potentiality and Hope 5 Alys the Guide: Utopian Performative of Hope for Education 6 Summary PART 2: Educating Differently 4 Steiner Waldorf Education 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys-We: Why Not Waldorf? A Play-Script from SE Asia 3 Alys the Educator: What Is Steiner Waldorf Education? 4 Kindergarten (3–6 years) 5 Vignette 2: Alys the Performer 6 Lower School (7–14 years) 7 Vignette 3: Alys the School Tourist 8 Upper School (14+) 9 Vignette 4: Alys Educating Diffferently 10 Vignette 5: Alys the School Tourist 11 Alys the Guide 12 Alys and Steiner: The Role of the Steiner Waldorf Class Teacher 13 Alys the Theorist: What Are the Main Critiques of Steiner Waldorf Pedagogy? 14 Alys the Guide: Why I Have Included Two Chapters on Steiner Waldorf 15 Summary 5 Alys Troubling Steiner Waldorf 1 Introduction: Alys the Guide 2 Alys the Theorist: What Is Anthroposophy? 3 Alys and Steiner: Anthroposophy and Racism 4 Alys the Theorist: Anthroposophy; the Elementals and Inner Work 5 A Dialogue about Inner Work 6 Alys the Theorist: Steiner Waldorf Education around the World – The Challenge with Eurocentricism 7 Vignette 6: Alys the Performer 8 Vignette 7: Alys the School Tourist (Kathmandu, Nepal, March 2008) 9 Alys the Theorist: Steiner Waldorf Education and the Edge-ucation 10 Alys Educating Diffferently: Moving from Blended – Pedagogy into Edge-ucation 11 State-funded Steiner Waldorf Edge-ucation 12 Vignette 8: Alys the School Tourist – State-funded Steiner Primary Stream, Australia 13 Alys Educating Diffferently: Fed up with Behaviourism in the Classroom 14 Vignette 9: ‘Acorn 1, 2, 3’ 15 Vignette 10: “You Can’t Sit There!” 16 Vignette 11: Red on the Trafffijic Light Means No Playtime 17 Alys the Theorist: A Response to Vignette 9, 10 & 11 in 2016 18 Alys the Guide: Why Steiner Waldorf Education Is Not My ‘Ideal’ 19 Summary 6 Alys and Progressive Education 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys the Theorist: Progressive Education 3 Alys the School Tourist: Stories from Progressive Schools 4 Alys the Educator: What Makes a 21st Century Progressive School Progressive? 5 Alys the Educator: Project Based Learning 6 Alys the Educator: Ron Berger and Expeditionary Learning 7 The Queering of ‘Bad-Alys’: The Dangers of Putting Places on a Pedestal – The Green School, Bali 8 The Queering of Bad-Alys… Feeling Uncomfortable Realising I Am Too Radical for What I Have Seen 9 Alys the Guide 10 Summary 7 Alys and Democratic Education 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys the Theorist: Progressive Education and Democracy 3 Alys the School Tourist: My First Democratic School Visit 4 Alys the Educator: What Is Democratic Education? 5 Alys the School Tourist: Diffferent Places That Call Themselves Democratic… 6 Alys the Educator: What Makes These Democratic Schools Diffferent from Other Schools ‘Educating Diffferently’? 7 Alys the Educator: What Is the Role of the Teacher in Democratic Education? 8 Alys the Theorist: Democracy-in-Action? 9 Alys the School Tourist: Observation of Democratic School Meetings 10 Alys the School Tourist: A Discussion with an Experienced Democratic Educator 11 Alys the Guide: Reflections 12 Alys the School Tourist: Gems from Democratic Schools 13 Alys the Edge-dweller: Democratic Education and the ‘Ideal School’ 14 Alys the Educator: Unschooling 15 Alys the Guide 16 Summary 8 Alys and Montessori Education 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys and Steiner: The View of Montessori 3 Alys the School Tourist – What Is Montessori Education? 4 Alys the School Tourist: Combined Pedagogical Approaches 5 The Queering of ‘Bad-Alys’: Seeing Montessori with New Eyes 6 Alys the Guide 7 An Interview with Emma Hughes, Primary Montessori Teacher, July 2021 8 Alys the Educator: Gems within Montessori Education – Exploring Montessori Maths Resources 9 Emma Explains… 10 Emma Gives Another Example from Her Teaching… 11 Summary 9 Alys and Edge-ucational Gems within the System 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys the School Tourist: Using Autonomous Approaches with a Set Curriculum 3 Alys the Guide 4 Summary PART 3: Towards a Paradigm Shift 10 Performing School Tourism 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys the Theorist: A Theoretical Discussion of Performing School Tourism 3 A Troubling of Performing School Tourism 4 The Ethics of Performing School Tourism 5 Alys the Guide 6 Summary 11 Becoming a School Tourist 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys the School Tourist: Other School Tourists… 3 Alys the Theorist: What Counts as a School Visit? 4 What Do I Do as a School Tourist? 5 Alys the School Tourist: Group and Solo School Tourism 6 Alys Educating-Diffferently: Working with School Students to Find the Ideal School 7 Alys the School Tourist: Visiting Innovative Schools with Preservice Teachers 8 Alys the Theorist: Becoming-Identity 9 Alys the Guide 10 Summary 12 Composting the Rhizome: The Earth-We 1 Alys the Guide 2 Alys the Theorist: Discussing the Big-Picture 3 Vignette 29: Alys the Edge-Dweller – Learning from the Dark Mountain Weekend 4 Alys the Guide 5 Alys-We Performing School-Tourism for the ‘New Story’ 6 The Queering of Bad-Alys: Moving beyond the ‘New Story’ 7 Vignette 30: Come Dance My PhD 8 The Multiplicities of the Alys-We and the Earth-We 9 Alys the Guide 10 Summary Concluding Thoughts 1 Alys the Nomad: New Van, New Possibilities, New Hope References Index
