The revival of radical popular education in Italy as a new form of cultural and class struggle: The case of popular schools in Rome

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the revival of popular schools in Italy, focusing on the ‘network of Roman popular schools’. This is a little researched but highly relevant topic in sociology nowadays, due to the innovative way it links politics and education in an increasingly unequal society. Inspired by research gathered over 4 years of participant observation and 28 in-depth interviews, I describe the way in which popular educators combine social mutualism, typical of Italian Antagonistic Left movements, with critical pedagogical practices: education is considered by activists as a way of doing politics by other means, in line with the origins of popular education enacted by the labor movement in the two past centuries and in particular with the pedagogical experience promoted by Lorenzo Milani, in turn capable of uniting Gramscian and Freirian thought. Popular educators address their educational actions to the social recognition of subaltern students, who are otherwise stigmatized by the dominant culture. In this way, a very interesting counter-hegemonic practice seems to be generated that entails not only the learners’ identity but also that of the educator themselves. This analysis leads to the identification of new popular education as a form of class and cultural struggle aimed at restoring social recognition to the working class.