Building a Movement Through Language: Key Words Related to Life in Schools

• In Event: 31.076 - Creating a Culture of Revolutionary Praxis: The 25th Anniversary of Life in Schools

Abstract

Raymond Williams (1983, p. 14) calls our attention to the importance of “keywords we share with others, often imperfectly, when we wish to discuss many of the central processes of our common life.” Key words are necessary for an understanding of our society and reflect the values within that society. At any given time, certain words cluster to constitute a particular discourse as “elements of an active vocabulary—a way of recording, investigating, and presenting problems in meaning in the area in which the meanings . . . have formed” (p. 15). Thus, a social-democratic common life would be characterized by the frequency and pattern of certain key words, while a fascist common life might have the same key words but with significantly different frequency and pattern.

Using a “wordle” generated from text that show a visual pattern of the frequency of words, I attempt to identify the patterns of words emanating from the five previous forewords of Life in Schools. Eliminating what we term as the connecting words of speech (as, with, for, from, etc.), we find the previous five Life in Schools forewords favoring, in rank order with associated frequency of use in parentheses, six key words: social (69), students (58), critical (51), class (51),1 teachers (39), and pedagogy (32).

From this finding, we expect that any progressive educational discourse requires a vocabulary constituted by some mixture of these key words that in turn, as values, enable us to interrogate our and others’ theory, meaning, and practice. Consideration should also be given to exclusion, or what is missing that might broaden the scope, meaning, and effectiveness of the discourse. For us, then, a complete, critical democratic discourse should include the key words community, justice, equality, and freedom (in the sense of opportunity to become rather than the limiting libertarian sense of extreme individualism) and the word democracy (Wilson, 2000), as well as the above six words identified from the previous five Life in Schools forewords. Perhaps we might consider using the term critical democratic pedagogy rather than critical pedagogy as more adequate for an educational purpose focused on personal and social transformation.

This sixth edition of Life in Schools becomes rich linguistic bedrock for such a move by providing fresh, no punches pulled, political and economic criticism. Peter continues his journey to link each succeeding edition to current existing oppressive, social, political, economic, and educational conditions. Focusing on Barack Obama. Peter asks, “What do we make of a president who oversees regular Tuesday counterterrorism meetings…personally approving assassination targets...?” Peter remains the consummate equal opportunity critic walking hand in hand with Sir Democracy and Madam Justice.

Like Peter’s approach or not, agree with him or not, he cannot and should not be ignored as he continues, in concert with those of like mind, the journey toward new language and deepened understandings of reconstituted educational purpose, all in the service of a different future, a socially just and truly critical democratic reality.

Author

• Thomas C. Wilson, Chapman University