‘What would Marx say?’ Illuminating (the Power of) Solidarity Logics across transnational School Settings marked by Privilege and Disadvantage in Germany

• In Event: Rethinking Ways of Knowing, Ecologies, and Solidarities

Proposal

In the wake of increasingly visible social activism beyond borders amongst youth in Europe and worldwide linked with the ‘refugee crisis’, Fridays for Future, BLM and the COVID pandemic in the past decades, there is hope that transnational forms of solidarity might challenge the (partly reviving) narrowly nationalistic, populist, and nativist understandings of social cohesion that have characterized much of the 20th century. In other words, a horizon of possibility has opened in the 21st century for new Marxist understandings of solidarity – as a relationship of mutuality bringing together members of the same class fighting the same struggle rather than members of the same (imagined) race, nation, ethnicity, or culture (as in a classical Durkheimian understanding).

However, we know too little about, firstly, how such transnationally oriented activist solidarities emerge among youth and, secondly, what power relations underpin their promotion (or stifling) in various institutional contexts. Particularly, the role of schools in enabling (or taming) ideals of social activism for a socially just world and challenging unjust status-quos is still insufficiently understood. Beyond analyses of curricula and textbooks showing that social movements and human rights are part of intended educational contents worldwide but in ‘tamed’ forms that relegate them to the past and make them ineffective in promoting change (Skinner & Bromley 2019), we know, with few exceptions (e.g. Bajaj & Tow 2021), relatively little about how these topics permeate schooling informally, for instance in extra-curricular activities engaging with solidarity activism in the present day. For European schooling, this gap is even wider. This is puzzling because Europe not only aspires towards transnational cooperation and citizen action via education but has also embedded solidarity at the core of its value-set and economic welfare model.

Drawing on a study of multilingual schools promoting a specifically European ethos in Germany (arguably, the economic motor of Europe), I explore the various solidarity logics that become apparent in the everyday life of schools which, although similarly multicultural, are located differently in the opportunity structure in terms of resources, functioning, and stakeholders. Specifically, I take both well-resourced schools attended by socio-economically well-situated students, and schools that aim to democratize schooling for youth from all walks of life. I examine both curricular and extra-curricular activities that are relevant to activism and solidarity in a Marxist key, for example: involvement in an anti-racism campaign during Black History Month, debates on benefits and perils of Marxism during bilingual philosophy classes, or participation in local and global empowerment projects promoting social justice in and around school. I ask to what extent horizontal or vertical, collaborative or competitive, rational or emotional, local or global modes of solidarity are made relevant in these activities, how, and in which situations. The goal of this inquiry is to understand the power-dynamics underpinning these settings and the role of differently-shaped solidarity-discourses in harnessing the power of idealism for the future of a still largely unequal Europe.

I base my arguments on empirical data collected in three schools during on-site visits and online in 2020 and 2021, including discussions with staff and students, observations of classroom interactions, student presentations, and documentation of project work. The data were analysed using Computer-Assisted-Qualitative-Data-Software and interpreted based on a hybrid, constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz 2008) combining elements of induction, deduction, and abduction (Fereday and Muir-Cochrane 2006, Agar 2006).

Theoretically, I draw upon notions of solidarity that problematize the national frame (Brunkhorst 2005), highlight the importance of mediated meanings of solidarity (Wallaschek 2020) and reveal the ironies of celebrity-activism (Chouliaraki 2013). For the educational sphere, I consider feminist and critical approaches, emphasizing how love, solidarity and care – and a relational approach have been consistently disregarded in Enlightenment-inspired pedagogies pushing instead for competitiveness and rationality (Lynch et al. 2007, Gatzambide-Fernández 2012).

Initial findings reveal that horizontal, critical, and partly ‘feminine’, solidarity understandings permeate the more privileged schooling settings – where emphasis is laid on celebrating diversity between equals as a source of solidarity at school level; a new concern with ‘care’ complements the strong focus on competitiveness and ‘staying ahead’. Equality only seems to apply at ethno-cultural categorical level, not in terms of socio-economic characteristics. The school emerges as reproducer of privilege and could be considered as exposing an egalitarian form of elitism. In contrast, the less privileged school, although built on the very premise of egalitarianism, exposes a more vertical understanding of solidarity, grounded in top-down actions of helping ‘the weak’ and vulnerable. Language learning is intended to ‘catch-up’ and ‘integrate’ rather than to preserve identity and celebrate diversity. The celebration of diversity emerges not as an equality requirement but as condescending exercise, partly to address the ‘deficits’ introduced by the migration-society. The less privileged school is meant to be the great equalizer of chances, but it can be ultimately read as exhibiting an elitist form of egalitarianism.

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of 21st Century Socialisms by examining an underdeveloped area of debate: the role of privileged vs. non-privileged schooling settings in empowering students to effect change towards a more socially just world in a markedly European educational context. By analyzing meanings of solidarity mobilized in schools with different degrees of privilege, I build on Anyon’s (1981) and Lareau’s (2003) seminal findings on the unequal childhoods and differentially schooled skill-sets students are endowed with regarding ‘changing the world’. This allows me to draw important conclusions on the paradoxes of privilege in schooling settings intended to democratize and empower the future citizenry of Europe, albeit in different ways.

Finally, this paper brings an important contribution to understanding power relations in European schooling and how the idea of Europe itself, built as it is on the values of freedom, human rights and solidarity, is undercut by economic and pragmatic considerations that do not always sit comfortably with its aspirations for universal social justice.

Author

• Simona Szakács-Behling, Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI)